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

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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 Distinctions 10 2.0 Histories of Yoga Teaching 12 2.1 Artifacts of Early Yoga Teaching 16 2.2 Competing Mythological Histories 19 3.0 The Problem of Patanjali 30 4.0 Submission and Deification in the Medieval Period 39 5.0 Tantric and Alchemical Currents 44 6.0 Matseyendra, Goraksha, and Hathayoga 49 7.0 Contemporary Yoga: How to Clean Hathayoga 58 7.1 Spiritual Orientalism 60 7.2 From Master to Servant: A Case Study of the Krishnamacharya Lineage 66 8.0 A Closing 82

Works Cited 84 1

1.0 AN OPENING

The role of the guru in hathayoga is, for the most part, either documented as a permanent, structural element of yoga or has alternatively been spurned as a remnant of a pre-modern society no longer functional in terms of "modern" yoga. This thesis will step on neither side of this scholarly and sectarian fence. I will instead attempt to dissect the fence itself, to lay bare the intent behind its construction, and ultimately to gain some greater understanding of the shifting role of the guru. There is no particular narrative in which the role of the guru has gradually been evolving from x to y over the course of millennia. Rather, the role of the guru changes in response to changing social and political contexts. Teachers, scholars and practitioners alternatively champion and decry the role of the guru in yoga teaching not according to a grand historical evolution from one era to another, but rather according to their own interests and within their own particular contexts.

In order to present arguments that are both comprehensible and convincing, I have attempted to follow the advice of J.Z. Smith in meeting three conditions for the academic study of religious phenomena.1 It is imperative that the subject, what Smith would call the "exemplum", be well understood. Toward that objective we shall spend some time exploring what is meant by the terms "guru," "disciple," and "yoga." The meaning of these terms are not self-evident, and will inevitably be defined in a manner which best suits the purposes of this study. For example, at what point does a yoga

1 Jonathon Z. Smith. Introduction to Imagining Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. xi. 2 instructor become a yoga guru? What is the relationship of the yoga of the Bhagavad

Gita (200BCE - 200CE) and the yoga of BKS Iyengar (1918 - present)? I will have to make some clear delineations for the purposes of this study. The definitions of these terms will not only be self-serving, but will necessarily be shaped by past attempts at definition both scholarly and otherwise. It is therefore crucial to include some description and analysis of these attempts.

Smith has also suggested that the "exemplum," in this case the guru-disciple relationship in yoga, be framed in the service of a theory or question of some importance. Toward this end I will explore the question of post-colonialism in the study of yoga. This is a seemingly obvious and yet woefully neglected point of departure for a study of a tradition that, as we shall see, experienced a renaissance during the colonial period in Indian history that continues to this day. Given the recent contributions on the

"modernization" of yoga,2 it will be fruitful to examine our exemplum in light of post- structuralism, namely to what extent "modern" yoga actually deserves that title. Finally it seems short-sighted to neglect a feminist analysis, given that women comprise such an overwhelming majority of practitioners and yet are represented so meagrely in the realm of gurus and even "advanced" teachers.

The third of Smith's three conditions I will attempt to meet is to formulate a method for relating the exemplum to the theory. That is to say, I try to avoid simply making a list of data I have collected followed by a second list of theories I think are relevant in some way. The guru-disciple relationship must be seen differently, must be

2 Elizabeth De Michelis. A History of Modern Yogo. New York: Continuum, 2004. 3 made more comprehensible by way of the theoretical analysis. My method is a simple one. It is, perhaps, the oldest of methods - that of comparison. I will compare the teachings and techniques of various yoga gurus in light of selected theoretical frameworks in order to demonstrate the changing nature of yoga, disciples, and gurus themselves. The order of comparisons will be historical, rather than geographic. For reasons I will explore later, I am not the least bit interested in "eastern" vs. "western" teachers. However I would like to avoid posing an equally spurious "ancient" vs.

"modern" teachers argument, as if there was some ancient essence that is unavailable to the modern student of yoga. Certainly modern medical research, particularly in terms of anatomy and physiology, has made significant contributions to the yoga tradition and has, in some ways, defined what could be called "modern" yoga. However, the comparison that seems most fruitful to me is between "historical" and "living" teachers of yoga. I make this distinction because not all living yoga traditions teach "modern" yoga, just as it is clear that not all historical yoga traditions taught a single, unified yoga practice.

It might interest the reader to know that I am not pursuing this research as a disinterested observer. I am connected to the yoga tradition as both a practitioner and teacher. Having said that, I have no guru I wish to promote, nor do I have any "axes to grind" with any gurus or schools of yoga. I am, as my teacher says, a "yoga pirate." I get into traditions and under gurus as deeply as is required to "get the gold," at which point I get out. I have interviewed a number of gurus and teachers of yoga for the purpose of this thesis, and was welcomed, entertained, and impressed by a number of them. I was 4 never sufficiently impressed, however, that I could imagine myself becoming one of their disciples. Yet it is not my lack of guru that served as the impetus for this thesis. It is the fact o/gurus that spurred me into research. The guru is accepted as a fundamental aspect of yoga. I know of not a single living teacher of yoga who does not claim the lineage of a particular guru or combination of gurus. Of course there are a great many practitioners without gurus (such as myself), but from whence do we draw our authority? The authority of the yoga teacher comes from a guru - the closer the connection to the guru, the more potent the authority of the teacher. And so we are left with a puzzling question, so obvious yet nobody in the yoga community is willing to.ask it: If our authority is derived from the guru, and yet the vast majority of practitioners have no relationship, desire no relationship, and are perhaps repelled by the notion of a relationship with a guru, what is to come of the authoritativeness of yoga?

I am interested both as a student of yoga and a student of the academy. And while I feel an affinity for both, I trust that the role of scholar-practitioner is neither rare nor academically invalid. I favour a view recently proposed by Jeffrey Kripal, that

we challenge the dichotomy between 'insider' and 'outsider' and not assume either that the historian...does not also know and appreciate something of the shimmering truths of which the insider so passionately speaks or that the insider, however devoted to an ideal, cannot also see clearly and bravely something of the actual. Scholars are not religiously inept, and disciples are not dumb.3

Given my allegiance to Kripal in this regard, it should also be pointed out that, following

Bruce Lincoln, I feel that the statement "reverence is a religious and not a scholarly

3 Jeffrey Kripal. "Inside-Out, Outside-ln: Existential Place and Academic Practice in the Study of North American Guru Traditions." in Religious Studies Review. Volume 25 Number 3/July 1999. p237. 5 virtue"4 applies as equally to scholars and practitioners of yoga. For both scholars and practitioners of yoga, correct thinking is a virtue and that often requires some degree of irreverence in terms of the mythological and historical data passed down as sacred.

1.1 Difficulties in the Academic Study of Yoga

Yoga, as an object of academic study, faces difficulties that are not easily overcome. Central to the obstacles facing the scholar of yoga is the definition of the term itself. Many authors are content with the oft-repeated etymological definition that

"the word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means to yoke or join."5

More sophisticated definitions take into account that the roots of words are deficient in explanatory power, that "it is their usages which define them, not their origins."6 This only prevents us from making more mistakes rather than pointing a clear path toward understanding. However, forays into the history of the yoga tradition rarely net much more than a tangled web of disparate texts, schools, and mythologized yogins that stubbornly resist any clear, comprehensive integration into a historicization of yoga.

We must remain conscious, in the words of Bruce Lincoln, that "even within the most disciplined and learned of academic discourses, the past enters the present for reasons of the present."7 That is to say, studies of yoga are never explorations into a pure, historical entity but rather are inventions of scholars attempting to create a truly

4 Bruce Lincoln. "Theses on Method" (University of Alabama Department of Religious Studies). http://www.as.ua.edu/rel/thesesonmethod.html (accessed March 13, 2006). 5 Gopi Krishna. The Secret of Yogo. New York: Harper and Row, 1972. p2. 6 Alok Rai. "Longing and Belonging" in The Nature of Living Traditions: Distinctive Features of Indian Parampgra. ed. Baidyanath Saraswati. New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2001. pp89-90. 7 Bruce Lincoln. Death, Wgr, gndSacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. p xvii. 6 knowable object of study. Not only must the few extant yoga texts be translated from

Sanskrit to English, but they must also be translated from pre-modern India to, in this case, post-modern Canada. If difficulties exist in linguistic translation, how much more so in historical and cultural translation?

This is further complicated by a distinct lack of extant texts on yoga. There is a dearth of reliable historical records. The few in-depth studies of yoga have been performed not by scholars, but by scholar-practitioners who are able to not only survey the literature but gain access to a guru, for "the history of yoga is carried in the bodies of its practitioners."8 One such scholar-practitioner was Theos Bernard, who studied yoga under a guru in India in 1936. Bernard's doctoral dissertation was the basis for his most popular book, Hatha Yoga, which he completed in 1943.9 Bernard is believed to have been killed during a Hindu-Muslim riot while studying in Western Tibet in 1947.

Bernard's death may indeed illustrate a possible reason for the dearth of scholar- practitioner accounts - library research is safe, while the practice of yoga is by far more daring.

There is no shortage of teachers and practitioners of yoga who assert that the yoga of today is of direct descent, through a recognized lineage of teachers, from the yoga of antiquity. Typically this assertion comes in a brief introduction to a class or book, before a long list of variously detailed descriptions of yoga postures and their benefits.

An illustration in this regard is Yoga in an Adirondack Chair, in which we read that "yoga

8 Sjoman, 2004. p4. 9 Paul G. Hackett. An excerpt from "The Life and Works of Theos Bernard." Columbia University, 2004. http://c250.columbia.edu/c250 celebrates/remarkable columbians/theos bernard scholar.html (accessed April 21, 2006). 7

started somewhere in India 6,000 years ago."10 If you can overlook the glib geographical

reference, one immediately wonders what connection exists between the yoga that

started 6000 years ago and the yoga practiced today, in Adirondack chairs.

There are also a great many who believe that the "classical period" of yoga is long

eclipsed, and that yoga as practiced today is only available "in its purely practical and

most degenerate form."11 Rather than attempting to either "debunk" the authenticity of

current practice of yoga or simply restate the antiquity of yoga, it is more interesting to

look at what connection exists between the yoga of antiquity and yoga as it is practiced today.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to sufficiently define "yoga" as a category because

of the great "morphological diversity"12 of the tradition. In the words of Eliade, "If the

word 'yoga' means many things, that is because yoga is many things."13 At any rate, I tend towards Brian K. Smith's position regarding definitions (his was particularly in .

reference to Hinduism) that the purpose of attempting a definition is not to encompass,

but rather "to construct for the purpose of useful reflection."14 It is with Smith's position

in mind that I shall attempt to construct some temporary, heuristic categories (i.e.

"yoga") for the purpose of carrying this discussion forward.

The writers and teachers who state that yoga is thousands of years old are generally referring to the seals discovered in the Indus Valley civilization sites of

10 Carol Sherman and Susan Feathers. Yoga in an Adironack Chair. Erin: Boston Mills Press, 2001. p8. 11 Muller, Max Collected Works of Max Muller (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1919), p xviii. 12 Micea Eliade. "Yoga: Immortality and Freedom" 1958. p 150. 13 Ibid. 14 Brian K. Smith. "Exorcising the Transcendent: Strategies for Defining Hinduism and Buddhism" in History of Religions, Vol. 27, No.l (Aug., 1987) p 33. 8

Mohenjo-daro and Harrapa. These seals are dated to the third millennium BCE, some of which depict human figures seated in a yogasana referred to as Mulabandhasana.15 This particular seated posture is not so interesting, as much as the fact of a seated yoga posture itself. It is strongly indicative of an existing yoga practice, given that the posture is not just a simple way of sitting but is, in fact, an extraordinary feat that would have required practice in order to achieve.

It is this element of practice that forms one of the core components of our concept of yoga. Yoga is not something one believes, but is rather something that one does. It is for this reason that yoga is typically regarded as a "practical discipline."16 Yoga is practical precisely in that it requires practice. And yoga is a discipline in that during the course of practice the yogin will face difficulties and be consistently challenged both by themselves and by their teachers.

There any number of texts one might explore in order to tease out various definitions of yoga; however the clearest and most obvious must be the Yoga Sutras of

Patanjali. The Yoga Sutras are dated with wild variation between the tenth century

BCE17 and the second and third century CE18. The second Sutra, a favourite of yoga teachers around the world, reads yogaschittavrttinirodhah, which can be translated as

"yoga is stilling movements of the mind"19. This is a rather technical description that,

15 Yan Y. Dhyansky. "The Indus Valley Origin of a Yoga Practice" in Artibus Asiae, Vol. 48, No.1/2 (1987). pp.92, 94. For information on the asana, Mulabandhasana see Iyengar, BKS. Light on Yoga (New York: Shocken Books, 1966) pp.344-346. 16 Barbara Stoler-Miller. Introduction to translation of "Bhagavad Gita" p.8. 17 Pandit N. Bhasyacharya. The Age of Patanjali. Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1915. p.3. 18 Ian Whicher. "Yoga and Freedom: A Reconsideration of Patanjali's Classical Yoga" in Philosophy East and West Vol.48, #2 (Apr. 1998) p.272. 19 My own translation, based on a cursory knowledge on Sanskrit. The meaning of the sutra itself is fitting the tenor of the sutras themselves, is descriptive of the state attained by practice of yoga as opposed to a description of the practice. It is crucial to constantly bear in mind that yoga is both the technique and desired result of the technique. When we look toward other textual sources we witness more examples of the above mentioned

"morphological diversity" of yoga. For example we find not a singular, monolithic yoga, but a number of yoga practices in the Bhagavad Gita (specifically karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and jnana yoga).20 The degree to which a commentator chooses to emphasize or otherwise suggest that one of the aforementioned yogas is the true yoga is directly correlated with the social and political context into which the commentator is projecting their commentary.

There are a great number of Upanishadic and Puranic references to yoga practice from which we could draw potential definitions of yoga,21 but it seems clear that the yoga of today is somewhat far removed from the yoga of the Gita and perhaps even the yoga of Patanjali (the mythical author of the Yoga Sutras). It is in the direction of hathayoga that we may find something more clearly resembling the yoga that is taught in gyms and yoga studios the world over.

bendable, depending on the intent of the translator. 20 Joseph Alter. "Somatic Nationalism: Indian Wrestling and Militant Hinduism" in Modern Asian Studies, Vol.28, No.3 (July '94). Pp.563-4. 21 Georg Feuerstein. The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice. Prescott: Hohm Press, 1998. 10

1.2 Yoga and Hathayoga: Definitions and Distinctions

Practicing yoga is not synonomous, though certainly does not preclude,

practicing hathayoga. However, practicing hathayoga does mean, and cannot preclude,

practicing yoga. Whereas it is true that yoga is "a darshana, a 'way of seeing' Hinduism, just as Vedanta and Tantrism,"22 it is also true that yoga is something more marginal to

Hinduism. While "classical yoga" is a respectable, mainstream element of Hinduism,

hathayoga has always been seen as somewhat dangerous and marginal.

