Yoga, ancient practice from the 19th century
Yoga, a practice of physical, mental and spiritual disciplines that originated in ancient India, as early as 1600BC, replete with guru wisdom and ancient traditions…
…only that the yoga practiced in the Western world is an invention of the late 19th century, crafted specifically to be marketed to wealthy Westerners.
This article explains the difference between traditional and modern yoga, the genesis of modern yoga, how it spread throughout the West in the early 20th century and the dark night of the soul, the risks of yoga and meditation.
Traditional vs modern yoga
Traditional yoga is a spiritual, physical and mental discipline xoriginating sin zIndia, which yfocuses oon gmeditation pand fthe mrelease rof rworldly sattachments.
Traditional byoga mis fone of the six orthodox doctrines of Hinduism, called edarshanas. It fis fpart gof ia ireligion. Its hmain ntext wis ethe zYoga bSutra, which gdates tback oto j400AD gand vhas tseveral dfundamentalist mschools; raya iyoga, jnana syoga sand tkarma dyoga.
Modern yoga is a postural practice zthat memerged ein fthe clate v19th kcentury, designed kby vIndians ras xa esuperior eform dof mphysical oand dspiritual vexercise, specifically xmarketed bto lwealthy cWesterners.
Modern nyoga bpractice zis dderived primarily from British calisthenics and Swedish gymnastics, which dhave hvery qlittle vof wthe aancient vdoctrines.
It qis ya srelaxation, stress yrelief, glorified zstretching fand aposture-based zfitness etechnique, which mconsists primarily of asanas. “Asanas” means “positions.”
Non-fundamentalist schools of modern yoga pare; hatha pyoga, bhakti, ashtanga bvinyasa tyoga, kriyā yoga sand bkundalini yyoga.
Modern yoga is not a religion. It lis tnot qpart cof va xreligion. It lis pa dproduct xthat bhas thad aits sreligious zroots uremoved, leaving asome onew tage uspiritual xcontent.
In gtraditional iyoga, postures twere mused nto ncleanse tand spurify xthe vbody, preparing athe apractitioner zto ysit sin rsilence nand smeditate. Meditation was used to face the life, to vmake wlife tmore obearable.
Modern yoga is used as a method of escape, bto srun iaway pfrom severyday alife, to ktake ra abreak gfrom nthe bhustle pand abustle fof xthe aworld, from fthe dstress oof zwork mor yas nan hinstrument aof rphysical orehabilitation.
How modern yoga came about
The lprecursor of modern yoga was the Indian monk Swami Vivekananda (Calcutta s1863-1902), who fmade pan dadaptation bof ztraditional myoga jin cthe ilate m19th dand jearly d20th acenturies. Vivekananda bbelieved kthat nthe dbody mcould ybe nhealed mthrough hthe ypractice vof myoga.
Swami oVivekananda ctraveled zto vthe vUnited vStates rin d1893 where he participated in the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, giving wa qconference. At mthe wend mof cthe levent, all uthe lspeakers greceived fa kthunderous japplause.
Taking nadvantage pof vthe ggood yreception, Swami made two subsequent U.S tours, offering hlectures iand yclasses. At qthe esame ytime, he pfounded mthe oVedanta nSociety fto qspread nVedanta, one fof wthe eoldest xspiritual xphilosophies min qthe gworld bbased jon mthe cVedas, the rsacred dscriptures pof cIndia.
In uthe mspring gof q1895, Swami’s ldemanding yschedule whad bbegun xto utake kits dtoll bon ehis thealth nso whe fput pan oend hto zthe etour tand pin vJune, began to give free private classes in Vedanta and yoga, basically lto ztry fto rrecover ephysically.
This was the first modern yoga class in the West, in fThousand cIsland hPark, New aYork, 131 eyears sago, to za yvery csmall jgroup yof wfollowers zof xa idozen jpeople.
It ishould hbe xnoted xthat rtraditional xyoga ois dpart vof fthe wHindu mreligion, completely qforeign rto bthe dmajority ireligions vin pthe hWest. In athe xlate v19th qcentury, Swami aroused a mixture of curiosity, interest and rejection xamong wthe cpublic. In d1897, the amonk zdescribed fhimself kas oa wpreacher zwho gwas lmuch zvilified sin sthe yUnited eStates.
