More than a poseur's multicultural exercise

Should one feel uncomfortable doing yoga if one doesn't also subscribe to the Hindu traditions from which it originated?

ALL you New Age spiritualists may like to think twice next time you go to yoga. As you stand there in your studio, greeting one another with "Namaste" and chanting "Om", have you considered that you may be complicit in the moral theft of an ancient practice?

That, at least, is the challenge some Hindus in the US are laying down to the nearly 20 million Americans who have taken up yoga. For these Hindus, the spiritual abuse of yoga is no laughing matter.

According to Aseem Shukla of the Hindu American Foundation, "the severance of yoga from Hinduism disenfranchises millions of Hindu Americans from their spiritual heritage and a legacy in which they can take pride". Hinduism has become "a victim of overt intellectual property theft, absence of trademark protections and the facile complicity of generations of Hindu yogis, gurus, swamis and others that offered up a religion's spiritual wealth at the altar of crass commercialism".

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American Hindus may have a point. Recent reports in the Los Angeles Times reveal many Christian and Jewish yogis are introducing non-Hindu prayers and teachings to their classes. "Christ is my guru" is the mantra of one such Christian yogi. Elsewhere, in so-called kabbalah yoga classes, students chant "Shalom" rather than "Om", and recite Jewish prayers as they do their sun salutation poses.

Whether there is a moral crime involved in such appropriation depends -- to state the obvious -- on how seriously you take your yoga.

For many in the West, the practice of yoga largely concerns the combination of posture (asana) and breathing (pranayama) exercises.

For the purists, however, yoga isn't simply about physical exercise. Rather, the ultimate goal of yoga is moksha, a form of liberation from worldly suffering.

There is at play here a question of authenticity. Given that the philosophical basis of yoga can be found in the Yoga Sutras of the ancient commentator Patanjali of the second century BC, some Hindus may understandably believe only a holistic approach to yoga can count as authentic.

Yet one can never have an authoritative viewpoint from which to judge authenticity. Cultural traditions will inevitably mingle with others and evolve with time.

The Western appropriation of yoga is an example of what Australian National University philosopher Robert Goodin has labelled "polyglot multiculturalism".

Whereas some forms of multiculturalism seek to protect minority cultures and traditions against the intrusions of the majority, a polyglot multiculturalism allows for a majority to expand its choices by having more cultural traditions upon which they can draw.

It is perfectly acceptable for people to borrow from other cultures without "living in" them.

Of course, any polyglot multiculturalism should be qualified in one sense.

If taken to the extreme, Goodin's view can encourage us to exoticise other cultures. It suggests that we should value a cultural tradition only because it can enhance a majority group's set of choices; that we should, for instance, value Chinese people only insofar as they provide good Chinese takeaway.

This goes to the real complaint some American Hindus have with the disassociation of yogic practice from its Hindu roots. Modern yoga may have the effect of devaluing an ancient tradition, reducing it to little more than consumerist fashion.

It seems disingenuous, indeed, to believe that yoga has no connection at all with Hindu spirituality.

Hybridity can be a good thing, but it should happen with the right dose of respect and understanding.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/more-than-a-poseurs-multicu...