What is commonly referred to in modern yoga classes as hathayoga is, in fact, a fairly distilled and sanitized version of what has historically been taught as hathayoga.

Studies by David Gordon White have shed much light on the historical practice of

hathayoga, including its intimate relationship with both Hindu and Buddhist alchemy.

On the nature of historical hathayoga, White argues that

Hathayoga has been subject to an enormous amount of influence from external factors from Buddhism and tantra to capitalism and western medicine, not to mention the influence of Victorian morality, lest we forget that hatha yoga is an embodied practice and as such deals unabashedly with all aspects of the human body, sexuality included. The modern hatha yoga practice is, to some extent, a sanitized, romanticized, free market version of the practice as described by Goraksha and Svatmarama.

An even more sophisticated (and cynical) reader would suggest that the

hathayoga of Goraskha (founder of the Natha-Siddha order) is a confused, tantric,

magical version of yoga as conceived by Patanjali. Of course this position can be bested

by reference to the Buddhist influence in the yoga of Patanjali,23 clearly another step

22 Jean Varenne. Yoga and the Hindu Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973. p.179. 23 Ian Whicher. The Integrity of the Yoga Darsana: A Reconsideration of Classical Yoga. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. p.325. 11

removed from the "pure" yoga of old. This game could be (and is) applied with equal

ease to the gurus and teachers within the hathayoga traditions. Questions of

authenticity should be applied to the teacher and the teaching, not to the relative

proximity of the teacher to an imagined "pure" yoga. This academic, historical trumping

can continue ad nauseam until we arrive at a single, undifferentiated state of pure yoga which exists only in the dreams of Vishnu. It is not only uninteresting, it is entirely

devoid of value - academic or otherwise.

It must be made clear that any attempt to uncover, recover, or otherwise return to this ancient and untouched authority of a pristine guru is an exercise in mythology,

not an academic practice. Joseph Alter, in Yoga in Modern India, takes the view that

"there are no real gurus and no true adepts."24 It is Alter's position that "the classical

literature is no more or less authentic and authoritative than the putative sage-lost-to- the-world in the Himalayas...we must...appreciate the genius of transcultural innovation

rooted in modern India."25 I would extend this position to include yoga as a truly transcultural innovation that encompasses not just modern India, but the existence of yoga as it practiced across the globe. Does that mean we must accept any of the topsellers on Amazon.com as a part of the canon of classical yoga literature? Certainly

not. But that decision should be made on the basis on the content of the book, rather than on the continent on which in was written, or the date on the inside cover.

24 Joseph Alter. Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004. p.18. 25 Alter, 2004. p.25. 12

2.0 HISTORIES OF YOGA TEACHING

Ask any contemporary yoga teacher about the history of yoga and you are likely to get an assurance of antiquity. You are likely to hear a story about an ancient, often mythological origin, and an unbroken lineage of teachers who have delivered yoga into the present. And this must be, to at least some extent, true. Yoga must have originated somewhere, at sometime. It must be true that there existed a conduit of some sort that has maintained the philosophies and practices, or at least the name, of yoga. While I remain skeptical of both the accuracy and intention behind the common contemporary assertion of the antiquity and historical continuity of yoga, my research has not been an effort of "myth busting." It is not the truth or falsity of the ancient and modern mythologies of yoga that interests me. What interests me are the following questions.

Who is credited with the origin of yoga? What is the significance of that origin? Of whom is this ancient lineage comprised? What can we know of the yoga of antiquity?

What relation does it bear to contemporary yoga practices? Contemporary teachers of yoga may be content to rely on the assertion of antiquity; however any scholarly account must apply a more critical approach.

A typical response to the question of the origins of yoga from a contemporary teacher generally goes something like this:

Wise sages and gurus thought that the answers to the questions of how humans could live a healthier and more productive life were found in the hands of Mother Nature. From studying different animals, these wise sages came to the conclusion that there was balance of strength and softness within all creatures and within nature itself. In time their teachings evolved into a practical system that was handed down from teacher to student over thousands of years. The connection of an improved diet, along with techniques of fasting and the evolution of yoga postures and mental training techniques, formed the system 13

that we now refer to as Yoga.26

The intention of the author is clear. We are to believe there is a unitary,

authentic "yoga" that has been passed down from teacher to student to the author

himself. I do not suspect the author to be a huckster-type salesperson, invoking

whatever means he can for the sake of increasing sales of his book. However I do

suspect that yoga teachers the world over are engaged in a great deal of rhetoric aimed

at legitimating the authenticity of the contemporary transnational yoga trend. Implicit

in the above quotation is the argument that what is being taught as yoga today is the

authentic, real-deal yoga of antiquity. Further, the modern concerns of health and

productivity are eisegetically implanted into the history of yoga. The extent to which we

can argue that Patanjali was concerned with productivity and health is unclear. What is

clear is that the interests of contemporary yoga teachers are well served by the

widespread notion that contemporary yoga is the legitimate child of ancient yoga.

Suggestions to the contrary potentially undercut the authenticity of contemporary

teachers. The result is that the history of yoga teaching is presented as a harmonious,

natural flow of knowledge from ancient India to the contemporary YMCA.

This natural flow of knowledge in fact requires a substantial interpretive effort - a

convenient hermeneutic perpetuating the assumption of a unitary "yoga tradition." If we are to abandon the trite, commercially packaged historiography of yoga teaching in favour of a more critical approach, then we may avoid a number of potential pitfalls. We should not simply translate or repeat some stories of mythological origin, nor should we

26 DougSwenson. Mastering the Secrets of Yoga Flow. New York: Perigree, 2004. p 15. 14 disregard these stories altogether. Rather, we should locate these stories within a functional, historical context. Borrowing from Bruce Lincoln, we can understand the mythological origins of yoga as a form of discourse in which practitioners in varying geographical and historical contexts attempted to lay claim to yogic authority. In this way the history of yoga teaching is a history of yogic discourse, namely a hegemonic discourse that serves the interest of the political and economic elite. Lincoln disavows a separation of religious data from social, cultural or otherwise secular data, arguing that

"one cannot separate the elegant strands of speculative thought from the brutal facts of social hierarchy and exploitation."27 Myth and ritual operate as "an authoritative mode of symbolic discourse and a powerful instrument for the evocation of those sentiments

(affinity and estrangement) out of which society is constructed."28 I do not wish to suggest that yoga and yoga teaching have always been and are now a form of political and social control imposed on ignorant and powerless human subjects. What I wish to make clear in the following pages is that neither ancient nor contemporary yoga teaching exists in a transcendent bubble, insulated from the social and political forces whirling around it. The patrons, power-brokers, and king-makers must have their say.

Yoga teaching cannot be understood in isolation from its social and political contexts. There is a tremendous ideological weight put on the value of the transcendent in yoga as in all religious phenomena. However, we must leave the transcendence to the practicing yogin. We must engage reason. Failure to do so, even in "yoga scholarship,"

27 Bruce Lincoln. Death, War, and Sacrifice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. pl74. 28 Bruce Lincoln. Discourse and the Construction of Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. p53. 15 provides an all-too-convenient escape hatch and tends to reduce intellectual efforts "to the form of a paraphrase, our style of ritual repetition, which is a particularly weak mode of translation, insufficiently different from its subject matter for purposes of thought."29

Having said that, we should not delude ourselves into thinking that we can understand the depth and richness of masterful instruction in yoga through reason alone. Research is safe. This is precisely why so-called "non-reductionist" theories of religion are resilient to critique. We cannot "reduce" the history of yoga teaching to a complex set of socio­ political developments. As one of my more animated interview subjects, Yogi Ashwini of the Dhyan Foundation in Delhi, emphatically stated during our interview:

Who are you to even look at that relationship? Who are you to comment on that relationship? You cannot understand the guru-sisya relationship with the mind. It is the experience. For the people who are in the foundation, they are good people, they will tell you about the experiences they have had. It is all experiential. The guru-sisya relationship is 100% experiential.

Had I not anticipated an untimely degeneration of the interview, I would have informed Ashwini that I have no desire to experience the guru-sisya relationship. In some instances, intimacy only obscures ones view. If I were writing an essay on a lake, I would expect neither myself nor my readers to get wet. Getting wet is one way to experience the lake, but certainly not the sole place from which to make observations.

There is nothing that cannot be observed from a 3rd person perspective - and that observation often proves very fruitful.

The intellectual history of yoga teaching, until relatively recent times, has mirrored the intellectual history of Indian religions. As yoga teaching has become a

29 Jonathan Z. Smith. Reloting Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. p.372. 16 transnational enterprise, the scope of this paper must also extent beyond national boundaries. Rather than attempting to satisfy ourselves with approximating a date when "yoga came west", this thesis will probe why "yoga came west" and whose interests were served in the process. As Romila Tharpar has pointed out, scholars have previously concerned themselves with "placing texts and ideas in a chronological perspective."30 A more challenging, and more interesting, project is to utilize pre­ existing chronology in an effort to achieve a clearer picture, not only of the past but also of the present.

2.1 Artifacts of Early Yoga Teaching

The origin of yoga is "lost in the obscurity of ancient Indian prehistory."31 The search for the first yoga teacher is similarly conducted in the relative darkness that exists beyond the grasp of modern historiography. There are some indications of an extant yoga practice in the Indus Valley civilization, dating to around the 3rd millenium BCE.32

Over 2500 steatite seals have been recovered from the Indus city of Mohenjo-daro, and of those 2500 there are five that are of particular archaeological interest in terms of the history of yoga. These five seals feature a seated figure wearing a horned head-dress with a number of animals in the immediate surrounding. This figure has been identified by a number of scholars as a "proto-Shiva."33 Whether this figure is in fact an early

30 Romila Tharpar. "Interpreting Early India" in history ond beyond. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. p.62 31 Feuerstein, 1998. p.127 32 Tharpar, 2002. p.9 33 Feuerstein, 1998. pp.133-4 17 expression of Rudra/Shiva, Agni, a mother-goddess figure, a buffalo-God or bull-man34 is a matter for debate. What is more interesting, at least within the context of yoga, is the posture in which the figure is seated.

The seal depicts this figure seated on their ankles, their knees pointed out to the sides and their toes pointed downward or slightly backward. It is, as Dhyansky has pointed out, "an extremely difficult asana."3S Dhyansky correctly identifies this posture as mulabandhasana, a posture that is practiced and taught to this day.36 One simply could not sit in this posture without practice. Even with extraordinarily flexible hips, there is an extreme degree of external rotation of the thighs in this posture. The downward/backward movement of the toes also requires the gradual slackening of the ligaments in the knees and ankles, a process that requires a long period of consistent stretching. The practice required to perform the posture with any degree of safety and proficiency is strongly suggestive of some mode of instruction. The archaeological evidence at Harrapa and Mohenjo-daro provides us with insufficient resources to proceed beyond the simple indication of some form of yoga instruction. Based on the anatomical complexity of the seated pose depicted on the seals and from the re­ appearance of that image on multiple seals, it seems reasonable to suggest not only that this was a posture of some significance but also that one would have required some instruction in terms of performing the posture.

34 Yan Y. Dhyansky. "The Indus Valley Origin of a Yoga Practice" in Artibus Asioe. Vol. 48 No.1/2.1987. p.90 35 Ibid, p.93 36 BKS Iyengar. Light on Yogo. New York: Schocken Books, 1966. pp.197-8. See also plates 459-463 18

Turning our attention towards the significance of the pose, to what end would

somebody pursue such a posture? Modern motivations such as improved health and

productivity seem unlikely-given that mulabandhasana has limited pragmatic

physiological value. Even BKS Iyengar, well known for providing long lists of the benefits

of yogasanas, says only that the posture is "a great help to people with excessive sexual

desire."37 As such the posture may have been used in the service of some form of early

asceticism. The renouncing ideal of the samnyasin was not, however, prevalent until a

later time.38 More likely is that the attainment of particular postures resulted in an

elevation of one's religious authority.

The Indus civilization, despite numerous claims by various yoga teachers,39 was

no proto-yogic Utopia. D.D. Kosambi has argued that Harrapa and Mohenjo-daro were

characterized by a "sharp class division" evident in the different types of dwellings

unearthed there.40 Kosambi is inclined to credit the maintenance of this class to the

influence of religion.

Every known class-division rests, in the final analysis, upon the use offeree whereby the surplus produced by one class of people is expropriated by a ruling minority. The need for violence may be reduced to a minimum if the class of producers can see no other way of making a living except under the direction of the upper class. Often, this means the use of religion in order to convince the working class that they must give up the surplus, lest supernatural forces destroy them by mysterious agencies...The instruments offeree, namely weapons, cannot be hidden in the archaeological record, while superstition reveals itself through images or special buildings for religious use.41

37 Ibid. 38 Feuerstein, 1998. p.90 39 See, for example, Yogini. San Rafael, CA: Mandala Publishing, 2006. p.12 40 D.D. Kosambi. An Introduction to the Study of Indian History. Reprint 1988. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1956. p.59 41 Kosambi, 1988. p.62 19

That yoga teaching is implicated in the religious-ideological structures that legitimized

class exploitation in the Indus Valley should not be surprising nor controversial. If

asanas such as mulabandhasana were demonstrative of the superiority of a ruling class,

then the consolidation of the teaching tradition by a specialized class of individuals (who

could be relied upon to pass these skills on to members of the privileged class) seems

entirely feasible. A study of the mythological history of yoga teaching may lend support

to some of the arguments presented above.

2.2 Competing Mythological Histories

While the identity of the figure on the Indus Valley seal remains unknown, yoga

scholarship has largely proceeded from the assumption of his identification with a proto-

Shiva.42 This assumption is consistent with Shivas mythological role as the "lord of yoga"

and original yoga teacher. The Hathayoga Pradipika opens with "Salutations to Shiva,

who taught the science of Hatha Yoga."43 Pattabhi Jois has stated that "according to

what tradition tells us, Shiva first taught it (yoga) to Parvati."44 The Kriya yoga tradition

views Shiva as the "originator of yoga" and guru to two of the 18 Siddhas.45 Besides

being acknowledged as the first yoga teacher, Shiva is also recognized as the "patron of

42 Eliade, Mircea. Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, 2nd edition. 1958. Reprint, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. p.355. See also Jean Varenne. Yoga and the Hindu Tradition. Translated by Derek Coltman. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1976. p.180. Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology. Markham, Ontario: Penguin Books, 1962. p.169. 43 Svatmarama. Brian Dana Akers, trans. Hatha Yoga Pradipika. New Delhi: New Age Books, 2002. p.l. 44 K. Pattabhi Jois. Interviewed by Alexander Medin. "3 Gurus, 48 Questions" in Namarupa. Fall 2004. p. 6. 45 Siddhas are immortal, realized masters in the Kriya yoga lineage. See M. Govindan. Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition. Eastmen, Quebec: Kriya Yoga Publications, 1991. pp. 28,190 20 all yogis"46 and "the supreme guru"47 from which yoga emerged and toward which the yogin moves in practice.

