Health

This post summarizes the second chapter of William J. Broad's book:  The Science of Yoga.  This chapter describes yoga's transformation from a shady and esoteric past to a modern version based on the physical benefits of the practice.

The yoga of old differed from modern yoga in many ways:  Instruction was done in private rather than in group classes and relatively few women did yoga. But the most important difference centered on the lifestyles of the men who did yoga.

• “Yogis and holy men are potentially dangerous and an economic drain on society. “ – So says a sentence in William Broad’s chapter on Health.

• “Yogis were often vagabonds who engaged in ritual sex or showmen who contorted their bodies to win alms – even while dedicating their lives to high spirituality.”

• “Yogis were as much gypsies as circus performers.  They read palms, interpreted dreams and sold charms.  The more pious often sat naked – their beards uncut and hair matted – and smeared themselves with ashes from funeral pyres to emphasize the body’s temporality.”

• “Some sects had reputations as child snatchers.  To obtain new members, they would adopt orphans and, when the opportunity arose, buy or steal children.  Understandably, good families dreaded their presence.  At times bands of yogis would prey on trade caravans and descend on merchants to extort food and money.  When hired as guards, violent orders formed what we now would call protection rackets.”

• “Some yogis smoked ganja and ate opium.  Some carried begging bowls.  A British census put yogis under the heading of ‘miscellaneous and disreputable vagrants’.”

We all know that the word yoga means “union”.  But part of the yoga tradition centered on sex.  “Spiritually, the objective of the yogi was to achieve a blissful state of consciousness in which the male and female aspects of the universe merged into a realization of oneness.  The ancient yogis sought a divine state of consciousness ‘homologous to the bliss experienced in sexual orgasm’.”  This path was known as Tantra.

There was also a sect that practiced cannibalism.  While this was an exception, not the rule, it is a part of yoga’s past.

Another way that old yoga differs from modern yoga is in the postures, or asanas.  The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the holy book of the fifteenth century describes the earliest record we have of yoga postures.  Most of the book describes esoteric practices which focused on stimulation of the sexual organs and how to extend the duration of lovemaking.

Mr. Broad makes a distinction between the physical practice of yoga which came to the West and the religious practice of Hinduism.  Further back, in ancient times, postural yoga referred to nothing more than sitting in a relaxed position for meditation.

In the twentieth century, India’s elite became increasingly dissatisfied with British rule and sought to create a national identity that would unify the masses, counter notions of western superiority and forge the popular will to oust the hated foreigners.

This surge in nationalism sought to revive and modernize Hinduism as a foundation for Indian national identity.  Yoga was seen as one of the potential method for this process.  But, first, it’s act needed to be cleaned up.

In 1924, Jaganath G. Gune established something new, an ashram dedicated to the scientific study of yoga.  He began to do experiments on the exaggerated claims that surrounded yoga: stopping the heart, affecting blood pressure, etc.  He also declared that yoga was fit for women.

Gune had many admirers and patrons that helped him further his cause.  One was such patron came from the Mysore palace, a city and state in southern India.  The ruling family played a skillful role in the promotion of Hindu nationalism.  Like Gune, the Mysore palace sponsored a version of yoga that was far removed from the world of Tantra and eroticism.  For decades the royal family practiced an eclectic form of yoga that drew on Indian martial arts and wrestling as well as western gymnastics and physical fitness techniques.

In 1933 the Mysore Palace hired a teacher to run its yoga hall.  This man was Krishnamacharya who is famous for producing a number of gifted students who eventually made him history’s most influential figure in Hatha yoga’s modern rise.  His passion and ideas gave rise to the two most influential yoga teachers of our time:  Patthabi Jois who developed the system of Ashtanga yoga and B.K.S. Iyengar who was known for his attention to precision and alignment.

Mr. Iyengar had been sickly all of his life but used yoga to regain his health.  In 1936 Iyengar formed a relationship with a surgeon who became a friend, supported and a knowledgeable liaison to the world of human anatomy.

In 1947 Krishnamachary took in his first female student, who was also looking to yoga to cure a heart condition.  This woman became known as Indra Devi and was instrumental along with Iyengar and Jois in bringing yoga to the west.

From the influence of men like Gune and Krishnamacharya yoga began to shed the old emphasis on magic and eroticism and to focus instead on science and health.  In 1965 Iyengar published his book Light on Yoga which quickly became the how-to bible of Hatha yoga.

Since Iyengar’s time, yoga has been studied by science and a large number of findings have come out that support some of yoga’s claims:

• The physiological slowing from yoga can reduce stress, the heart rate and blood pressure

• Clinical studies show that patients who do yoga have fewer hospital visits, need less drug therapy and have a smaller number of serious coronary events

• Yoga improves balance which is important for seniors as falls are the leading cause of death by injury

• Yoga can slow the deterioration of the spine and keep it more flexible

• Yoga can have a positive influence on the immune system by stimulating the vagus nerve through the postures and slow breathing

• Yoga also influences the telomeres, the tips of the chromosomes, that have something to do with the aging of the cells.

• Yoga has cardiovascular benefits as studied and popularized by Dean Ornish

Yoga has gone from an ancient obsession with transcendence of the body to a modern crusade for a new kind of physicality.