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MASTERS AND SERVANTS: A STUDY OF GURUS AND TEACHERS IN HATHAYOGA TRADITIONS A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts In Religious Studies University of Regina By Colin Perry Hall Regina, Saskatchewan August, 2010 Copyright 2010: C.P. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada UNIVERSITY OF REGINA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE Colin Perry Hall, candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies, has presented a thesis titled, Masters and Servants: A Study of Gurus and Teachers in Hathayoga Traditions, in an oral examination held on April 27, 2010. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material. External Examiner: Dr. Hillary P. Rodrigues, University of Lethbridge Supervisor: Dr. Leona Anderson, Department of Religious Studies Committee Member: Dr. William Arnal, Department of Religious Studies Committee Member: Dr. Kevin Bond, Department of Religious Studies Committee Member: Dr. Ren Yuan, Department of Religious Studies Chair of Defense: Dr. Tobias Sperlich, Department of Anthropology Abstract Hathayoga is a globally popular product; its' literature and history are subject to an ever-growing body of translation, research, and analysis. What remains under studied is the vehicle through which hathayoga practices reach their global audience, namely the pedagogical structures including the teachers themselves. These teachers are historically referred to as gurus, but many contemporary traditions are experiencing a transformation of the guru role such that teachers are regarded primarily as specialists in techniques rather than as a source of spiritual knowledge. This thesis investigates historical and contemporary yoga teaching in order to clarify the role of the guru/teacher in hathayoga. In this thesis I make use of a selection of yoga literature as well as interviews with gurus and teachers in order to discuss the above problem. A summary of the thesis is as follows: 1. I argue that yoga is a multivalent tradition that has no single historical narrative in which yogic authority has flown uninterruptedly from an ancient source to contemporary teachers and traditions. 2. I argue that there are numerous, often divergent, mythologies concern the origin of yoga. These competing mythologies indicate an internal tension in terms of the nexus of authority and authenticity of yoga traditions. 3. Through a study of the Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (approx. 150CE) I attempt to • demonstrate that what many scholars refer to as "classical yoga" is representative of a shared yogic sub-culture in which yoga techniques were employed among a diverse group of practitioners with varying pedagogical orientations regarding the need for a guru. 4. The Yoga Sutras, in spite of numerous translations and commentaries that argue otherwise, are themselves ambivalent about the need for an embodied, human guru. 5. A convenient explanation for de-emphasis of gurus in hathayoga traditions is the westernization (and commercialization) of yoga. I demonstrate that this is emphatically not the case and is actually an indication of an intrinsically Orientalist approach. 6. I argue that contemporary hathayoga traditions, exemplified by the Krishnamacharya lineage, have de-emphasized the importance of the guru on the basis of political and economic factors and that these factors have, over the course of yoga history, played a significant role in determining the role of the guru. n Acknowledgements I have been blessed with so many great teachers in my life that it is difficult to decide who should be acknowledged first. This thesis would not have been possible without the patience and generosity of my thesis supervisor, Dr. Leona Anderson. The entire department of Religious Studies at the University of Regina has been so very accommodating and welcoming that they all deserve thanks. Special thanks in the department should go to Kang-nam Oh, who introduced me to Religious Studies and ignited a passion for studying mysticism that has been increasing in intensity ever since. William Arnal, Yuan Ren, Kevin Bond, Franz Volker Greifenhagen, and Jacoba Kuikman have all contributed to my work and for that I am extremely grateful. I would also like to express my gratitude to the many yoga teachers who sat with me, often for hours, and engaged in a lengthy interview process that served as the backdrop for this thesis. Although only a tiny fraction of the interview transcripts have found their way into the body of the thesis, their help was invaluable in terms of orientating my research and structuring my thoughts on the subject. Some exceptional interviewees include BKS Iyengar, Dr. Karandikar, Usha Devi, Sharon Gannon, Yogi Ashwini, David Swenson, and Swami Durgananda. There are a great deal of scholars and theorists to whom I am indebted in the completion of this thesis. These include Jonathon Z. Smith, Bruce Lincoln, Brian K. Smith, Richard King, Joseph Alter, David Gordon White, Edward Said, Georg Feuerstein, Mircea Eliade, D.D. Kosambi, and Romila Tharpar. I would like to thank my yoga teacher, David McAmmond, who has helped me in so many ways. Other yoga teachers who have acted as guides and friends in the exploration of yoga are Valery Petrich, Norman Sjoman, and Nivedita Pingle. The teachers and students of Bodhi Tree Yoga have all contributed in some measure to the completion of this project. And finally a great deal of support for this thesis came from my family, including my wife Sarah, my children Elijah and Loa, my parents Larry and Donna Hall, and my brother Kenton. I would also like to thank the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Regina for their generous support in the form of a T.A. position and two graduate scholarships. in A Note on Transliteration Readers will notice I have not used any diacritical markings in my transliteration of Sanskrit words in English. While I have a great deal of respect for Sanskrit scholars and am deeply appreciative of their efforts while reading translations of Sanskrit texts, I have intentionally excluded the use of diacritics for this thesis for the sake of readability. Many of the Sanskrit terms used in this thesis are commonly used in English-speaking yoga classes (ie. asana, pranayama). It is my hope that a rudimentary understanding of Sanskrit paired with access to reputable translations by scholars whose knowledge surpass my own by far, will suffice for my purposes. I hope this will be excused by readers with a passion for linguistics. I have used the contemporary names of cities in India, many of which changed their names post-Independence. City names appear occasionally in the body of a quote, in which case I have chosen to maintain the original quote unmodified. The sole instance in which this occurs involves the city of Chennai, which is occasionally referred to by its pre-lndependence name of Madras. Readers may also notice that I have chosen to use the word "yogin" to refer to a practitioner of yoga. In this I hope to avoid having to use both the masculine (yogi) and feminine (yogini) whenever making reference to a practitioner. The "yogin" should be understood as a gender neutral term encompassing both male and female practitioners of yoga. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract i Acknowledgements iii A Note on Transliteration iv 1.0 An Opening 1 1.1 Difficulties in the Academic Study of Yoga 5 1.2 Yoga and Hathayoga: Definitions and