In Light on Yoga, Iyengar relays the following myth of the origin of yoga teaching:

It is related that once Lord Shiva went to a lonely Island and explained to his consort Parvati the mysteries of Yoga. A fish near the shore heard everything with concentration and remained motionless while listening. Shiva realizing that the fish had learnt Yoga, sprinkled water upon it, and immediately the fish gained divine form and became Matsyendra (Lord of the Fishes) and thereafter spread the knowledge of Yoga.48

We should not be satisfied with a simple re-stating of Shiva's primordial position in the yoga tradition. The mythological preeminence of Shiva lends itself to a number of interpretations. The association of Shiva with animals may be an indication that an early yoga practice developed from the observation and mimicry of animal forms and movements. It has been argued that Shiva is recognized as the first yoga teacher due to the pre-vedic origin of yoga, dating back to the Indus Valley proto-yogin discussed above.

The latter is an intriguing theory; however there is an apparent discontinuity from the postulated asana practice of Mohenjo-daro and the classical yoga of Patanjali. Namely, there is minimal mention of yoga or yoga practices (particularly asana practice) in the intervening period which corresponds to the composition and consolidation of the

Vedas. Eliade has argued that the ascetic and ecstatic techniques found in the Vedas should not be conflated with yoga practice:

Only the rudiments of classic Yoga are to be found in the Vedas. On the other

46 Varenne, 1976. p. 28. 47 Mikel Burley. Hatha Yoga: It's Context, Theory gnd Prgctice. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2000. p. 91.

48 Iyengar, 1966. p.158. 21

hand, those ancient texts refer to ascetic disciplines and "ecstatic" ideologies that, if they are not always directly related to Yoga properly speaking, finally found a place in the yogic tradition...these two categories of spiritual facts must not be confused; ascetic methods and techniques of ecstacy are documented among the other Indo-European peoples, to say nothing of the other peoples of Asia, whereas Yoga is to be found only in India and in cultures influenced by Indian spirituality.49

If we accept the position of Feuerstein, that the techniques of the Vedas are a

"proto-yoga,"50 then what of the pre-existing Indus Valley yoga practices? A proto-proto- yoga? Recent studies in archaeology, linguistics, and social anthropological have discredited the "aryan invasion" theory, by recourse to which one might argue that the

Vedic "Aryan" and Indus civilizations were unique to one another.51 Romila Tharpar has suggested that the Indus people spoke a proto-Dravidian language, and that Vedic

Sanskrit was a "language of a particular social group."52 As such, it is possible that asana practice simply fell out of favour during the social, cultural, and geographic shift from the Indus Valley to the "second urbanization of South Asia"53 in the Gangetic plain.

Yoga takes a different shape in the Vedas. Rather than Shiva, a being referred to as Hiranyagarbha is credited as the original source of yoga. According to David Frawley,

The original Yoga tradition is not the Patanjali tradition but the Hiranyagarbha tradition. It teachings are found not only in the Yoga Sutras but in the Mahabharata, including the Bhagavad Gita, Moksha Dharma Parva and Anu Gita, which each contain extensive teachings on Yoga from many sides. The Hiranyagarbha Yoga tradition is the main Vedic Yoga tradition. The Patanjali Yoga tradition is an offshoot of it or a later expression of it.54

49 Eliade, 1990. p. 102. 50 Feuerstein, 1998. p. 128. 51 Tharpar, 2002. pp.9-11 52 Ibid. p. 13. 53 Geoffrey Samuel. The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. p. 41. 54 David Frawley. The Original Teachings of Yogo: From Pgtgnjgli back to Hiranygggrbhg. From the American Institute of Vedic Studies, http://www.vedanet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=133<emid=2&limit=l&lim 22

Hiranyagarbha is portrayed in the Vedas as the "sole or most prominent god overshadowing the others."55 In the Mahabharata there is a verse that reads "there was no yoga prior to Hiranyagarbha.56 Vijnanabihiksu, in his sixteenth century commentary on the Yoga Sutras, gives this Hiranyagarbha as an example of a videha - a being requiring no physical body.57 Swami Krishnananda, a prominent disciple of the Divine

Life Society's Swami Sivananda, identifies Hiranyagarbha as prana - the "vibratory motion of the whole cosmos...the higher personality of the individual."58 Feuerstein argues that the name Hiranyagarbha refers to

the womb of creation, to the first being to emerge from the unmanifest ground of the world and the matrix of all the myriad form of creation. To speak of him - or it - as the originator of Yoga makes sense when one understands that Yoga essentially consists in altered states of awareness though which the yogin tunes into nonordinary levels of reality. Hiranyagarbha is simply a symbol for the power, or grace, by which the spiritual process is initiated and revealed.59

The Vedic notion of Hiranyagarbha as the first yoga teacher betrays an apparent ambivalence to an anthropomorphic, embodied understanding of the origin of yoga.

Hiranyagarbha himself (or itself) is disembodied, formless, and ultimately transcendent.

Shiva, on the other hand, lends himself to yoga as an embodied, anthropomorphic form.

This discrepancy suggests an internal tension in the history of yoga teaching. As I mentioned earlier, tensions with regards to the history of yoga teaching have, until

itstart=0 Accessed July 31, 2009 55 Sures Chandra Banerji. Studies in Origin gnd Development of Yogg. Calcutta: Punthu Pustak, 1995. p. 24. 56 Prashant Iyengar interviewed by Alexander Medin. "Next Generation" in Namorupg. #4,2006. p. 32. 57 Eliade, 1990. p.92. 58 Swami Krishnananda. Compiled by S. Bhagyalakshmi. "Swami Krishnananda in Conversation" New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1983. p.152. 59 Feuerstein, 1998. p.285. 23 relatively recent times, mirrored similar tensions in the history of Indian religions.

Noting this tension, Tharpar has argued for a distinction in the study of Indian religions between what she calls Brahmanism (distinguished primarily by caste as well as the observation of sruti and smrti) and Shramanism (denying validity of sruti and smrti, such as Buddhist, Jaina as well as some Shaiva, Vaishnava, and Shakta sects).60 Reflected back to the development of yoga teaching, Tharpar's ideas begin to produce a hazy picture of competing visions of yoga vying for social and political power bestowed upon the

"keeper" of the yoga tradition.

Gerald Larson, in an essay on the Bhagavad Gita, has indicated a number of ways in which to approach this internal tension. Larson suggests that students of Indian religion be aware of a number of heuristic characterizations that have emerged as methodological issues in South Asian studies. While we do not need to cover all these issues, a number of them are of particular-interest to the present subject. The dichotomy between what Larson refers to as "text vs. context" is worthy of mention in this instance. While a study of the textual material in yoga would lead one to identify

Hiranyagarbha as the primal yoga teacher, the study of the contextual environs of yoga unveils a history of myths and stories of an embodied origin of the yoga tradition.

Another salient dichotomy mentioned by Larson draws upon the work of M.N. Srinivas and focuses on the distinction between "Sanskritic" vs. "Non-Sanskritic" sources.61 The process of Sanskritization is one of upward caste mobility whereby a Shramana sect may

60 Tharpar, 2002. pp.62-64. 61 Gerald James Larson. "The'Bhagavad Gita" as Cross-Cultural Process: Toward an Analysis of the Social Locations of a Religious Text." In Journol of the American Academy of Religion, Vol.43, No.4 (Dec. 1975). pp. 653-655 24 take on Brahmanical practices in order to improve its social and economic status. For example, we might hypothesize a Shramanic origin of yoga that has become, over the course of time, mutually imbricated with Brahmanism for the purposes of improving the social status of yoga teachers.

In order to pursue this internal tension, between what we might caricature as a transcendent vs. immanent origin of yoga, we need to further explore the mythological origins and their social contexts. It is in the Upanishads where the word "yoga" is first used consistently in reference to a particular set of techniques. These techniques

(asana, pranayama, meditation) are consistent with yoga practice as we understand it today. For example, in the Svetasvatara-Upanishad there are instructions given on posture, breath, and meditation:

Holding the body straight with head, back and chest in line, With senses and mind withdrawn into the heart Let a wise man on Brahman's raft cross over. All the rivers [of this life] so fraught with peril

Restraining here his breath, his movements well controlled, Let a wise man breath in through the nostrils, his breath reduced; Free from distraction, let him hold his mind in check Like a chariot harnessed to vicious steeds62

Excerpts such as the above indicate a flourishing tradition of yoga practice (and by association a flourishing tradition of yoga teaching) at the time of the Upanishads. As has been pointed out numerous times, the word Upanishad itself translates as "to sit near"63 and indicates a "secret teaching"64 of some sort. This secret teaching is

62 R.C. Zaehner, ed. And trans. Hindu Scriptures. London: Dent, 1966. p.206. 63 Feuerstein, 1998. p.169. 25 generally associated with what Eliade has referred to as the "interiorization of sacrifice."

While this development is usually credited to the brilliant minds of "innovative sages,"65 there are other, more social and political, motivations for such a development. We should not diminish the role of human innovation; however, exploring the contextual environment of such innovations can hardly be seen as diminishing or "reducing" their role.

Failing to account for the socio-political contexts in which the interiorization of sacrifice took place, such a change in consciousness is attributed to mysticism. As

Richard King has argued, this effectively not only removes mysticism from politics, but also obscures and denies the politics of mysticism.66 Just as "the separation of the mystical from the political is itself a political decision,"67 the view of the Upanishadic shift toward a view of yoga as a reflective, "interiorized" form of sacrifice as arising from mystic intuition rather than changing political contexts must have been itself a political decision. Although the view that colonial India emerged from a vast, changeless expanse of ancient history has been successfully challenged and refuted; similar imaginings are stubbornly persistent in contemporary yoga traditions. Orientalist writing on India tended toward a totalitarian view of history in which "Oriental despotism" or the Marxist

"Asiatic Mode of Production" resulted in no significant change in economic or social conditions from the ancient period right up to the colonial period.68 The extent of

64 Burley, 2000. p.30. 65 Feuerstain, 1998. p.168. 66 Richard King. Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India, gnd 'The Mystic Egst'. New York: Routledge, 1999. p.24. 67 King. p.10. 68 Romila Tharpar. "From Lineage to State" in history gnd beyond. New York: Oxford University Press, 26

change in pre-colonial India, according to the colonial imagination, was limited to an

occasional changing of empires. Such a view is perfectly compatible with the romantic

notion of innovative sages experiencing transcendent breakthroughs of consciousness

resulting in novel views of human development. A brief look at some mythological data

may elucidate just how limited such a view really is.

In the Katha Upanishads, it is neither Shiva nor Hiranyagarbha, but Yama (king of the dead) who reveals yoga. The myth is oft quoted as evidence that innovative sages were the true engine of Indian history. The myth tells of a young Brahman, Naciketas, who is displeased by his father's sacrificial gifts (dakshina) of cows and offers himself for sacrifice instead. Sent by his father to the realm of the Yama (which we must assume

means Naciketas was either banished or killed by his father) Naciketas must wait three

days for Yama to appear. Yama is pleased with the boy's patience and grants him three

boons. His first boon was to regain his life and return to his father, the second was to

receive knowledge of sacrificial fire, and the third was to receive knowledge of life after

death. Yama grants Naciketas the first two wishes, but attempts to dissuade the boy from asking for the third, offering him a number of "worldly" benefits instead. When

Naciketas remains insistent, Yama eventually reveals the knowledge of atman to him.69

Yohanan Grinshpon has recently argued that the story of Yama and Naciketas

reveals a "conflict of tradition" in which the father remains committed to the conception of Vedic sacrifice, while the son openly "challenges the very essence of his father's

2002 p.3. 69 Mircea Eliade. Potgnjali gnd Yogg. Charles Lam Markmann, trans. New York: Shocken Books, 1975. pp.128 see also Feuerstein, 1998. p.181. sacrifice." It is telling that Yama, the harbinger of death, should be the keeper of novel teachings. The establishment of new teachings necessitates the passing away of the old teachings. Beyond this, there are other revealing themes in the Yama myth. Most evidently, it is not the secret of the sacrificial fire that is withheld and only reluctantly given up by Yama, but the knowledge oi atman. This indicates a hierarchical relationship in which sacrificial rites are, by default, relegated to a secondary role. Of primary significance is one's experience and the knowledge attained therewith. The Katha

Upanishad says of this experiential understanding: "It is known under the name of yoga."71 The Yama myth is indicative of a sense of self shifting toward greater autonomy and a yoga that is freed up from Vedic ritual and orthodoxy.

The Vedic conception of yoga was a sacrificial one, in which knowledge of the correct method of sacrifice was the private domain of a priestly class. The privatization of sacrificial yoga placed a disproportionate amount of power and influence in the hands of a select few. By which processes might have that power been disrupted and redistributed? Sudhir Kakar has traced a history of the guru in which the Vedic guru was seen primarily as a guide or instructor in religious duties, whereas the Upanishadic guru

"starts to replace Vedic rituals as the path to liberation. He now changes from a knower and dweller in Brahman to being the only conduit to Brahman."72 Kakar argues that this is a natural development given the psychotherapeutic function of the guru in the role of

70 Yohahan Grinspon. Crisis gnd Knowledge: The Upgnishadic Experience gnd Storytelling. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2003. pp. 92-97. 71 Eliade, 1975. p.129. 72 Sudhir Kakar. The Anolyst gnd the Mystic. Reprint, 1991. Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1991. p. 42. 28 healer.73 Individuals learning yoga are always uncovering somatic and emotional defects.

Masterful teachers are able to utilize those defects as "grist for the mill" in the process of yoga. Old injuries and traumas are used to cultivate the capacity to heal one's self.

Stubborn tendencies are used to cultivate patience and dedication. Upon realization of the healing function of yoga, it is sensible for students to develop a deep sense of deference and gratitude toward their teachers. Over time this process lends itself to teachers becoming "guru-ized."

There is no way of knowing if the psychotherapeutic model of Kakar is sufficient to explain the novel approach to yoga of the Upanishads. A more historical approach, however, is sure to provide us with greater context and therefore a greater perspective.

