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thousand years old according to many) and that it started in India. I suspect that this is
common knowledge even among people who do not practice yoga. The teachers added to
these items of information an acknowledgement that yoga was not always about postures.
The Ashtanga teachers spoke about Pattabhi Jois and a little about T. Krishnamacharya.
Likewise, the Iyengar teachers talked about Mr. Iyengar‟s significance to the
development of yoga. When speaking of yoga‟s history, only one teacher mentioned
Patanjali. Like the teachers, but to a lesser extent, the students‟ theoretical knowledge is
determined by the style they practice. The Ashtanga students mentioned Pattabhi Jois but
they did not know anything about him, whereas the Iyengar students all spoke about Mr.
Iyengar and narrated how he had developed his style through his own physical
infirmities. This, in addition to the fact that Iyengar is still practicing in his early nineties,
are the two standard Iyengar anecdotes. Neither teachers nor students expressed much
curiosity in learning more about yoga‟s history and development. Their interest lies in
their practice of asanas and its effect on their bodies and lives.
With respect with how and what people practice, there is not much of a distance
between students and teachers. All the teachers explained to me that yoga was more than
just the physical practice but very few among them practiced anything other than asanas.
Again we can see that emphasis is placed on the physical practice, and even knowledge
of other methods does not stimulate curiosity in or practice of those other methods. The
students generally only practiced asanas in a class setting; what was surprising was that
the majority of teachers‟ practice also relied on them taking classes given by other
teachers.
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The presentation of the studios and their Indian orientation is determined by the
style of yoga taught. The two styles with an Indian origin, Ashtanga and Iyengar, express
that origin through decor and the use of Sanskrit. However, the marked difference
between the two is that Ashtanga is more generally Indo-centric whereas Iyengar Yoga is
Iyengar-centric. The Ashtanga studio is decorated with various Hindu deities (statues and
prints) with a handful of photos of Jois. The Iyengar studio is decorated almost entirely
by photos of Mr. Iyengar, with only three small Hindu statues. Moksha Yoga, without
any direct link to India, has decorated their studio in a modern but slightly Asian style; no
Hindu iconography is present in the studio.
The Indian decorations in the studios certainly represent an element of exoticism.
Among the students, the general feeling was that the decor was nice and fit in a yoga
studio. It is important to note that at two of the studios the decorations are specifically
Hindu and the other is consciously decorated in more generic pan-Asian style.
Interestingly, students felt that it belonged and some thought it was even important but
were not sure why. The teachers ventured a guess, saying that it created a connection and
gave respect to yoga‟s Indian origin. Just as removing your shoes before entering, I
believe the Indian decor helps to create a sense of otherness about the studio. It is also
one of the features that differentiates yoga studios from gyms or other health centres. As
with their interest in yoga, teachers and students who like the Hindu decorations did not
know much about them. This is easily seen by examining the image of the Nataraj
(“Dancing Siva”), which represents Hindu religion in the popular imagination. In this
form, Siva is represented as the “Lord of dance” and has no direct relation to yoga, yet
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both Iyengar and Ashtanga studios feature a Nataraj statue. The pan-Asian style I refer to
at the Moksha studio demonstrates its distance from the yoga of Hinduism.
There are several reasons why I feel that the next twenty years will see an even
greater decline of the Indian elements in yoga classes and studios. Looking not only at the
three studios at which I conducted my field work, but at the all studios in Montreal as a
whole, Moksha yoga is the busiest studio. Moksha‟s history is contemporary and does not
have any significant links to India or to an Indian yoga teacher. Moksha does not place
much emphasis on Sanskrit use in class, there is no invocation at the start of class and the
studio is not decorated in an overtly Hindu fashion. It is also the most flexible in terms of
sequence and the least strict in teaching style. All these elements combine to make
Moksha the most accessible and popular style. Another reason why I believe we will see
fewer Indian features in the future is that at present the most internationally renowned
yoga teachers are not Indian, albeit some of them are students of Indian teachers.
However, the next generation of yoga teachers will be Westerners taught by Westerners.
The connection to India becomes ever more remote. This is already seen in the fact that
teachers‟ and students‟ knowledge of yoga‟s Indian heritage is generally superficial.
Many of the teachers do not view the Indian elements as particularly important and the
Hindu associations even less so. We can view the 2010 publication of The No Om Zone:
A no-chanting, no-granola, no-Sanskrit practical guide to yoga as a marker of this trend.
On account of the distance that exists already between “Indian-ness” and yoga, I don‟t
believe that the American Hindu associations will find much success in their recent
endeavours to “take back yoga”.
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