Does my Asana look big in this?

By Elizabeth Major on July 30, 2014 in Other

The biggest leap between Indian and Western yoga is the use of the word ‘exercise’. People want to workout and some of them even want yoga to make them skinny. Yes, I said it! I will even admit to using and abusing the practice for a better body. Perhaps if more of us could concede to this preoccupation with vanity, the hipster community could finally let go of the holier-than-thou organic outlook on our spiritual progression.

Another new yoga studio opens in the Eastern Suburbs and quietly they wait for the mats to fill up. Are there enough people in Surry Hills to fill two big studios? Does Bondi really need another power vinyasa class? I feel for the small studios, the grass-roots backyard yoga businesses that are trying to charge the same amount per class as the fancy yoga franchise with multiple showers. Nobody is getting rich with ten students per class. If you want to be able to afford the Lululemon yoga pants you better be sure your classes are packed like sardines.

The yoga studios have taken to selling the yoga souvenirs and hundred dollar eco-mats because our class fees are not enough. Yoga itself is a brand and has become a multi-million dollar corporation and that is a fact we can no longer deny. That is the Western Yoga paradigm. Bringing yoga to modern society was an inevitable monetisation of a spiritual practice and what better way to market it than through the highly successful health and fitness industry?

I don’t mean to sound bitter. It is hard to be a yogi in Sydney, what with all the distractions of modern life like beautiful yoga clothing, indulgent organic food, biodynamic wine and the egocentric platform that is social media (#myamazingyogabutt). It is amazing we have come as far as we have! Meditating in the Himalayas with no attachment to the physical world may seem extreme, but it is probably a lot easier. From a big city like this we are swimming against the current of yoga style and all its glamorous distractions.

One of the greatest Western developments of yoga has got to be the industry of yoga fashion. My case in point is the misappropriation of the mala beads. Those prayer beads we once used to count our breath, chant or keep our minds in perfect meditative stillness are now available in non-biodegradable fluoro orange. I am aware of this after I saw a young girl get her shellac nail polish matched in the exact same colour.

So how do we absolve ourselves of these spiritual sins? Do we need to withdraw our yoga membership and head to India for the real deal? I would like to pretend I have a realistic solution, but I don’t. I laugh as I write this because I am running away to India to immerse myself in ‘real yoga’. Maybe Sydney doesn’t really need to become a spiritual city, but maybe we can meet in the middle and seek more than the perfect yoga ass-ana.

Alternatively, let’s call a spade a spade. Let’s just admit that yoga is a scene and we are glad to be a part of it. Fill up your social media accounts with yoga poses and Osho quotes. It is still better than half of the vacuous dribble that is saturating Facebook and at the end of my day, when I flick through Instagram, I would rather see a perfect handstand by a beautiful yogi than another duck-faced toilet selfie.