In the case of yoga scholarship, even well reasoned and convincing psychological arguments rely heavily on modern psychological theory in order to re-frame textual material dating back thousands of years. Such a theoretical position relies heavily on the imagination of the theorist, rather than on careful consideration of historical factors.

Making the case for a greater understanding of political determinants, Dipesh

Chakrabarty has argued that

Current discussions on postcolonialism or postmodernism often privilege libidinal over political economies and thus overlook the global distribution of material privilege that goes some way towards determining why some voices will be heard more than others.74

Toward that end, Tharpar has suggested a number of reasons for the Upanishadic developments. The first to consider is that brahmanas and ksatriyas had a lifestyle that

73 Ibid. p.45. 74 Dipesh Chakrabarty. "Categorical Theory - A Response to Aijaz Ahmad" in Middle Egst Report, No. 187/188. Mar.-Jun., 1994. p.54. 29 could afford the time and energy required for introspection. It is therefore the interests of the brahmanas and ksatriyas that we should expect to see represented in introspective traditions such as yoga. Tharpar points out that the sacrificial ritual was the domain of the brahmanas. Non-brahmanas seeking access to the legitimating power of divine will would have to find another way. The fact of the friendly, mutually beneficial relationship between the brahmanas and ksatriyas should not blind us to the reality of class conflict and the myriad arenas in which that conflict may be played out.

Upper and lower groups or even classes treated as monolithic, belie social reality. The tensions within these should also be noticed where the evidence suggests this...The new belief (interiorization of sacrifice) was the reversal of the sacrificial relationship in that it required neither priests nor deities but only self-discipline and meditation.75

Other examples of the challenge to Vedic orthodoxy are evident in the yoga of the

Upanishads, but we should not be excessively side-tracked here. It will serve our purposes to note that thus far we have noticed an internal tension in the history of yoga teaching. The distinction between the yoga teacher of the Vedas (a ritual guide facilitating the "yoking" of the individual to the divine) and the yoga teacher of the

Upanishads (a conduit through which one might directly experience divinity) corresponds with the conflicting views on the origins of yoga (transcendent vs. immanent). Vedic orthodoxy would stand to benefit from an ultimately unknowable divine source accessed only through a select priestly class familiar with the proper mode of ritual sacrifice. Those on the margins of the orthodoxy would stand to benefit most from an embodied guru from whom they could receive a direct transmission of divinity

75 Tharpar, 2002. p.134. and thereby by-pass the rigidity of the priesthood.

3.0 THE PROBLEM OF PATANJALI

One of the most popular figures in the mythological and intellectual history of yoga is the author of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali. Norman Sjoman has referred to the name Patanjali as a sobriquet, given that his name is reflective of the legendary account of his birth. It is said that Patanjali, an incarnation of Adisesa, was supporting the Lord

Vishnu when Shiva was invited to dance his famous tandava nrtya76. The body of Vishnu began to vibrate to the rhythm of the dance and grew heavier and heavier, making

Adisesa gasp for air. When the dance ended and Vishnu grew lighter, Adishesha was amazed and insisted on learning the dance. Shortly thereafter Shiva asked Adishesha to write a commentary on grammar and so it was decided that he should incarnate on earth, becoming a svayambhu (born by the force of one's own will). Adishesha falls

(pata) to earth into the folded hands (anjali) of a woman named Gonika, who becomes his mother and guru. The story continues that Patanjali first wrote the Mahabhyasa, a commentary on Panini's classic on Sanskrit grammar. He then learned to dance and from that experience wrote a treatise on Ayurveda, and finally composed the 196 aphorisms of the Yoga Sutras.77

It is questionable, if not doubtful, that it was the same Patanjali who wrote the

Mahabhyasa, a treatise on Ayurveda, and the Yoga Sutras.7S It is of very little interest

76 The Tandgvg is Shiva's well known "dance of destruction." 77 BKS Iyengar. Astodglg Yogomglg, Vol. I. Reprint, 2001. Mumbai: Allied Publishers Ltd., 2000. pp.200- 201. 78 Eliade, 1975. p.13. see also Norman Sjoman. "On Patanjali" in Degd Birds. Calgary: Black Lotus • 31 either way. There is some indication that a historical Patanjali may have been active as an acharya in the Cidarmbaram Temple of Kashmir,79 but otherwise there is nothing but mythological data from which to access this giant figure in the history of yoga teaching.

It is worthwhile noting that while Patanjali is credited with the codification of the yoga darsana, it is almost always carefully pointed out that he is not an originator of yoga.

For example, Theos Bernard writes:

Patanjali is credited with having given us the present literary form of the Yoga doctrine in his famous treatise...he indicates that there must have been a previous account by the opening sutra which says, "Now a revised text of Yoga." According to the Yajnavalka Smrti, Hiranyagarbha was the original teacher of the Yoga.80

Bernard does not consider alternative translations of sutra 1.1, which do not indicate a revision of any kind, but rather translate "atha" as either an introductory prayer81 or take "now" as a suggestion that the reader should be "in the moment" as they read the sutras. Bernard also fails to consider the possibility of political motivations that underlie the text.

In the Adishesha myth related above, Patanjali is a teacher belonging to both a heavenly and earthly lineage (Shiva and Gonika) as well as paying homage to both Shaiva and Vaishnava traditions. Patanjali is portrayed as a somewhat ecumenical character, a synthesizer whose function is "building bridges" and creating cohesiveness within highly divergent and multi-faceted yoga traditions. It is worthwhile to mention that, according to David Gordon White, the Charaka, Patanjali, and Nagarjuna (the founders of ayurveda,

Books, 2006. p.17. 79 Ibid. p.18. 80 Theos Bernard. The Philosophicol Foundgtionsoflndio. New York: Rider and Company, 1945. p.74. 81 BKS Iyengar. Light on the Yogg Sutras of Patanjali. San Francisco: Thorsons, 1993. p.44. 32 yoga, and alchemy, respectively) are "all said to be incarnations of great serpents."82 The unification of origins is indicative of a unification of traditions. In this instance, the founders of three traditions share a common mythological heritage, inviting solidarity among the participants of these traditions. The sutras themselves contain terminology from a variety of Indian traditions, which is itself suggestive of a synthetic vision.

There have been, and continue to be, multiple voices and divergent interests making use of the Sutras. An interesting example of these multiple voices has been is described by Grinshpon in his essay on "tokens of conservatism" in Vyasa's bhashya

(commentary) on the Sutras. Grinshpon's analysis unveils a number of instances in which the "revolutionary potential" of the Sutras is neutralized or otherwise banalized in order to accommodate the position of a scholar of Vedic orthodoxy.83

Turning to the Sutras themselves, one is struck by the apparent lack of indication regarding instruction in yoga. Patanjali has a wide embrace in terms of yoga philosophy and practice, and yet there is but one mention of a guru, and it refers to Isvara (God) as guru. While the Sutras seem anywhere from ambivalent to pessimistic on the prospects for an embodied, human guru, the mythology of Patanjali is replete with gurus, teachers, and disciples. For example, it is said that Patanjali himself taught yoga from behind a screen to thousands of students. When one of those students peeked behind the screen, all of them were immediately turned to ashes. Only one student, who did not

82 David Gordon White. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. p.216. 83 Yohanan Grinshpon. "Yogic Revolution and Tokens of Conservatism in Vyasa-Yoga" \n Journal of Indian Philosophy. 25: 1997. pp.129-138 33 attend class that day, survived and was able to pass along the teachings of Patanjali.

Modern scholarship, too, seems to take the guru for granted in the study of "classical yoga."

Ian Whicher, who has taken the position that the Yoga Sutras can be accepted

"on its own authority as a complete whole,"85 writes:

It is reasonable to assume that Patanjali, as head of a school of Yoga, was an active preceptor or guru and, judging from the Yoga Sutra, a great authority of Yoga whose approach was sympathetic toward philosophical inquiry and exposition. It would not seem unlikely that Patanjali taught a community of disciples (sisyas) devoted to the study and practice of Yoga. Thus, it would follow that there must have been adherents to Patanjali's school who carried on the tradition in the formal context of a particular teaching lineage (pa ram para).86

I see no reason why this should be a reasonable assumption, especially if we make the text of the Yoga Sutras our primary reference on the matter. There is not a single reference to a teaching tradition (parampara) within the Sutras. The sutra that does mention a guru (1.26) can be read a number of ways. The sutra itself reads

purvesam-api guruh kalena-anavacchedat87

An example of a typical translation of the sutra reads like this:

The teacher of former teachers, because with him

there is no limitation by time (to his omnipotence).88

There are similar references to Isvara being the "guru of the sages,"89 the "teacher of the

84 Iyengar, 2000. p.202. 85 Whicher, 1998. p.45. 86 Ibid, pp.43 87 Feuerstein, 1979. pp.43 88 Swami Hariharananda Aranya. P.N. Mukerji, trans. Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983. pp.62 89 Eliade, 1975. pp.89 34 ancients"90 or "Guru even of the earlier ones."91 All of these translations read the guru- sisya parampara into the sutra. The above examples betray an eagerness to terminate the discussion that Patanjali opens in sutra 1.26. Given the recognition of guru as a disembodied purusa, it is reasonable to assume that Patanjali saw a limited role for embodied gurus in the teaching of yoga.

Patanjali's position seems at odds with the trend of increasing "guru-ization" of yoga teaching from the Vedic to Upanishadic periods. This trend continued and intensified over the course of time (as we shall see shortly), leaving the Yoga Sutras in an odd position. As Kakar has argued, from the Vedic period onward there is evidence of an

"ever-increasing deification of the guru."92 How are we to reconcile the "guru-less" yoga of Patanjali with this trend?

There are a number of crucial ideological and social factors to consider. We cannot be certain of the date of the Yoga Sutras,93 but given the use of Buddhist and Jain terminology94 it seems safe to place the Sutras in a post-Buddhist context. The development of Buddhism and Jainism did not occur in a historical vacuum. There were massive social and economic developments occurring in tandem with the religious developments of the time. Burton Stein has argued that the mid-first millennium BCE saw fundamental changes that resulted from conflicting visions of society. These

90 Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli and Charles Moore. A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1957. pp.459 91 Banerji, Sures, 1995. pp.131 92 Kakar, 1991. p.44. 93 The estimates range from the tenth century BCE (Pandit N. Bhasyacharya. The Age of Patanjali. Madras: Theosophical Publishing house, 1915. p.33) to the fouth century CE (Bernard. 1945. p.72.). Contemporary scholars seem to have found a rough agreement on the second century CE. (Feuerstein, 1979. pp.3) 94 Whicher, 1998. p.47 • 35

conflicts ultimately resolved themselves in the "distinctive qualities of the Gupta age"

defined by a soteriology in which "salvation was not attained through the ritual action of

the sacrifice, but in a variety of ways, including special knowledge (jnana), as in early

Buddhism and Jainism.95 Lest we find ourselves in a lengthy sidebar on Indian history, it

should be sufficient to note that this was a period of significant volatility and social

disunion.

The synthetic vision of the Yoga Sutras seems to be an integrative effort on the

part of Patanjali. This integral vision is, no doubt, revolutionary to the core. A

fascinating example is found in sutras 1.6 and 1.7, in which Patanjali describes the

pramanas (valid cognition), including agama (sacred tradition), among the five vrttis

(fluctuations of consciousness) to be eradicated by yogic practice. While this may seem

like a simple epistemological clarification, the implications of this sutra for the authority

of the Vedas are dramatic. In the words of Yohanan Grinshpon,

...the inclusion of sacred tradition as a mind-fluctuation on the same par as others such as "wrong cognition" or "empty cognition" could express a radical mystico-yogic orientation on Patanjali's part. Within such an orientation, the tension between yogic meditation and the Veda as means of knowledge would become impossible to resolve.96

Grinshpon goes on to detail the way in which Vyasa's bhashya co-opts Patanjali's radical

orientation, making yogic practice a method of reinforcing Vedic truths.

What is more interesting, for our purposes, is the way in which later

commentators have taken their lead from Vyasa and presented the Sutras as an

orthodox text in line with the Vedas. Following Vyasa, Iyengar comments that the

95 Burton Stein. A History of India. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1998. p.80. 96 Grinshpon, 1997. p.134. personal experience of the yogin should be "seen to correspond to traditional or scriptural wisdom."97 Isherwood follows suit in stating that scriptural knowledge is to be

"verified" by yoga practice.98 Another common technique is to avoid the fact that pramana, as indicated by Patanjali in sutra 1.12, is to be nirodhah (restricted or eliminated) and focus instead on elucidating the various "proofs" of valid cognition. The fact remains that, despite the protestations and co-opting efforts of various commentators, the Yoga Sutras present a clear challenge to any notion of yoga being an exclusively Brahmana practice.

Another example is found in sutra 1.33 which mentions maitri (friendliness) and karuna (compassion), important concepts in the Buddhist tradition. In his translation and commentary, Feuerstein refers to these being a "favorite among buddhist monks."99

In contrast, BKS Iyengar's translation makes no reference whatever to a possible

Buddhist connection or influence in this sutra.100 The Vedantist commentary of

Christopher Isherwood and Swami Prabhavananda actually refers to the Christian tradition in explanation of this sutra.101 Also of note is the use of the term "kaivalya" which is clearly drawn from Jain traditions, and yet figures minimally in the voluminous literature on Patanjali.102 It is tempting visualize Patanjali as a Shramana radical attempting to win yoga back from the Vedic orthodoxy, however there is no reason to

97 Iyengar, 1993. p.53. 98 Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, How to Know God. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1983. p.25. 99 Georg Feuerstein. The Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 1979. pp.47-8 100 Iyengar, 1993. p. 81. 101 Ishwerwood, 1983. p. 67. 102 Christopher Chappie and Yogi Ananda Viraj. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: An Analysis of the Sanskrit with Accompanying English Translation. Delhi: Satguru Publications, 1990. p.12. ' 37 suspect that that is the case. It is more likely that the blending of Shramana and

Brahmana elements in the sutras resulted from a "shared ascetic subculture"103 in which yoga developed.

The yogic synthesis of Patanjali seems to favour a distinctly non-sectarian resolution of the extant inter/intra traditional tensions at the time. The expansion of state power resulted in the diffusion of Brahmanic yogic practice as well as the intermingling of said practice with the multi-faceted heterodox yogic practices in the hinterland areas. Rather than an "all-india" Sanskritized yoga practice with the Vedas at the center, the Sutras present a vision of practice that privileges yogic experience above all else. The practicing yogin, whether Brahmanic or Sramanic, become the center of their own yogic universe in a form of radical subjectivity that essentially denies the capacity of any external source of authority to impinge upon the practice. The absence of an embodied guru in the Sutras is an example par excellence of the elevation of yogic experience. It is not just commentators but also later academics that project the guru into the Sutras.

