A response to NY Times: Many Paths One Truth

A response to NY times: Many Paths One Truth

I am sure many of you have seen or heard about the recent New York Times article on “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.” If you haven’t, it was printed on 1/5/12. It has created quite a stir in the yoga community with a number of local and national experts weighing in on this. Marcia Miller from Yoga on High wrote a great blog that reminds us that safety and alignment are key factors for many of us who share our passion about yoga through teaching.

So I asked myself, what could I add? After some thought, here are my offerings:
Hatha Yoga, the yoga of asana, pranayama, kriyas, mudras, bandhas and meditation is a relative newcomer to the yoga scene. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika was written in the 1400s. Most of the other yogic texts were written BCE (before common era) or early CE (common era). Hatha Yoga, as it was originally developed around 1000 CE and as it evolved in the 1800 and early 1900s, was not for the householder.

What do I mean by householder?
The Vedas describe four stages of growth, or “ashramas:” brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa. They have four legitimate aims in life: artha (accumulating wealth); kama (pleasure); dharma (obligation); and moksha (liberation).

Brahmacharya ashrama, or the “student” phase, is the first stage of life from birth to roughly 25 years of age. In this stage of life, the foundation is being laid for what is to come. It is filled with all the changes that are part of moving from infancy to adulthood, including growing physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. The experiences and skills acquired in this stage of life will, in many ways, determine the direction life will take and the ability to fulfill the future goals of life, artha, or accumulation of wealth. This stage is also preparation for grihastha, or the “householder” phase of life.

Grihastha ashrama, the “householder” phase, spans roughly from age 25 to 50 years old. In this stage, the focus is on going out into the world to establish a home, career, and family. The goal of this phase is to be in the world and raise enough money to support the self and family and to give charity to those in later stages of life who are on spiritual pilgrimages. Part of the path of being a householder is to allow for the experience of kama, or pleasure – the pleasure of being part of a family, as well as to responsibly enjoy the pleasures this world has to offer such as property, name, wealth and children, without the creation of too much attachment. It is also the phase of dharma, accepting your duty to your family, work, culture and country.

The “householder” phase leads to the third stage of life: vanaprastha ashrama, or retirement, which lasts roughly from 50 to 75 years of age. This stage is an important and undervalued time of life. It is the time of dharma, or obligation, when there begins to be the space and freedom to reflect upon and gain an understanding of how much has been learned as householders, and then give back (in appropriate ways) that which has been learned. It is a time to assist in the raising of grandchildren or other young people while understanding that every person has his or her own path, growth rate, and destiny that can be supported and guided, but not controlled by others.

In the final stage of life, sannyasa ashrama, which is from 75 years of age until the time of leaving the physical body, the focus is on moksha, or liberation. This stage of life is the time of developing equanimity in the face of all that life brings. It is the time of developing a deep sense of faith while continuing, as much as possible, to cultivate physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Hatha Yoga, to quote a friend of mine, was developed for “14 year old boys living in ashrams.” In other words, the primary practitioners of yoga were in the Brahmacharya phase of life and were thus more flexible and likely less prone to injury. They also had fewer distractions and responsibilities. Their job was to be a student.

Most householders in India practiced a more devotional path. They might rise, offer pujas and prayers to their guru and then go off to work or take care of the house and children. Developing hatha yoga for householders is perhaps the major contribution of the West to the ancient practices of Yoga. When Swami Vivekananda came to the World Congress of Religions in 1893 he received a standing ovation when he said “Many paths, one truth.” This is the wonderful and at times frustrating part of yoga. What is right? What is yoga and what isn’t?

This is a dilemma constantly facing us at ShivaShakti in the teacher training. We believe in a therapeutic approach to yoga where every “body” is welcomed, honored and cherished, where every layer or kosha of the Being is touched. So we have to teach some “rights” and some “wrongs,” while also realizing that our understanding of what is right will probably change. This is what, I believe, happened when hatha yoga came to this country 100 or so years ago. It was taught as it had been taught to these learned teachers who courageously made their way to this country and offered us a new way of understanding ourselves, each other and the world. What they likely did not understand is that it wasn’t just our thinking and culture that was different, our bodies were as well.

Some studies have suggested that the further a culture gets away from it’s connection with the earth, i.e., we live in houses that have a foundation between us and the earth rather than in a house with a dirt floor, the more the physical body loses its natural alignment. The way we stand, sit and eat is different. It has taken time for this understanding to develop and it continues to develop. So not only are Western practitioners in a different stage of life, they also have vastly different shaping to begin with, and that affects their flexibility, range of motion, and vulnerability to injury.

The article proposes that yoga involves intense backbends, twists and inversions that over time inhibit blood flow and have the potential to “wreck” bodies. I do not agree with the article that yoga has to be that way, although I am challenging myself to open to the reality that that too is yoga. It is not my yoga and it may not be yours, but it is steeped in an incredible lineage and perhaps it will awaken someone to yoga. As another of my teachers used to say in relation to the style of yoga that students want as opposed to the style that would probably be best for them, “take people where they are and then move them toward where they need to be.”

Yet with all that said, it continues to be the mission of ShivaShakti Synthesis to maintain the integrity of the tradition while making it safe and accessible to all beings.
Shanti, Janice