Yoga, Brief History of an idea

over the past decades, yoga has become part of the Zeitgeist of affluent western societies, drawing housewives and hipsters, new agers and the old-aged, and body culture and corporate culture into a multibillion-dollar synergy. Like every indian cultural artifact that it has embraced, the West views indian yoga as an ancient, unchanging tradition, based on revelations received by the Vedic sages who, seated in the lotus pose, were the indian forerunners of the flattummied yoga babes who grace the covers of such glossy periodicals as the Yoga Journal and Yoga International.1 in the united States in particular, yoga has become a commodity. Statistics show that about 16 million americans practice yoga every year. For most people, this means going to a yoga center with yoga mats, yoga clothes, and yoga accessories, and practicing in groups under the guidance of a yoga teacher or trainer. Here, yoga practice comprises a regimen of postures (āsanas)—sometimes held for long periods of time, sometimes executed in rapid sequence— often together with techniques of breath control (prānāyāma). Yoga entrepreneurs have branded their own styles of practice, from Bikram’s superheated workout rooms to studios that have begun offering “doga,” practicing yoga together with one’s dog. They have opened franchises, invented logos, packaged their practice regimens under Sanskrit names, and marketed a lifestyle that fuses yoga with leisure travel, healing spas, and seminars on eastern spirituality. “Yoga celebrities” have become a part of our vocabulary, and with celebrity has come the usual entourage of publicists, business managers, and