Given the centrality of the Sutras as an authoritative text on yoga it should not come as a surprise that meaning is contested, and often contorted, in order to serve the interests of the commentators. Perhaps another example will suffice so that we need not dwell excessively on this point. Sutra 2.46 reads "sthira-sukham-asanam," which can be translated roughly as "the posture [should be] steady and comfortable."104 The sutra, nor the two sutras on asana which follow, gives any precise details or instruction on the

103 Samuel, pp.221-222. 104 Feuerstein, 1979. p.90. 38 performance of asanas. Vyasa's bhashya includes the names of eleven postures, but no instruction on their performance.105 Eliade has argued that the Sutras give no instruction on postures because "asana is learned from a guru."106 The commentary given by contemporary yoga teacher TKV Desikachar follows a similar logic.107 While

Eliade's suggestion is by no means unreasonable, as in the case with Whicher's assumption that Patanjali himself was a guru, I see no convincing evidence to accept this position. Norman Sjoman has recently made an interesting argument on the matter:

Asanas change with time, with the body. There is no formula or technique that can be taught in lineal fashion that has as its aim mimicry of particular posturings that has any sense or meaning whatsoever. Note that the definition of asana given by Patanjali seizes on a vital description that could effectively cover any movement. Tradition must be dynamic in order to survive.108

We need not paint Patanjali with such broad strokes as "pro-guru" or "anti-guru;" such a stance would neglect the subtleties that make yoga such an interesting tradition. Sutra

2.46 suggests that asana is a broad category which need not be limited to particular expressions such as the eleven postures listed by Vyasa or the 84 postures listed in the

Hathayoga Pradipika. The sutra is dismissive of any guru or expert who claims to assert what is and what is not an asana in the yoga tradition. Suffice to say, the Yoga Sutras do not cast the guru as central to yoga practice. It is yoga practice itself which takes center stage.

If we reconsider the tensions between transcendent and immanent origins of yoga discussed in the last section, an interesting picture emerges in relation to the Yoga

105 Aryana, 1983. p.228. 106 Eliade, 1990. p.53. 107 T.K.V. Desikachar. Patanjali's Yogasutra CD-ROM. Chennai: Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, 2000. 108 Norman Sjoman and H.V. Dattatreya. Yoga Touchstone. Calgary: Black Lotus Books, 2004. p.24. • 39

Sutras. A disembodied source of yogic knowledge, inaccessible but through a highly specialized class of priests provides legitimating power to both the priests themselves and the states that patronize them. With the diffusion of yogic knowledge came the eventual re-casting and re-formulation of yogic knowledge in the form of the Sutras.

Patanjali's synthetic vision essentially under-cut the ideological structure of state power by de-emphasizing the role of scriptural authority. It is at this point that yoga is conveniently integrated as an orthodox darsana, thus stripping yoga of its revolutionary potential. This process, however, was never accomplished in full - there has always been yogins on the margins of legitimacy. It is toward these margins that this thesis now turns. The formation and expansion of state systems ushered yoga to the margins and simultaneously collapsed yogic experience into a method of verifying the veracity of

Vedic wisdom. In the medieval period the decentralization of state powers created space for a number of developments in the history of yoga teachings. The rise of tantric, alchemical, and hathayogic traditions changed not only teaching traditions at the time, but made lasting contributions to the way in which we understand instruction in yoga to this day.

4.0 SUBMISSION AND DEIFICATION IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

While we cannot read The Yoga Sutras as an inherently revolutionary text, there is a sympathetic tone in the Sutras toward the Shramanic traditions. It is possible that

Patanjali was a "Sanskritizing" agent attempting to co-opt Sramanic yoga practices and return them to the fold of orthodox Brahmanic yoga. Evidence for this position can be 40 found in the theistic and moralistic tendencies in the Sutras.109 I am inclined to opt for a different position, given efforts of later commentators (Vyasa, Bhoja, Vacaspati Mishra, and Vijnana Bhiksu) to overlook the more radical aspects of Patanjali and, perhaps more

interestingly, to keep themselves and their commentaries "aloof from the Tantric current of thought" which made major contributions to yoga by the time of these commentaries.110

The concern for maintaining the integrity of "classical" yoga by excluding or minimizing references to esoteric-somatic yoga practice (ie. theories involving cakras and kundalini) betrays an allegiance to a conception of yoga akin to that portrayed in the

Bhagavad Gita. The Gita has been connected with the early emergence of bhakti traditions that correspond to the appearance of feudalism in early medieval India.

Prominent among theorists making such arguments is Kosambi, who has argued that

Contrary to the accepted upper-class Hindu dogma...the document plays no part in forming the social consciousness of the lower classes; its real importance arose with the feudal period, which emphasized personal devotion.111

The Bhagavad-Gita is not alone in the promotion of devotion as the highest form of

religious expression in the early medieval period. Puranic literature of approximately the same period proffered adoration of Gods and Goddesses and eventually became foundational in a new form of worship in which "devotion rather than ritual mastery"

becomes the touchstone of religiosity.112

109 See sutra 1:23 on surrender to God (Isvara Prgnidhgnat vg) and sutra 2:31 on the ygmgs (moral injunctions) universal applicability 110 Varenne, 1976. p.181. 111 Kosambi, 1956. p.128. 112 Stein, 1998. p.98. • 41

Rather than getting ourselves wound up in a lengthy base-superstructure debate

over the complex relationship of Indian feudalism and devotion, our time will be better

served focusing on elements of that relationship that relate directly to yoga and yoga

teaching. A section of the Skanda-Purana, most often published as an independent text

called the Guru-Gita, is dedicated to elucidation of devotion to a living guru.113 The

Guru-Gita is the source of many of the truisms surrounding gurus that are near to the

lips of every guru and disciple in India. In my interview with Dr. Karandikar of the Kabir

Baug in Pune, he responded to my inquiry about the nature of the guru with a mantra taken from the Guru-Gita:

Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Mahesvara Guru Sakshat Param Brahma Guru is Brahma. Guru is Vishnu. Guru is Mahesvara. Guru alone is verily the Supreme Brahman. Therefore prostrations to him (the Guru).114

The Guru-Gita is also the source of the popular etymological explanation of the guru,

namely that the syllable "gu" represents darkness and the syllable "ru" represents the

remover of darkness. Less popular is the etymology of "gu" denoting the guru being

above the gunas and "ru" denoting being beyond forms (rupa).115 The Guru-Gita is also the source of the popular expression: "when God is angry with you the guru can save you, but when the guru is angry nobody can save you."116 This is perhaps the clearest

example of the divinization of the guru in all the textual materials we have surveyed thus far. It is also an indication of the changing nature of yoga teaching, as evidenced by the

113 Feuerstein, 1998. p.21. 114 Swami Narayanananda, trans. Sri Guru Gitg. Tehri-Garwal, Uttaranchal: The Divine Life Society, 2005. p.36. 115 Ibid. p.31. 116 Ibid. p.48. 42 following excerpt from the Guru Gita:

Neither those who perform great sacrifices, nor Yogins, nor those who practise severe austerities are liberated without the true knowledge of Guru-Tattva.117

This actually gives us an abbreviated history of yoga teachers - from emphasis on ritual

expertise, to esoteric self-mastery, to fully realized "god-men." The divinization of the

guru is a challenge to the efficacy of yogic practice. Self-mastery through techniques of yoga is not enough. According to the Puranic, medieval re-formulation of yoga, one

requires the grace of the guru for the effective practice of yoga.

The increasing "guru-ization" of yoga is not a process that can be viewed in

isolation from other processes occurring at the same time. Burton Stein has identified a

number of defining characteristics of the early medieval period that correspond with the

consolidation of the guru's power. Among these characteristics are the process of

regionalization and the impact of Sankara.118 The process of regionalization was

instigated by the "widespread displacement of pastoral by agrarian economies, and less

stratified societies by more hierarchical ones."119 This resulted in the establishment of

smaller, relatively self-sufficient villages and kingdoms with fluid boundaries defined

more by ideological coincidence than by physical borders. The medieval period saw a

rapid "turn-over" of political authorities, which would have put the legitimacy of those

authorities at a premium. Royal patronage of temples (and, by extension, of the gurus

connected to the temple) would have provided some of the much needed legitimacy.120

117 Ibid. p.59. 118 Stein, 1998. p.121-125. 119 Ibid, p.121. 120 Romila Tharpar. "Cultural Transaction and Early India: Tradition and Patronage" in history gnd beyond. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. pp.26-34 43

The royal patronage of yoga teachers, while not inclusive in that certainly many yoga teachers never had such patronage, continued right up to the time of independence at

least in Mysore where the Wodeyar family provided royal patronage to T.

Krishnamarcharya at the Mysore Palace (which was to become the birthplace of

"modern" yoga). The intimacy of gurus and the royal families could only have increased the power of the guru.

The impact of Sankara, although thoroughly attested within both traditional and

academic sources, can hardly be overstated. The advaita-vedanta (non-dualism) of

Sankara has become the theological mainstay of Hindu orthodoxy, and more importantly

much of what is packaged as "yoga" for a western audience is in fact a form of vedanta

(we will return to this fact in a discussion of Vivekananda and yoga "coming west"). The

establishment of the matha system (borrowed from the Buddhists) and the lineage of

Sankaracharyas provided a means for the maintenance of religious authority. The

stability and popularity of the "Hindu resurgence" in the medieval period, characterized

by an intellectual "return to the ancient Upanishads" as well as a popular flourishing of bhakti devotionalism, provided a further legitimacy to yoga teachers willing to tow the

vedantic line. Both the "Hindu resurgence" and regionalization of state power played a

role in the gradual deification of the guru. 44

5.0 TANTRIC AND ALCHEMICAL CURRENTS

There is strong evidence that, even in the "classical" yoga of Patanjali, of an

alchemical influence. Sutra 4.1 states that through the use of herbs (osadhi) one can

attain paranormal powers (siddhi)}21 Interestingly, Vyasa glosses the osadhi as

rasayana122 - the Ayurvedic-alchemical techniques associated with restoring health

through herbal remedies.123 In the Vibhuti Pada of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali lists the

various siddhis available to the yogin. A similar list is found in a text attributed to

Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitasastra, circa 4th century CE) which includes siddhis.

Nagarjuna also mentions that "one can transform substances by herbs."124 There are

other, less obvious, references to alchemical practice peppered throughout the sutras.

The tantric ideal of the "adamantine body" is reflected in sutras 3.44 to 3.46 in which

Patanjali reports that through meditation on the body one develops a "perfected body"

(kaya-sampat).125 It should come as no surprise that there are Tantric currents running

through the Yoga Sutras, given that Tantrism is a "pan-Indian movement...assimilated by

all the great Indian religions and by all the 'sectarian' schools."126

Returning to the proposition put forward by Kakar, the theological and ideological

influence of Tantrism eventually superceded the Upanishadic conception of the guru as a

conduit to Brahman with the conception of the guru as the very embodiment of

Brahman. This can be seen as, rather than something separate, a historically and

121 Feuerstein, 1979. pp.125-6. 122 White, pp.57-58. 123 Ibid, pp.13-14. 124 Eliade, 1958. p.278. 125 Feuerstein, 1979. p.118. 126 Eliade, 1958. p.200. 45 structurally integrated project given what we discussed earlier as the influence of bhakti in yoga traditions. The increasing devotionalism evident in the early medieval period typically associated with the rise of bhakti can be viewed as something of a forerunner to the increasing instance of guru-worship (guru-bhakti) associated with the "spread of the Tantric cults around 1000 A.D.".127 In the words of Kakar, "the combined forces of bhakti and tantra pushed toward an ever-increasing deification of the guru, a massive idealization of his mystery and power."128

Kakar's model is a convincing, albeit partial, one that examines the guru-disciple relationship from a primarily psychotherapeutic perspective. As a result, we are left with what seems to be a perfectly logical succession of increasing identification of one's own liberation with that of the embodied guru. This is, for Kakar, a fundamental psychotherapeutic function in which the guru represents the enlivened spiritual potential of the disciple - a potential which can be more easily achieved in the presence of this representative force.

Gurus, gurus have always emphasized, are not human beings, not objects in the inelegant language of psychoanalysis, but functions. They are the power of grace in spiritual terms and intense selfobject experiences in the language of self psychology.129

There are a number of problems with Kakar's argument. For instance, he argues that the danger of the guru role lies not in the corrupting influence of power, but in the "massive parental projections which the guru must process internally."130 As a result, Kakar

127 Kakar, 1991. p.43. 128 Ibid. p.44. 129 Ibid, pp.55-56. 130 Ibid. p.63. actually comes off as a guru-apologist, at times even suggesting that the numerous

instances of sexual abuse have been overblown and generally the fault of the disciple.

He then goes on to suggest that sexual intimacy with disciples may actually be

considered a means to receiving guru-kripa (grace) in which

Substances which have been in intimate contact with the guru's body are powerful agents of inner change when ingested by the devotee...the most powerful transforming substance would be the guru's 'purest' and innermost essence - his semen.131

Kakar's mention of semen as a transformative essence is clearly indicative of a

tantric orientation. This is not a purely sexual association but more precisely a somatic

one. The basis of tantric revelation is in the embodied nature of spiritual experience

and, by association, the embodied nature of spiritual instruction. This is in stark contrast

to the mythical and textual references to instruction we have encountered thus far. Yoga

teachers, up to the time of the Tantras, have been guides, conduits, sources of grace but

not Gods. The proposition of a human embodiment of the divine involved a radical

transfiguration of spiritual practice and spiritual instruction. From the explicitly

disembodied instruction of Hiranyagarbha, the erotic-ascetic tension demonstrated by

Shiva, the other-worldly Yama, and the time-transcending nature of Patanjali's Isvara, up to the tantric period there was no tradition of a yoga teacher as an embodiment of God.

The tantric traditions...accept the narrative to a life as a journey but reinterpret or even reject the vedic configuring of this journey. They often reject that the goal of ultimate good must be determined within the boundaries of vedic social values and break the link between the highest good for a life and an identity determined by brahmanical discourse and power...many tantric representations of the body serve to disrupt that sense of vedic identity.132

131 Ibid. p.63. 132 Flood, 2006. p.37. 47

The Vedic identity, particularly regarding the "Vedic body" has been characterized

by Brian K. Smith as one based on a series of homological associations in which

everything in the natural world is implicitly divided into three categories (three Vedas, three worlds, three social classes, etc.). This persuasive sense of identity pervades all

natural, social, and supernatural worlds such that the "prestige of symmetry" provides a

mutually reinforcing, naturally occurring inherent-ness of the hierarchical structure

present in all three categories.133 The Vedic understanding of the body, therefore, is

informed by one's somatic association with the divine order of the universe. The body of the Brahman is, by its nature, different than the body of the Kshatriya, the Vaishya, and the Shudra. It follows that essentially different bodies will learn essentially different yogas.

