HASHTAG YOGA

VITHAL C NADKARNI reviews a book on yoga by a team of British yogis that discusses the ancient tradition’s metamorphosis in a globalised world JAMESThe tree of yoga has spread far beyond its roots. Many of its branches “have adapted to social and cultural conditions often far removed from those of its birthplace,” James Mallinson and Mark Singleton write in their splendid new sourcebook, appropriately named Roots of Yoga.“And (the shakhas) in many regions take on a life of their own, independent of their Indian roots,” they write. For all of yoga’s global popularity, the authors assert, a clear understanding of its historical contexts and the range of practices it includes is often lacking, except in canonical texts such as Hathapradipika or Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, mostly used in teacher-training programmes. The vast corpus of yoga source texts still remain largely unfamiliar to the wider global readership.The transmission of yoga has also been dominated by postures or asanacentrism. For example, as many as 10 million pictures, largely showing asanas or yoga poses, are ‘hashtagged’ today on Instagram as ‘yoga’.“This has reinforced a relatively narrow and monochromatic vision of what yoga is and what it does,” the authors — one of whom is fond of flying in the Hi malayas with paragliders in the manner of mythical masters, and the other who has explored the yoga body in art and history — argue,” especially viewed against the wide spectrum of practices presented in premodern texts.” Of course, the texts alone do not reflect the totality of yoga’s development. But they do provide ‘windows’ or snapshots of particular trends and movements. This is also what the book does “without a sectarian or religious orientation”, which should, the authors hope,“ make it somewhat more accessible” to the general reader. Yogic tradition has long been known for its open-minded ecumenism: Svatmarama’s Hathapradipika, for example, offers a theistic interpretation of a kriya or asana followed by a rationalist or nontheistic explanation with an ‘alternative view’— and one that is obviously not to be confused with ‘alternative facts’ now emanating from the White House. This is where the book succeeds admirably.Along with the promotional spiels about yoga, it also provides warnings and criticisms with this terse preamble:” There is an ancient tradition that yoga is dangerous, even lethally so.” Having suffered some deleterious side-effects of unsupervised practice, this reviewer can vouch for that sentence; however, despite the side-effects, the healing also came from the same self-taught tradition! The 10th century Kashmiri master text called Mokshopaya, which is cited in the book says,” Forceful breath-restraint is identified explicitly with Hatha Yoga; and Hatha Yoga is said to cause suffering.”This mirrors your reviewer’s hard-earned insight: no pranayama, not even simple Ujjayi — only kriyas and mudras without rechaka or breathe retention! The great Kashmiri polymath-philosopher, Abhinavagupta, on the other hand,” dismisses all the angas of Patan jali’s yoga in the fourth chapter of his Tantraloka, noting in particular that pranayama is not to be performed, because it harms the body.” What is the alternative then? For that, you may perhaps have to turn to Kashmiri Shaiva tradition of the non doing method or Anopaya Siddhi.It is said to lurk in most mystical ‘sandwich spaces’ called sandhi! How does one get there? By not trying! The authors helpfully second that ‘no’ method by saying,” In spite of the close association of Raja Yoga with Hatha Yoga in Hatha Yoga texts, there is also a tradition of Raja Yoga, which opposes the forceful techniques of Hatha in favour of the quietist methods of Samadhi.” The 11 chapters of the book are arranged thematically to reflect important yogic practices such as posture, breath control, meditation, withdrawal and fixation as well as the results of all these practices, including yogic powers and liberation. Other chapters provide definitions and theories of the yoga body, along with helpful summaries and elucidations with authoritative references. Known as perhaps the ‘only baronet to wear dreadlocks’, James, the first author of the book, is an Oxford-trained linguist who was initiated into the Ramanandi order of sadhus at the 2013 Kumbh Mela.The second author’s research focuses on the tension between tradition and modernity in yoga, and the transformations it has undergone thanks to globalisation. Where the book departs, therefore, from its older Sanskrit-oriented counterparts is in the breadth (if not depth) of its linguistic and regional compass. It is wonderful to find beautiful 13th century verses of the Marathi mystic master Jnanadeva. Apart from old Marathi, there are passages from Arabic, Avadhi, Braj Bhasha, Bengali, Kashmiri, Pali, Persian, Tamil, Tibetan and even English. This chronological and linguistic range is meant to reflect yoga’s development across and within traditions. The inclusion of passages from the 13th century Sanskrit Vaishnavite text called Dattatreya Yoga Shastra, for example, seems like a stellar casting coup!For this is the text ‘source’ of many crucial verses of the far more widely known Hathapradipika — which also borrows freely from another radical text cited here called Amanaska Yoga. ■ Post your comments at speakingtree.in