January 13, 2012 | 8:00 AM | By

On Yoga and Authenticity

New yoga studios in a neighborhood have become shorthand for gentrification. But is it “true” yoga? Who really owns it? Those are the questions posed by this Washington Post piece, which explores divisions between traditional and contemporary yoga practitioners, and yoga’s roots in Hinduism.


What really bothers the purists, though, is that the video contradicts yoga’s true aim, which is spiritual oneness and a unity of mind and body. Instead, it’s another brick in the $6 billion yoga industry — a crass way to sell gym memberships, just as Lululemon sells expensive stretch pants in the name of the transcendence that is the ostensible aim of yoga practice.

The video is “just emblematic of the Western commercialization of yoga,” Shukla says. “You know, the whole purpose of the physical asanas [poses] is to prepare your body to sit still and focus. It’s not about having a cute ass.”

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com