This biography of Indra Devi,the teacher who brought yoga to the west, features occultism, or early recent ageism,sexual predators and celebrity devoteesWhat is yoga? In recent York or London, it is usually a series of poses performed on a rubber mat in 90-minute classes. Sometimes these sessions gain spiritual overtones: Sanskrit chanting accompanied by a harmonium, or secular sermons,vigorous Om-ing. Other teachers simply press play on a techno mix and commence with stretching. A pupil might receive vague lessons approximately The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, or kundalini energy, and pranayama breath,but the origins of the “practice tend to remain obscure.
The father of modern yoga was a man named Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. Born in south India in 1888 and educated in a monastery, Krishnamacharya learned hatha yoga (the department of yoga philosophy concerned with physical poses) at a time when many devout Hindus and educated Indians looked down on it. The ash-covered mendicants contorting on the banks of rivers had roughly the same cultural capital as unwashed street buskers. The respectable aspects of yoga were those techniques that had to do with breath control, and meditation and a philosophy that spoke of transcending worldly concerns.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com