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YOGA has hooked Madonna. Sting and his wife Trudi
swear by it, as do shirley Maclaine, Bainca Jagger, Nick
Gage and Jennifer Lopez who are among more than 15 million Yoga aficionados
in the US alone. But some purists are alarmed about " the soul of yoga being
hijacked by rock stars". So what if the lower facing dog pose has become
more common in Manhattan than upper tilting dog in Central Park? They ask.
And don't forget the yoga gurus riding a wave of this unprecedented yoga
mania. Fuelled in part by star practitioners such as Madonna, their lives,
especially in the Los Angeles area, increasingly resemble those of the celebs they often teach. No wonder, practitioners such as Rea, Bryan
Kest, Sean Corne, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Ana Forrest and Rodney Yee have
become brands unto themselves, with LA Times actually describing them as
"the Nikes, Coca-Colas or, perhaps, whole Foods, of the yoga world. Their
brand names sell clothing lines, DVDs and pricey international
retreats, as well as various causes."
While some teachers bristle
at the mention of their celebrity status, others seem happy to cultivate it
and revel in it ."I'm into name, game, claim and fame," says one Asia-based
master of yoga- martial arts fusion. "I'm going for the world, no mistake
about that, but not for oneself alone. it's for others. The key is service."
Another guru who attracted notoriety when he tried to patent his brand of
yoga told BBC that he treats everybody equally. "I expect the truth, I don't
care who they are and I speak the truth," he added, "All the stars like me
(because) I don't treat them as stars'. Half of Hollywood comes (to his
classes)."
Thoughtful practitioners concede that there exists a personality
cult in yoga. "Whenever you have a significant number of followers focused
on any activity, some inevitably will float up to the top", says former
investment banker- turned yoga guru John Abbott, CEO of Yoga Journal, in a
culture blog. "They get attached to some of the commercial ventures and
become icons. But most often, these people are the most impressive
proponents of yoga." Abhayadatta Sir says something similar in his 13th
century classic about lives of the Siddhas or perfected Masters: the great
Yogi Gorakshanatha was once chided for having initiated hundreds of
thousands of people who were drawn to his charisma. Yet but for him, yoga
might not have survived in the age of Kali. |
