Yogis Behaving Badly

[Elle_p]

This is a very interesting article on the "business" of yoga:

http://krishna.org/yogis-behaving-badly/

I know there are still many devoted teachers out there, although they may be harder to find since they may not have celebrity students or appear on the cover of yoga journal.

I have always believed the saying: "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear".

In any case, I found this article brought up some interesting points on how commercial yoga has become. If anything, it reminded me that all of these teachers are human and working out their own Karma. They're no different from the rest of us trying to practice the teachings of yoga and sometimes falling down along the way.

 

[Vee]

I have read that article before.

In India, we use the Sanskrit term yogi or yogini to mean a spiritual seeker who has attained significant progress in his or her pursuit. If you can stand on your head and do sun salutations or even if you are very proficient and can teach people asanas and meditation, you wouldn't qualify.

I think the commercialization of yoga has it's pros and cons. I don't think so many people would be aware of the beneficial side of yoga otherwise.

You can still experience yoga being shared in some parts of India without any commercial trappings, but I wonder how long this will last.

 

[Stephanie0523]

You know, the book Eat Pray Love really taught me about the spiritual aspects of yoga. Sadly, I was one of the people that just thought it was comprised of fancy breathing and flexible bending until I read the book and came to really appreciate the practice. I don't do as much yoga as I would like, but when I do, now, I'm more mindful of the spiritual aspects of it.