Essay On Yoga And Yoga

Nestled deep in the mountains of ancient India, yoga was born some five-thousand years ago as more than a mere physical practice, but rather as a sacred way of life with deep spiritual significance to its practitioners. It was the old Hindu tradition for a guru, who had studied the art, to dedicate his life to imparting onto his students the wisdom and teachings he had mastered in order to help each disciple achieve the ultimate goal of yoga: union with the divine, also known as enlightenment. However, once yoga was introduced into Western Society, a movement occurred beginning in the early 1800s’, which took yoga’s deeply embedded philosophical roots and deemed them unessential, picking and prodding the meaning of yoga apart until it no longer

Mass culture today has been influenced by this Western mentality of appropriation and has taken minority cultures, like yoga, from the few who understand its sanctity, and transformed it through the process of mass commercialization into something of lesser value.

In twenty-first century America, society has lost its collective awareness, which recognizes and appreciates the diversity in the spiritual practices present in minority cultures. Yoga guru T.V.K Desikachar expressed in an interview that, “Yoga is also a relationship, not a mass movement. It is a one-to-one relationship between people, not commercialization” (“Yoga Beyond Asana: Hindu Thought in Practice”, Hindu American Foundation). Desikachar’s words are profoundly meaningful. Like many Hindus living in America, he is disturbed by the relationship yoga has formed with commercialization, since its ascent into mainstream culture, and how the mass production of this sacred tradition has inevitably led to

Nevertheless, although yoga should be available to all, at the same time, it is very important that western society does not dismiss the vast importance that Hinduism has had on this ancient practice which we have adopted into our lives ("To Some Hindus, Modern Yoga Has Lost Its Way." NPR). Western society is infamous for laying claim on cultures without acknowledging their origins. As individuals in America’s chaotic mass culture, let 's make an effort to begin giving back, by first respecting yoga 's philosophical roots and most importantly by enhancing our impartiality towards all cultures no matter how small or distant they are from our