The Vedic body is, in some sense, transcended or deconstructed by initiation into

a tantric tradition. The transformative nature of tantric initiation is sometimes claimed to eradicate caste altogether.134 It should come as no surprise, then, that the tantric

guru is an extremely powerful person. It becomes increasingly clear that one must resist the temptation to relate the rising importance of the guru with an increasing

conservatism in yoga traditions. The centralization of authority within a guru-parampara

could just as easily be in the service of radical transformation as it could orthodox

conservatism. The important point is ultimately not in formulating a value-judgment in

133 Brian K. Smith. Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Vgrng System gnd the Origins ofCoste. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. p. 209. 134 Flood, p.131. terms of whether or not we like gurus, but rather in discovering the operative dynamics that have informed the history of yoga teaching.

We should not produce an oversimplified view that Brahmanic yoga teaching was body-negative and Shramanicyoga teaching was body-positive; however there is little doubt that the tantric influence raised the status and importance of the human body to new heights. It should be noted that the existence of an asanas and pranayamas in pre- tantric, Brahmanic traditions speaks for the recognition that the body carries with it the atman and should therefore be kept healthy, and free from polluting influences.135

However, tantric and alchemical techniques go much further than maintenance of the human organism in the service of the divine. Both tantra and alchemy propose a conception of the body as the specific site of liberation. As such, an enormous body of literature developed around charting the subtle anatomy of this site. This literature has formed the basis for what has become known as hathayoga. It is perfectly sensible that

Tantrism developed in the hinterland of the medieval Indian kingdoms, particularly in the Northwest and in Western Bengal, for these were the least "Sanskritized" regions that would have been most influenced by Shramanic traditions.

The Vedic homological system of association that links the varnas with both the natural and supernatural orders of the universe is incorporated but radically de-stratified in the Tantras and alchemical works. Mircea Eliade has recognized this fact:

Once the process of interiorization had led men to expect spiritual results from rites and physiological operations, it followed logically that similar results could be obtained by interiorizing operations performed on "matter"; in a certain spiritual condition, communication between the different cosmic levels became

135 Eliade, 1958. p.201. 49

possible.136 What Eliade did not recognize was the radical potential, the homological revolution, of communication between the different cosmic levels. Rather than a highly stratified system into which one is born and practices from, we have a progressive system into which one may be initiated in order to transform oneself into an ever subtle and potent nature. Opening lines of "communication between cosmic levels" provides an associated opening between social levels. This development lends itself to a kind of

"inner brahminism" by which access to wisdom, divinity, and the social capital that arises from access to said resources is available to all regardless of one's social position at birth. Quoting from the Kula-Arnava-Tantra, Georg Feuerstein writes that the ultimate purpose of hathayoga is enlightenment within a divinized human body:

The body is the abode of God, 0 Goddess. The psyche (jiva) is God Sada-Shiva. One should abandon the offering-remains of ignorance'; one should worship with the thought "I am He."137

The highly interiorized, transformational hathayoga hierarchies of subtle anatomy are revolutionary by nature.

6.0 MATSEYENDRA, GORAKSHA, AND HATHAYOGA

The individuals credited with the development of the subtle anatomy that characterizes hathayoga are Matseyendra and Goraksha. Both these names appear a number of times in the medieval lists of Siddhas (adepts) that flourished from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries. These lists represent the guru-paramparas through

136 Eliade, 1958. p.285. 137 Feuerstein, 1998. p.517. 50 which the increasingly complex, interiorized yogic practices were transmitted.138 It is these Siddhas, Matseyendra and Goraksha being among them, who are typically regarded as the originators of hathayoga.139 It is reasonable to expect some indication of the revolutionary nature of the subtle anatomy in the mythological and textual material surrounding these two individuals.

One of the earliest myths concerning Matseyendra actually refers to him by a different name (also found in the Siddha lists), Macchaghna (killer of fishes).140 The name "killer of fishes" is of particular interest, because it indicates that this great guru was a fisherman rather than a priest. Another demarcation of Matseyendra is matsyodara (fish belly), indicative of a hathayoga pranayama involving the diaphragmatic retention of breath (kumbhaka). Mythology tells us that Goraksha was the student of Matseyendra. David Gordon White retells a story in which Matseyendra is enslaved by the queen of an empire in which men are barred entrance. Upon being informed that his guru is only days from death (presumable due to loss of semen),

Goraksha hatches a plan to free Matseyendra from Kadali (the kingdom of women).

Goraksha saves his guru from this kingdom of women by disguising himself as a woman and entering the court as a singer. In order to "shock Matseyendra back into yogic consciousness" Goraksha kills and skins his son (fathered while in the kingdom of women), only to revive him 108 times over. Sufficiently re-awakened to his true nature,

138 White, p.78. 139 Burley, p.15. 140 White, pp.223-4. 51

Matseyendra is then led out of the kingdom by Goraksha.141

The myth is unequivocal in its distaste for women. The myth actually ends with

Goraksha transforming all the women in the kingdom into bats.142 Keeping the company of women is portrayed as a dangerous venture, one which is potentially deadly. What is worse, the victim of these deadly creatures is likely to not even be aware of their own sad fate, as they will be lost in the illusory swoon of their own sexual indulgence. The

misogynist nature of the myth is actually somewhat surprising, given the number of

"householder Naths" (married men and women) in India.143 The myth effectively demonstrates the dangers of life as a householder, the value of renunciation, as well as the often contradictory nature of the renunciate. Goraksha, we should not forget, had to become a woman in order to save his guru from women.144

It is crucial to keep in mind that many of the tantric texts of that time were written in an "intentional language"145 in which homology and double meanings are frequently used as a means to prevent outsiders from gaining access to secret

knowledge. As we shall see, this language may be considered simply as an evocative form of prose or, more likely, as an effort to cloak the hathayoga practices in secrecy in order to maintain their efficacy. For example, while Kadali is characterized as a place of sensual pleasures it is also a kingdom. That is to say, we can view the realm of women as a political, rather than a sexual, entity. Given this slightly different perspective, one

141 White, pp.236-7. 142 White, p.237. 143 Feuerstein,1998. p.513. 144 Daniel Gold and Ann Grodzins Gold. "The Fate of the Householder Nath" in History of Religions, Vol.24, No.2, (Nov., 1984). p.113. 145 Eliade, 1958. pp.249-254. 52

might view the myth as exemplifying the dangers of royal patronage. A "kingdom of

women" may simply represent the overwhelming nature of the householder lifestyle.

Kadali may be considered as a symbol for prakrti, "the foundation for material

creation."146 Following this interpretation, Goraksha had to temporarily engage with the

"material" world in order to re-introduce Matseyendra to his purusha, or essential

nature. What is most fascinating is that the disciple is able to maintain identification

with his purusha more so than the guru. Further, the disciple actually becomes the guru to his guru. White has argued that tantric initiation and transmission is based upon this

principle of "the alternation of generations" in which the disciple is every bit as

i 147

important as the guru.

Another crucial element in the above myth is the changing nature of hathayoga

evident in the passing of the lineage from Matseyendra to Goraksha. Matseyendra,

portrayed as being insufficiently stoic to resist the temptation of women, readily

incorporated women into the Kaula practice. This erotic form of practice was central to

Matseyendra, and was a requirement for those initiated into the Yogini Kaula. According to Flood, "the feminine is given precedence, and women are to be worshipped."148

Without detailing the particular practices, which center on "human sexual fluids and their symbolic correlates,"149 we may simply note that these practices are impossible without women. Goraksha, on the other hand, effectively removed erotic mysticism in favour of hathayoga techniques laid out in his texts (the Goraksha Samhita, in

146 Flood, p.103. 147 White, p.286. 148 Flood, p.166. 149 White, p.138. 53 particular). White notes that the myth of Goraksha saving Matseyendra is a

"narrativization of the reforms Goraksha effected within the (Nath) Siddha tradition."150

Hathayoga, then, emerges from what amounts to an internalization of tantric ritual. Rather than a physical merger of male and female sexual fluids, Goraksha proposes a mystical form of merger in which masculine and feminine energies are yoked within the body of a single yogin. From the Goraksa-Paddhati:

The rajas is located at the navel and resembles a red liquid. The bindu is located at the place of the moon [i.e., at the palate]. Their union is difficult to achieve.151

Rajas is later identified as Shakti and bindu as Shiva(in the same stanza identified as the sun and the moon, respectively).152 This is certainly a familiar theme for most modern practitioners of hathayoga.

The ideas presented in the Goraksha-Samhita and Goraksha-Paddhati are recapitulated and made more famous in the fifteenth century text, the Hathayoga

Pradipika (HYP). This text is one of a number of hathayoga texts dating between the fourteenth and eighteenth century. The HYP acknowledges Shiva as the origin of yoga, and includes a genealogical list of Siddhas who have "conquered death through the power of Hatha Yoga." Interestingly, the genealogy given by the HYP does not acknowledge Matseyendra as the guru of Goraksha, but a figure called Mina.153

Feuerstein argues that Matseyendra and Mina is one and the same person.154 This

150 White, p.139 151 Translated in Feuerstein, 1998. p.542 152 Ibid. 153 Svatmarama. Brian Dana Akers, trans. The Hatha Yoga Pradipikg. Delhi: New Age Books, 2002. pp.l- 2 154 Feuerstein, 1998. p.511 54 seems unlikely, given that the historical Goraksha most likely lived around the thirteenth

century while Matseyendra lived no later than the tenth century.155 While there are

many similarities between the Goraksha-Paddhati and the HYP,156 there are some crucial

differences as well.

Most interesting for our purposes, the Goraksha-Paddhati includes a devotion at the beginning to "the blessed teacher, the supreme bliss (parama-ananda) who is an

embodiment of the innate bliss (sva-ananda),"157 however there is no mention that the

reader should consult a guru. The HYP, on the other hand, is replete with instructions that "one should earnestly practice Yoga as taught by one's guru."158 The Goraksha-

Paddhati comments on the awakening of kundalini thus\y:

Just as one forcibly opens a door with a key, so the yogin should break open the door to liberation by means of the kundalini.159

Whereas the HYP instructs that

All lotuses and knots are split open when the sleeping kundalini is awakened by the grace of guru.160

Both quotes indicate that knowledge of subtle anatomy is fundamental in the medieval

period of yoga teaching. We are posed with a question arising from the above

quotations: how does the student of yoga cultivate an understanding of this anatomy?

Goraksha seems to suggest a "by whatever means necessary" approach, while the

selection from the HYP is indicative that the only means is a guru.

155 White, p. 467. 156 The instructions for many of the gsgngs and mudrgs are nearly identical. 157 Feuerstein, 1998. p.532. 158 Svatmarama, p.6. 159 Feuerstein, 1998. p.539. 160 Svatmarama, p.52. 55

This is in no way a suggestion that the Natha-yoga of Goraksha is a guru-less yoga. It simply appears as though, from the textual evidence, there is not the emphatic insistence on the presence of the guru that we find in the HYP. This may have been because the instruction of the guru was seen as self-evident and not requiring a mention. A consistent guru-parampara must have been a necessity in order to sustain the knowledge of this increasing sophisticated subtle anatomy. Knowledge of subtle anatomy gives the ability to traverse that anatomy in such a way that it leads to ever more subtle layers of consciousness, eventually leading to self-realization. This is a double-edged sword. Maintaining an experientially-oriented tradition of subtle anatomy requires a guru-parampara, however the successful initiation students into said tradition would effectively eliminate the teacher-student distinction.

Students of Natha-yoga would, as demonstrated in the Goraksa-Paddhati, still have a measure of veneration and respect for their teachers.

The yogin, [seated in] the bound lotus posture and saluting the teacher and Siva, should practice breath control in solitude [ekanta]...161

Note that they should salute the teacher, but not worship the guru. This is a yoga teaching tradition a world apart from that of the Guru-Gita. Observe the following stanza from the Guru-Gita:

Prostrations to the Guru, who is Sambhu, the cause of the world, the bridge to cross the ocean of Samsara and the source of all knowledge and sciences.162

Compare that with the following from the Goraksha-Paddhati:

161 Feuerstein, 1998. P.547. 162 Narayanananda, p.47. 56

Contemplating Shambhu, who is stationed in the space (askasha) of the heart and is brilliant like the fierce sun, and maintaining the gaze at the tip of the nose, he assumes the form of the absolute (Brahman).163

The internalization of practices evident in the development of the yoga teachings of

Goraksha extend all the way to the internalization of the teacher itself. This is the first indication of a yoga tradition of the "inner teacher." The myth of Goraksha and

Matseyendra is perhaps a demonstration of the "rise" of the disciple up to and beyond that of the guru, such that the guru actually becomes unnecessary.

This is made explicit in a later hathayoga text, the Shiva Samhita. The Shiva

Samhita is certainly not full of anti-guru tendencies. To the contrary, it is taught that

Only the knowledge imparted by a Guru, through his lips, is powerful and useful; otherwise it becomes fruitless, weak, and very painful.164

However, it is acknowledged that at some point the usefulness of the guru will be exhausted. After becoming competent in yoga practice,

Here end all the teachings of the Guru, (they can help the student no further). Henceforth he must help himself, they can no more increase his reason or power, henceforth by the mere force of this own practice he gain the Gnosis.165

Regarding why the HYP, a text clearly inspired by the yoga of the Nath Siddhas, would be more emphatic in its insistence on the guru is unclear. It is possible that the stanzas referring to obtaining instruction from a guru were interpolated into the text at some point as the popularity of the text increased.

It is also possible that the HYP was intended for a more popular audience, one in which it was not self-evident that the guru was a necessary preliminary step to be later

163 Feuerstein, 1998. p.554. 164 Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra Vasu, trans. The ShivaSamhita. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1984. p.23. 165 Ibid. p.82. 57 transcended altogether. An interesting possibility arises from stanzas 78-79 in the chapter on mudras that read

There is a divine act that tricks the mouth of the sun. It is learned from a guru's instruction, not from crores of explications of the Shastras. Navel above, palate below, sun above, moon below - this is called Viparitakarani. It is obtainted from a guru's instruction.166

This is an instruction on either shirsasana (headstand) or sarvangasana (shoulderstand).

