3 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 9 The bookPensée Indienne et Mystique Carmélitaine of Swami Siddheshwarananda (1974) was translated into English as Hindu Thought and Carmelite Mysticism (1998). So, the translation of the term Indian may affect the interpretation of the inner meaning of the world. The same book mentions also the difference between religion and spirituality discussed above: “Religion erects barriers between men because it rests on concepts which are provocative slogans and rallying points. That is why there cannot be amity between particular religions if one considers doctrinal and theoretical values. The word ‘spirituality’, closer to our ideas, is of a more universal order: it designates this life which expands slowly in the deepest part of ourselves and which is indefinable because it is ceaselessly renewed.” (Siddheshwarananda 1998, 3). When investigating the question of who is entitled to practice and/or teach Yoga it is necessary to note that authorities like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Sivananda, Swami Satyananda or Swami Rama accepted also foreigners into the population of their followers. Historically many Yoga āchāryas transmitted Yoga knowledge to Tibet, Nepal, China and other Eastern countries, where they are practices even today, but sometimes under Buddhist intellectual environment. Later, many Yoga āchāryas, “teachers”, left India for the West and taught Yoga there. They did not demand a conversion to the Hindu religion. This export of āchāryas happened in spite of the fact that yogis who were Brahmins were considered polluted if they left India and foreigners a priori were considered as mlecchas, “impure ones”. Impurity is considered as a barrier for Yoga sādhana. Thus it is more the level of spiritual maturity that is important for Yoga sādhakas, “practitioners”. Yoga is indeed a part of Indian spirituality and culture. Nevertheless, it is also true that it is “an intangible cultural heritage of humanity” as endorsed by the UNESCO (2016) The experience of the last century has shown that Yoga can bring the same effect whether followed in India or in the West, provided that it is not a commercial postural Yoga. In the present, attention has shifted from the non-physical aspects of Yoga to the physical ones (the majority of Yoga practitioners practice āsanas, “postures”). We have to say that this also happened in India, where swami Gitananda and others even started Yoga competitions and there are efforts to get Yoga into the Olympic Games (this is also supported by International Yoga Federation that initiated National and World championships in Yoga). When the present author was complaining against this new tendency to shift the attention even further from the essence of Yoga, one swami Shankarananda (2003) wrote [10]: “Here in India we have yoga competition for 2000 years in many Kumba Melas, where all the yoga masters, yogacharyas, sadhus, yogis come together each year. We have pranayama competition and philosophical competitions because yoga competition is our tradition. The Yoga Competition was born in India. The Yoga Federation of India, Indian Yoga Federation, Yoga Confederation of India, North India Yoga Federation, South North Yoga Federation, World Yoga Congress of Pondicherry, World Yoga Society of Calcatta, Vivekanda Kendra Yoga Foundation, play yoga competition, Indian Yoga Championship, Indian Yoga Cup, States Yoga Championship and World Cup, because for many years is OUR TRADITION, because we are Indians and most of us are Hindu… In our land Mother India, our government supports the promotion of yoga sport in each University and High School by supporting Yoga Competition, because it is our TRADITION. We have in India a very nice book we call Mahabharata. Part of this book is another text, the Yoga Sastra, that most people call Baghavad Gita. In Yoga Sastra, Lord Krishna teaches Arjuna about Life and Yoga. Because Life is Competition. How to fight in the war. Because the war is the big Competition, like Mahabarata. Krishna teaches about attitude in action. Krishna teaches this in the war to be a yogi, and this attitude we teach in the game of yoga sport… Sports is Health and health is Yoga.” Thus, it cannot be said that it is only the Western concept of Yoga that shifted the attention from Patañjal’s Yoga or true Hatha Yoga to āsana competitions and thus to a commercial approach. 3 Yoga and Science Swami Ambikananda (email conversation with the author, 2018) wrote: “My inbox has been inundated with Yogis very definitely disturbed by my referring to Yoga as an intrinsic part of the Hindu religion and my refusal to accept that it is a science. Still, it is something that may depend on the definition of the essence of yoga. The root sci refers to knowing and e.g. Jnana is knowledge. Yoga is about knowing the Self, even though this is imprecise as it is impossible to know the Self as it is the Self who is the sakshi – witness of everything.” Yoga was submitted to science-based research and it was shown that it has definite health benefits (Rama, Ballentine, and Ajaya 1976), but is in itself not a science in the Western sense. Swami Rama of the Himalayas, in a foreword to the book of Justine O’Brien, A Meeting of Mystic Paths (1996, ix), wrote: “The word yoga is much misunderstood in the Western hemi-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=