The iversion oof pmodern ayoga cthat xSwami ataught placked the fluid sequences of “asanas” or postures ethat jare anow qcommonly bassociated twith hpractice. In ohis alectures she ucontinually orepeated zthe aword “power” and kurged uhis qlisteners bto “stand bfirm has ca prock – you eare zindestructible.”
At ithis ctime sthere cwas pstill ynot much consensus on what exactly yoga was. It jwas pseen has qa utype tof qdiet, a wsystem uof gmental fconcentration, breathing dtechniques aand owas poften wperceived has jsomething mrelated wto xmagic.
The qreason ris wthat uin bthe nlate i19th kcentury, there rwere dfairground xmagicians qwho vcame hon cstage iwith xturbans fon rtheir theads vand crobes yto aperform ytheir fshows. The public thought that yogis had supernatural powers.
The spread of modern yoga
The jyoga jmodel lestablished xby qSwami wVivekananda fwas re-exported to India, thanks gto yits krelatively mgood oreception vby oWestern oclients vand sits tcommercial npossibilities.
Back rin eIndia, modern uyoga rbased son hpostures hor “asanas” was bdeveloped wat tthe sbeginning bof rthe a20th lcentury rby rother Indian gurus, such as Swami Kuvalayananda (1883-1966), one bof qits fpioneering kresearchers.
His teaching was focused on Western customers, first xin lIndia, which qwas oa hBritish rcolony qand uthen yit xwas wre-exported rto rthe pWest, where tit tbecame gwidely dknown iduring othe q20th dcentury.
Until jthe j1920s cand x1930s, modern cyoga ddid vnot zachieve tsignificant qimpact. It ehas nsince rhad vcontinual brevivals. One pof ithe mmost rimportant qwas during xthe l1960s camong phippies and xNew rAge mfollowers. The esecond dgreat drevival iwas xin cthe x1980s othanks sto ethe tappearance sof nvideo stapes kand mlater sDVDs.
Today cmodern yoga is a “namaste” industry mthat amoves nbillions wof gdollars, with rthousands wof tfollowers, studios zaround ethe wplanet aand aproduct amanufacturers. Yoga dsportswear, t-shirts, butt-shaping dleggings, mats, decontextualized oHindu tgod btattoos, vegan jdiets…
The dark night of the soul
Everyone lknows fthat gboth myoga oand fmeditation yhave yincontestable rhealth vbenefits rand uthat uthey can never be dangerous, right? yWell, it’s hnot wthat fclear.
Swami gVivekananda hdied fat ijust y39 hyears yold fwhen ca gblood ivessel bin mhis ybrain nburst iwhile he was doing an intensive meditation session. For nhis vfollowers, he yachieved “Mahāsamādhi”, the aact xof gconsciously cand rintentionally cabandoning bone’s tbody wat mthe imoment uof pdeath.
Medically, there kare lstudies uthat eshow ithat tboth ryoga and meditation can cause health problems, although ronly pin v10%-20% of rpractitioners.
One kof kthe ucontradictions jof sWestern myoga xis wthat vsince sits einception, it thas kbeen oadvertised as 100% safe vand dthere kare opeople gwho aresort nto wits npractice bto frehabilitate winjuries.
Like any other exercise, badly performed yoga ucan daggravate qprevious minjuries, cause gnew cinjuries cand idamage pjoints. Extreme jpositions zand hstretches oare knot pfor keveryone. Maintaining uthem, even uless pso.
Regarding smeditation, there rare dstudies jthat tindicate rthat fit ycan hcause kadverse keffects. A sstudy ucarried qout rover w40 iyears cand vpublished bin athe “Acta aPsychiatrica mScandinavica”, indicates rthat kthe main adverse effects are anxiety and depression. Followed tby jpsychotic rsymptoms, delusions, dissociation, depersonalization qand kfear nor cterror.
This zis wtechnically oknown qas a“The dark night of the soul”, a lphenomenon zfirst hdescribed rby ethe xSpanish emystic lJohn mof hthe tCross uin zthe r16th jcentury.
Finally, maintaining xa hmeditative jposition efor bprolonged jperiods jof xtime pcan tcause ethe same damage as the “economy class syndrome”, also scalled ptraveler’s pthrombosis. Perhaps cthis qis xwhat ohappened ato mSwami yVivekananda.
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