One notes the internalized tantric "intentional language" evident in the stanzas. The

"mouth of the sun" must refer to the opening into the abdominal area where the feminine rajas resides. By placing the feminine above the masculine (bindu) one may invert (viparita) the usual flow of energy in which the bindu travels downward toward the rajas, only to be consumed in the solar fire. The stanzas are revealing in their self- consciousness. The few hundred years of pre-existing hathayoga texts with instructional elements in asana, pranayama, and whatnot may have been encouraging readers of these texts taking up the techniques independent of instruction from a guru. Perhaps the internalization of the guru was deemed too dangerous a technique for public discourse.

166 Svatmarama, p.71. 58

7.0 CONTEMPORARY YOGA: HOW TO CLEAN HATHAYOGA

As yet, there is no known guru-parampara that served as a link between medieval hathayoga and the hathayoga renaissance of the early twentieth century.

While the asanas and pranayamas of the Hathayoga Pradipika are still being practiced today, we can identify no yoga teaching tradition by which the transmission of these techniques may have occurred. Granted, there exists the possibility that such a link exists and is hiding in a palace archive, a temple wall, or a cave in the Himalayas.

However, as far as the extant evidence indicates, there appears to be a discontinuity that effectively differentiates contemporary yoga traditions from their medieval predecessors. This in no way undermines the authoritativeness of contemporary traditions; rather it underscores the fluidity and adaptability of yoga traditions. Given the polyvalent nature of yoga as a form of discourse, competing claims to authority in the field of yoga need to be taken into account.

For example, many of the postures and practices detailed in the HYP are taught today in contemporary schools of yoga; however many of the practices (and theoretical work supporting the practices) have all but disappeared. This was no accident of history but a choice among contemporary yoga teachers to "clean-up" the yoga tradition, presumably to make a more marketable product for the consumer. A 1972 translation of the Hathayoga Prapipika contains a preface by BKS Iyengar in which Iyengar describes the HYP as "one of the most important yoga texts."167 Many decades later, Iyengar was quoted by his student Elizabeth Kadetsky as saying "don't say hatha yoga...It is not the

167 BKS Iyengar. From the foreword to Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Commentary by Hans Ulrich Rieker Translated by Elsy Becherer. Glasgow: Herder and Herder, 1972. 59

kriyas. We only follow astanga yoga, not the kriyas." Iyengar believes he teaches the

yoga of Patanjali, as though yoga was able to leap-frog over a thousand years of teaching

and practice.168

There are a number of conclusions we might draw from this seeming about-face

on the part of the man who is arguably the most influential yoga teacher alive today.

First, it should be noted that the translation of the HYP in which Iyengar has a foreword

does not contain twenty stanzas that are described by the commentator as "obscure and

repugnant practices."169 It is possible that Iyengar believes the text to be "most

important" only in the absence of these twenty stanzas.

The stanzas in question describe what might be referred to as "sexual yoga" and

center themselves on three peculiar practices known as vajroli, sahajoli, and amaroli

mudras. The mudras are essentially semen-retention techniques, which is in no way

controversial or contrary to the hathayoga practices as indicated by other hatha texts. In

terms of their obscurity and repugnance, they are certainly no worse than the self-

administered enema which the commentator felt no difficulty in reproducing.170 It is not

repugnance that is the offending quality of the mudras in question. Rather, it is the

integration of sexuality into yoga practice that resulted in the ousting of these mudras from the contemporary canon of yoga practices. The commentator asserts that a yoga

practice that incorporates these techniques has "nothing but its name in common with

168 Elizabeth Kadetsky. First There is a Mountain. New York: Little, Brown and Company. 2004 p.204. 169 Svatmarama, 1972. p.70. 170 The self-enema described in the HYP is one of the Shgtkgrmgs (six actions), or cleansing techniques, known as vgsti or sometimes bgsti. Ibid. p.48. 60 the yoga of a Patanjali or a Ramakrishna."171 It is true that Patanjali included no mudras as such in his Yoga-Sutras; however Patanjali did not include any particular asanas in the

Yoga Sutras either and the commentator seems to have no difficulty with that interpolation into "classical yoga". There is more than a hint of Victorian morality at play here. As long as the morally questionable practices are kept "under the covers" they present no problem; however, teachings of an overtly sexual manner are deemed inappropriate. The distinction between eastern and western Victorian morality is, thanks to the colonial encounter in India, not a clear-cut one. Nor is the distinction between eastern and western yoga.

7.1 Spiritual Orientalism

Elizabeth DeMichelis, in "a history of modern yoga," contends that the foundations of modern yoga can be traced to the Bengali intellectual renaissance of the

Brahmo Saamaj.172 This is in keeping with the phenomenon in popular yoga writing that link Vivekananda's 1893 lectures at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago with the "arrival" of yoga in the West173. There are a number of problems with such arguments, not the least of which being that Vivekananda was a Vedanta scholar and philosopher rather than a yogin or yoga teacher. If one is merely searching for early references to the word "yoga" in North America, then perhaps we will could satisfied

171 Ibid, p.70 172 De Michelis, 2004. p.51 173 M.R. Smith. "Yoga in America: What went wrong?" April 2003. From www.morningsideyoga.com/YogalnAmerica.pdf (accessed May 21, 2007) 61 with associating Vivekananda with modern yoga.174 If, however, we are interested in intellectual history and the actual practice of yoga (i.e. teaching and learning) Sivananda

Saraswati, Kuvalyananda, and Tirumalai Krishnamarcharya are more compelling subjects by far. It is not that Vivekananda had little do to with yoga, however his contributions exist more in popular imagination than in the praxis of contemporary yoga.

The popular imagination should not be ruled out entirely as an important influence in the development of contemporary yoga. It is somewhat of an oven in which common conceptions of a "mystical east" as the source of "authentic" yoga teachers are

"cooked up". This ultimately arises from an Orientalist approach to yoga. Orientalism, as defined by Edward Said in his 1978 classic,

can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient...by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and authority over the Orient.175

There is a problem, noted by Homi Bhabha, in that the processes of Orientalist discourse are not entirely in the hands of Western, colonial powers but also in the hands of the colonized. Bhabha contends that "the colonialist presence is always ambivalent, split between is the appearance as original and authoritative and its articulation as repetition and difference."176 Bhabha's critique is founded on the appropriation of the pejorative assumptions regarding the identity of the colonial subject.

174 Even then I would be more likely to associate "modern" yoga with the Thoreau and the American Transcendentalists-see DeMichelis, pp.2-3 175 Edward Said. Orientglism. Toronto: Random House, 1978. p.3 176 Homi Bhabha. "Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree outside Delhi, May 1987" in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No.l, (Autumn, 1985). P.150 In this co-creative adaptation of Orientalism, the western orientalist universalization of Hinduism into a single entity was successfully appropriated by a class of indigenous thinkers who utilized not only the essentialist discourse, but also the view of Hinduism as mystical, feminine, and non-political. One could easily substitute "yoga" for "Hinduism" in this instance. This process is what Bhabha refers to as "Hybridity" which is

the sign of the productivity of colonial power, its shifting forces and fixities; it is the name for the strategic reversal of the process of domination through the disavowal (that is, the production of discriminatory identities that secure the "pure" an original identity of authority). Hybridity is the revaluation of the assumption of colonial identity through the repetition of discriminatory identity effects.177

One is immediately reminded of the impact of Vivekananda and his famously orientalist approach. Vivekanada successfully inverted the orientalist position that the "west" was a place of material abundance, while the "east" was a place of spiritual abundance. All that was left to do was to produce a market for spiritual commodities (i.e. yoga, meditation, ayurveda, etc..) in which a fruitful exchange may occur. As Vivekanada said:

...I have come to America, to earn money myself, and then to return to my country and devote the rest of my days to the realisation of this one aim of my life. As our country is poor in social virtues, so this country is lacking in spirituality. I give them spirituality and they give me money.178

Vivekananda's platform was not entirely innovative. A decade earlier, the Brahmo leader

Keshubchandra Sen argued that Hindus possess an innate predisposition toward yoga:

177 Bhabha. 154 178 De Michelis, pp.109 63

We Hindus are specially endowed with, and distinguished for, the yoga faculty, which is nothing but this power of spiritual communion and absorption. This faculty, which we have inherited from our forefathers, enables us to annihilate i • 179

space and time.

Sen does not indicate an overtly orientalist position in which the "specially endowed"

Hindus are counter-posed with an "other" which is specially lacking the "yoga faculty."

Vivekananda is not accidentally overt in his the assertion of his spiritual orientalist position. The whole point is to create a market relationship between "east" and "west" in which the spiritually poor "west" (America, more specifically) could benefit from the spiritually wealthy "east" (India), and at the same time the materially poor east could benefit from the materially wealthy west.

As with all orientalist positions, this neglects the rather obvious fact that determining the relative wealth or spirituality of a given people will largely hinge on how we choose to define our terms. Both wealth and spirituality can come to mean a number of different things, and generally we will select our definitions on the basis of serving our own interests. This is particularly problematic, given the pervasiveness of spiritual orientalism. Over a hundred and fifty years after Sen's argument that Hindus possess a "yoga faculty", Dr. Karandikar states that Indian people are born yogins. Because their lineage has some germs of yoga. In countries other than India the programming is not there. So it will take more time.180

Karandikar's statement is not only unoriginal, but is so widespread within contemporary yoga traditions that it hardly bears mention that westerners are not "naturally" yogic like

179 Keshubchandra Sen. Lectures in India. London: Cassell, 1901. pp.484 180 Acharya Yoganand. Interviewed by the author. Jan. 64 their Indian counterparts.

Through clever and innovative re-articulation of the western orientalist discourse,

Vivekananda was able to use "the very discourse that succeeded in alienating, subordinating and controlling India" to produce a "religious clarion call for the Indian people to unite under the banner of a universalistic and all-embracing Hinduism."181 In the service of resistance to colonial domination, this subversive use of orientalist discourse has proved not only effective, but also suspect in terms of its ability to successfully overcome the structures of power imposed by colonial discourse. In terms of the present discussion of contemporary yoga, what was designed to produce an amicable, mutually beneficial market relationship between "east" and "west" has spun- off into commodified yoga traditions with rigid hierarchies built upon the authenticity of

"eastern" gurus.

Swami Sivananda Saraswati, who was strongly influenced by Vivekananda, advocated a similar orientalist position in which he argued that "brahman is the only reality in India, matter is the only reality in the West."182 This was a central organizing principle in the universalization of Sivananda Yoga. When Sivananda encouraged his disciple Vishnu-Devananda to travel to America to teach yoga, he counseled him that

"many souls from the East are reincarnating now in the West."183 When Sivananda says

"souls from the East" what he must be referring to are westerners who are interested in learning yoga. The not-so-subtle indication is that people from the west are so

181 King, 1999. p.93 182 Lise Mckean, Divine Enterprise: Gurus and the Hindu Nationalist Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. p.167 183 Vishnu-Devananda, from the forward to Sivananda Companion to Yogg. Toronto: Simon and Schuster, 1983. 65

materially-oriented that they could not possibly be interested in yoga. The only possible

explanation is that these western yogins are not, in fact, westerners at all - but actually

people from the east that just happen to have reincarnated in the west.

Vishnu-Devananda is said to have "closely observed the lifestyles of people in the

West" and from that observation then "synthesized the ancient wisdom of yoga into five

principles."184 These principles include relaxation, exercise, breathing, diet, and

meditation. Nowhere is there noted a need for any understanding of philosophy,

nothing about access to hathayoga texts nor any other texts referring to yoga, and

nothing about a relationship with a guru. This effectively represents a "cleaning" of the traditions in order to make yoga more palatable to the western consumer. This process

of cleaning actually began long before Vishnu-Devananda's five principles.

Vivekananda's most well-known contribution was a work called Raja-Yoga,

published in 1896.185 Raja-yoga, for Vivekananda, is represented by the astanga-yoga

(eight-limbed) of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Raja-yoga is part of Vivekananda's four-fold typology of yoga, also including Karma, Bhakti, and Jnana yoga.186 This typology is

similar to that of the Bhagavad-Gita, however it includes the raja-yoga which

Vivekananda regarded as the highest form of yoga. These four types of yoga are said to

be adaptable to "four general types of men...the rational, the emotional, the mystical,

and the worker."187 According to this typology, and given the already mentioned

materialism of the "west", it would have been most sensible to focus on teaching karma-

184 Sivgnandg Companion to Yogg. p.21. 185 De Michelis. p.3. 186 Ibid, p.124. 187 Ibid. 66 yoga in North America. Raja-yoga is for mystics, and the "west" is deficient in mysticism, and therefore raja-yoga should have fallen on its face in the "west." However,

Vivekananda recognized the "western" taste for practicality and efficiency and sought to meet this taste to the best of his ability.

...the Swami's Western audiences wanted 'techniques' and 'spiritual practices' as they were bent, in good Western utilitarian fashion, on getting 'results'. Vivekananda could sympathize with them as he himself was a pragmatist, and he did not see any problem in adjusting the teachings of Hinduism accordingly.188

Vivekananda was concerned primarily with negotiating a successful market relationship and universalist appeal, as opposed to "Hindu" proselytizing which was much better suited to the task. It is for this reason, in addition to the advaita vedanta background of his guru Ramakrishna, that Vivekananda aligned his version of yoga with vedanta rather than with the yoga darsana.189 Non-dual Hinduism is certainly more amicable (and therefore marketable) to the faithful of monotheistic religions than the polytheistic or henotheistic versions of Hinduism.

7.2 From Master to Servant A Case Study of the Krishnamacharya Lineage

A 2002 issue of The Yoga Journal, the exemplar of contemporary commercial yoga publications, featured an article discussing the question of business in yoga. The article begins with an estimated annual value of the "yoga industry," citing the U.S. News and World Report, at $27 billion.190 The author compares the way in which yoga has

188 Ibid, pp.119-120 189 Sarah Strauss. Positioning Yogg: Bglancing Acts Between Cultures. New York: Berg, 2005. pp.10 190 A more recent report estimated that the yoga market market generated over $30 billion and was practiced by more than 20 million people. See Allison Fish. "The Commodification and Exchange of Knowledge in the Case of Transnational Commercial Yoga" in The International Journal of Cultural been adapted to meet the needs of the American consumer to the way in which the

McDonald's had to change the Big Mac to the "Maharaja Mac" and substitute chicken for beef in order to appeal to the Indian market.

...yoga, like the Big Mac, must bend to meet American consumer tastes and ideas about sanctity. Yoga has thus been adapted to fit into a culture that promotes, perhaps above all, the pursuit of the body beautiful and the generation of profit. Yoga the American way emphasizes the sexy yoga butt along with the serene yoga mind. And the practice of asanas, once done barefoot on dry earth, is now performed on glossy mats by people wearing designer fashions.191

Besides the obviously tasteless comparison (the Big Mac is to Americans what yoga is to

Indians), one immediately wonders why yoga "must bend" for the American consumer.

