On Feb 27, 2011, at 6:42 AM, Ira Glazer wrote:
> http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/living/not-as-old-as-you-think
>
> No one denies that Hinduism’s most sacred and ancient texts, including the
> Bhagvad Gita, describe different kinds of yogic practices. But what does
> this ancient and sacred tradition of yoga have to do with what people all
> around the world do in yoga classes in gyms and fitness centres today?
Ah, that's by the excellent Meera Nanda. She's got a follow-up, too:
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/international/the-ludicrousness-of-taking-back-yoga
> My advice to Shukla, Shah and the rest of the Hindu-American community: take a deep breath and get over it. Those who live in glasshouses don’t throw stones on others. In this world where people travel, and ideas travel at the speed of light, we all live in glasshouses.
>
> As the recent disclosures by Norman Sjoman and Mark Singleton, which I have summarised in my much-attacked article, have shown, modern postural yoga has borrowed key movements, rhythms and sequences from the Western traditions of body-building, gymnastics, drills and dances.
>
> Modern yoga was, of course, put together in India, by Indians, but with a whole lot of Western input. So let us not be so touchy and such purists about its Vedic-Hindu origins. Let us enjoy the mongrel that this thing called modern yoga is.
>
> All power to mongrels!