Posturing 'Olympics' (op)position

In conversation

A move to include yoga performance as an event in the Olympics is as disturbing as the news about the efforts made to grant US patent to basmati rice. Many yoga teachers and masters including the likes of B K S Iyengar oppose this move. One such yoga teacher S Sudesh Chandra shares his anguish with N Niranjan Nikam

Even as the ladies in various  shapes and sizes spread the yoga mat at 11 in the morning, in the Upanishath Yoga Centre, and start performing the various asanas,  the write-up about ‘The serenity of yoga given competitive edge,’  an article in The New York Times published in Deccan Herald starts haunting the yoga guru S Sudesh Chandra.

Will the years of efforts of the likes of ‘Kaliyugada Bhishma,’ Mysore’s own B K S Iyengar who has been spreading the message of yoga as a way of life and not for competition come to naught?  
The public performances in our country have a long history, unlike the yoga competitions that we hear of in the US or even in the many cities in India.

Body-mind relationship

“Yoga is all about body-mind relationship and not the physical aspects. The moment one starts thinking of yoga as a competition then the tension starts and the purpose of yoga is defeated,” Sudesh told City Herald.

The ultimate aim of Rajashree Choudhury, the founder of USA Yoga , the wife of Bikram Choudhury who has worked with her husband to educate Americans about the health benefits of yoga is to promote yoga asana so that it will be legitimised as a sport and accepted into the Olympics, according to the write-up in NYT.

“Is yoga just putting the leg behind the head or on the shoulder? Is it going through strenuous exercises? Is it practicing all the asanas for competition? The answer to all these is a big “No”, said Sudesh.

Purpose of yoga

The purpose of yoga is not to destroy the mind but to relax it. “Yoga is not standardisation which is what the yoga competitions do? Each set of asanas have a different purpose for different people. Hence we have yogasana for diabetes, for women, for varicose veins, for 40+, for children, basic pranayama, to name a few,” he said.

However, what  we see are a proliferation of yoga schools attracting the westerners who come learn a few asanas go back with certificates and start teaching it without understanding the nuances, regrets Sudesh.

 “We have to tailor the asanas based on the problems or health issues one has. If this is not done or the yoga teachers are not aware of the problems then the chances of the problems aggravating
are very high” he said.

Practising and teaching yoga for many years, Sudesh strongly feels that the competitions that are organised are all self-serving and money spinning exercises.  

Again quoting the NYT, “For those in competitive yoga, the training regimen resembles that of serious athletes. Many practice four hours a day and six days a week in Bikram Studio, where the temperature steams at 105 degrees.”

Yoga is definitely not a tough military training regimen.  “Iyengar describes yoga competitions as Olympics in his book ‘Light on Life.’ Even if there is yoga demonstration it is not for bagging prizes. Its introduction is to throw light on life for the whole of mankind is how he has described it,” said Sudesh.

Can this cry of many like Iyengars and Sudesh’s be heard in the distant west where there is a silent move to give yoga a competitive edge? Seeing the sign board of a yoga masterji in a small bylane (close to where another yoga legend Pattabhi Jois lived), where he has innovatively designed the first letter ‘Y’ in the shape of a yoga posture, it looks like things have moved far ahead and the day will not be far off when the spectators in the Olympic stadium will be silently applauding participants try to balance in a standing bow pose.

Unless of course the shrill cries of the genuine yoga practitioners are heard!!