Is it not the consumer of yoga who does the bending?

The commercialization of yoga is generally framed in terms of its increasing public appeal and accessibility. The argument goes that yoga, once a highly privatized, secretive matter, has been made available to all via the wonders of the free market. In the same Yoga Journal, Alan Finger (founder of one of the largest yoga studios chains -

Yoga Zone) says that "commercialism is inextricably tied to growth, and growth is good."

Growth in and of itself is, of course, not necessarily good. Tumors and head lice grow vigorously and yet these types of growth are not generally considered 'good'. Finger continues that "American yoga...is actually stimulating the Indians to wake up and recognize what they've got."192 What they've got is, presumably, a marketable product.

Waking up must represent successful capitalization on this product. The argument boils down to commodification as a popularizing agent, and popularization being intrinsically

Property. #13, 2006. p.191. 191 Russell Wild. "Yoga Inc." in Yoga Journal. November, 2002. p.108. 192 Wild, p.112. 68 connected to the success of a tradition. While there are worthwhile and effective counter-arguments to this position regarding depth vs. breadth, and the relative significance and cultural import of the HYP vs. the world's best-selling yoga DVD, I think it sufficient to point out that the yoga traditions of "the Indians" seemed amply vibrant prior to the influence of the free market.

Commercialization has indeed made yoga more widespread and popularly practiced. The question, then, seems to be one of quality rather than quantity. It is commonly argued, by yoga teachers from both the "east" and the "west," that commercialization has occurred as a result of westerners taking up the practice of yoga.

This is an error. It is better to suggest that commercialization occurred as result of the west's introduction to yoga. That is to say, "the west" came into contact with yoga prior to the Parliament of World Religions in 1893. There are reports on yoga by westerners as early as the fourteenth century.193 Much later, in 1849, the American

Transcendentalist and writer Henry David Thoreau wrote that "To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogin."194 These are anecdotal encounters with yoga. It seems absurd to even entertain notions about the impact of the west on yoga without mentioning the impact of colonialism. The case of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya points to the interesting ways in which British colonialism has shaped contemporary, popular yoga traditions. Krishnamacharya's career as a yoga teacher straddled the colonial and post- colonial period in Indian history. Indeed his mission to restore the yoga practice

193 Eliade quotes from the diaries of Marco Polo, who wrote about people he called chugchis (Eliade translates this as "yogis") who utilized alchemical techniques to extend their lifespan dramatically. See Eliade, 1958. p.275. 194 DeMichelis, pp.2-3. 69 tradition was taking place during the transition toward Indian independence.

Krishnamacharya is one of the three individuals I have identified as the originators of contemporary yoga. Biographical data on Krishnamacharya (1888-1989)195 is obscured by hagiography and traditional accounts that intentionally blur the line between mythology and history. It is said that Krishnamacharya, a well-rounded and accomplished scholar, traveled from Mysore to Tibet at the age of twenty-eight where he learned yoga from Rama Mohan Brahachari on the "banks of the Gandaki." 196

Sjoman points out that the Gandaki is indeed a river in Nepal, however there is also a

Gandaki river in northern Karnataka. It is useful to note that traditional accounts assert that Krishnamacharya learned yoga at the foot of Mount Kailash, in Tibet. Mount

Kailash happens to be the mythological home of the patron of yoga - Shiva. Some accounts of Krishnamacharya have failed to notice that this may be an example of contemporary hagiography in the construction of a modern yogin-saint.197 Upon his return to Mysore, Krishnamacharya was patronized by the then Maharaja of Mysore,

Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, and opened a yogashala (yoga school) in which he taught for almost twenty years.198

The yogashala closed in 1950.199 According to the palace archives there were

195 De Michelis. p.196. 196 Sjoman,1996. p.51. 197 De Michelis, p.196. 198 Sjoman, 1996. p.50. 199 T.K.V.Desikachar states that his father taught at the yogasala from 1933 to 1955. There is no indication why he gives a different date than Sjoman. It seems that Desikachar is relying on a combination of his father's reports and on his own memory; whereas Sjoman relies on the Palace archives. I am inclined to go with the latter. See TKV Desikarchar. The Heart of Yoga. p.220. 70 complaints about a "lack of interest" that continued until the school finally closed.200 It is not insignificant that the yogashala closed three years after independence.

Apparently the Congress party was "trimming the budget" and the yogashala was one among many of the victims of budget cuts. Interestingly, the new government did not cut off funds for yoga altogether. The Congress supported the efforts of Kuvalyananda at

Kaivalyadhama, while denying funding to Krishnamacharya at Mysore. Iyengar believes that this was a result of the then Chief Minister, B.G. Kher being the nephew of

Kuvalyananda. Nepotism may have been a factor; but the over-riding concern of the

Congress may also have been to promote a cleaner, more scientific version of yoga as opposed to the overtly traditional approach of Krishnamacharya. The yogashala was ultimately a victim of social planning. The new government sought to modernize India, and the doctor/scientist/freedom fighter Kuvalyananda was a natural choice in terms of patronage.

The traditional account of the closing of the yogashala portrays Krishnamacharya as taking a proactive role in the closing of the yogashala, indicating that he chose to abandon his militaristic style in order to pursue a more therapeutic approach to teaching. The traditional account is most likely hagiographic and clearly neglects the role of political factors. A student of Krishnamacharya tells of reports that upon hearing that their beloved yoga school would be closed in three months, Krishnamacharya's students "staged a demonstration infront of the chief minister's bungalow." The minister fell down the stairs in a rush to break up the demonstration, badly damaging some of his

200 Ibid. p.51. 71 teeth. Krishnamacharya, also a master of ayurveda, was called and had great success treating the minister for his injuries. In gratitude, the minister rewarded the guru with five thousand rupees (which were refused).201 It was around this period that

"Krishnmacharya's interest and work turned toward treating the sick."202 In the same report, his son states that Krishnamacharya settled in Chennai after being called there to work on a politician who had suffered a heart attack.

There are a number of similar traditional accounts, some of which can be challenged by existing historical records and some that cannot. A prime example is the

Yoga Rahasya of Nathamuni. The Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram purports that this text, long since lost, was written in the ninth century by the Srivaishnava archarya

Nathamuni. The Krishnamacharya parampara also holds that Krishnamacharya is a descendant of this medieval sage. The story goes that as a young man Krishnamacharya lost consciousness while visiting a shrine to Nathamuni. In a vision an old man recited some verses that Krishnamacharya was able to remember when he awoke. This was the lost text of the Yoga Rahasya. The text itself reads like an updated version of the HYP, specifying which postures are best for people at various stages of life. There is a whole section devoted to yoga for women, including asanas and pranayamas appropriate for pregnancy.203 It is noteworthy that the text mentions two kinds of inverted postures -

201 Hastam. Bert Franklin and Venkataraman, trans. "The King and the Young Man: Memories of a Great and Revered Master". 1984. http://www.yogastudies.org/public htm[/downloads/The%20King%20and%20the%20Young%20Man.p df (accessed June 12, 2007). 202 Desikachar, p.220. 203 TKV Desikachar, trans. Nathamuni's Yoga Rahasya. Reprint May 2004. Chennai: Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, 1998. 72 shirsasana (headstand) and sarvangasana (shoulderstand).204 This is interesting precisely because the headstand has not been mentioned in any other hathayoga text we have encountered thus far. If this was indeed a ninth century text, it would appear that somehow knowledge of the headstand was lost sometime between the composition of the Yoga Rahasya and the Natha and hathayoga texts of a later medieval period. Of course, we cannot accept that Krishnamacharya actually managed to psychically revive a lost medieval text. More likely, as Sjoman has previously argued,

Krishnamacharya synthesized a novel form of yoga drawing from the minimal hathayoga asana tradition, the wrestling exercise systems practiced at the Mysore palace, as well as modern gymnastics.205 By connecting himself through genealogy and revelation to a pre-existing lineage of acharyas (in fact, in South India the Srivaishnava acharyas are the pre-eminent lineage), Krishnamacharya effectively manufactured authenticity for his syncretist appropriation of hathayoga, wrestling, and gymnastics.

On the yoga exercise system, the whole metaphysics and mystery of yoga can be grafted on without question. This grafting had already occurred when Krishnamarchiar wrote his first book. He drew on yoga literature as if it were part of his practice and his experience.206

Returning to Krishnamacharya's move to Chennai, students of the

Krishnamacharya lineage generally do not explore or discuss the reason for the move.

The move was a consequential one, not just for Krishnamacharya but for the parampara initiated by him. A dramatic change in the style of teaching followed, one that is

204 Ibid. p.90. 205 Sjoman, 1996. pp.50-59. 206 Ibid, pp.55 73 summed up well by Iyengar:

...he was not the same in Madras as he was in Mysore...He was as hot as fire in Mysore and as cool as water in Madras, a completely mellowed person. Probably, I have to give credit to the people of Madras (now Chennai) for having tamed and mellowed him.207

More likely, Krishnamacharya's "mellowing" was induced by the lack of royal patronage and the realization that his students were his sole source of income. In a recent interview Iyengar stated that his guru "was a master in Mysore, but he had to become a servant in Chennai."208 One does not get and maintain students by browbeating them.

There are many stories (mostly from Iyengar) regarding the cruelty of

Krishnamacharya while he enjoyed his position at the Mysore Palace. Iyengar tells a story about a demonstration at the palace for the famous guru Yogananda,

Krishnamacharya insisted that Iyengar perform Hanumanasana (front splits) without any prior instruction. Iyengar suffered a hamstring tear that plagued him for two years.209

For a contemporary, professional yoga teacher this kind of conduct would result in having very few students. It is my contention that the "mellowing" of Krishnamacharya was in fact a preliminary indication of the commercialization of the Krishnamacharya lineage. His patronage removed, Krishnamacharya needed to adjust his teachings such that he could attract and maintain the students he required.

We have already mentioned the turn towards teaching yoga as a form of therapy, which has arguably become the most common form of yoga in a transnational context.

207 Iyengar, 2000. p.60 208 BKS Iyengar. Interviewed by Alexander Medin. "3 Gurus, 48 Questions" in Namarupa. Fall 2004. p.12 209 Ibid, pp.57-58 74

One of the other innovations in the service of commercializing yoga came in the form of

"opening" yoga to women. It is argued by the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram that their guru "did a lot to promote yoga for women."210 That he taught a western woman,

Indra Devi,211 indicates that Krishnamacharya was indeed open to teaching women.

However, closer examination reveals that the patronage relationship between the guru and the Maharaja was more influential than Krishnamacharya's feminist inclinations.

Early photos of Krishnamacharya's classes show large groups of young boys in a wide array of postures, with no girls or women to be seen. When Devi arrived at the Mysore palace and inquired about learning yoga, she was originally turned away by

Krishnamacharya. The guru only accepted her as a student after relenting to pressures from his patron. His attitude toward women and yoga changed dramatically when we lost his position at the palace. In Chennai, Krishnamacharya taught both women and men in a manner much more in keeping with contemporary yoga traditions212. One might argue that this change came about as a result of the guru becoming older and wiser; however, it seems more likely that this was an example of the trumping of theological matters by material considerations (i.e. Food and shelter). The patronage of the Wodeyar family allowed Krishnamacharya to indulge himself not only in brahminical chauvinism, but also provided an undeniable degree of legitimacy. Thus, patronage was

210 Desikachar, p.226 211 Indra Devi was given that name when she acted in Indian films in the late 1920's - her birth name was Zhenia Labunskaia. For some background on Devi see Mukunda Stiles. "Indra Devi at 100" Hinduism Today, Nov. 1999. http://www.hinduismtodav.com/archives/1999/ll/1999-ll-09.shtml (accessed Sept. 1, 2007) see also Gates, 2004. pp.145-146 212 Srivatsa Ramaswami, from the Introduction to The Complete Book ofVinyasa Yoga. New York: Marlowe and Company, 2005. p. xiv. 75 to be a defining characteristic of contemporary yoga traditions.

As mentioned, Krishnamacharya's move to Chennai was associated with the loss of royal patronage. With the decline of the royal families, patronage did not disappear altogether. The new government took on the role of patron, at least partially. The

Congress party needed to walk a fine line between maintaining a broad base of support by sustaining distinctly "Indian" endeavors such as yoga and modernizing the Indian economy. The decidedly modern, scientific character of Kuvalyananda's approach to yoga was a natural choice. The shifting character of patronage did not, however, stop there. Krishnamarcharya's most famous disciple's, B.K.S. Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois, have both been recipients of a great deal of political patronage. The nature of the patronage reflects both the changing nature of the Indian political economy and of yoga teaching itself.

B.K.S. Iyengar moved to Mysore to live with with his guru and brother-in-law

Krishnamacharya in 1934. After three years of intermittent instruction in asana, Iyengar accepted a teaching position at the Deccan Gymkhana in Pune.214 This was not an easy time for the young Iyengar. Not yet twenty years old, not fluent in either English or

Marathi, Iyengar taught yoga in exchange for a very modest income. It was over a

213 It should be noted that while I am discussing patronage as it applies to the Krishnamacharya lineage - it was not less crucial in the development of the Sivananda lineage - the other major player in contemporary yoga. Sivananda was able to establish his ashram in Rishikesh as a result of patronage in the form of land grant from the Maharaja of Tehri, on which he built the Divine Life Society Ashram. See Lise McKean. Divine Enterprise: Gurus gnd the Hindu Nationalist Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. p.173. 214 Iyengar, 2000. pp.54,59. Iyengar has stated that he received about "10 or 15 days" of instruction during that time. After learning only a few asangs Iyengar practiced on his own, while he was teaching in Pune, in order to develop his own style of yoga. See BKS Iyengar. Interviewed by Alexander Medin. "3 Gurus, 48 Questions" in A/omorupo. Fall 2004. pp.9. It is phenomenal that the man many consider the world's leading authority on gsana only learned for such a short period of time with his teacher. 76 decade of hardship in Pune before Iyengar began to see some success. This came partially as a result of his friendship with a doctor, V.B. Gokhale, who provided Iyengar with the modern anatomical theory and terminology that has come to characterize his style of yoga.215 It is quite likely that Iyengar took note of the way in which the new government favored modern, scientific approaches to yoga.

Perhaps because he understood implicitly the preferences of the modernization- minded Indian power brokers, or perhaps because he was swept up in the technophilic mood of the moment, Iyengar began to embrace Western science. This flew in the face of the asana-as-devotion model he'd learned from Krishnamacharya. Iyengar's postures could treat illness, and this he discussed in increasingly complex Western terms.216

Another significant factor in Iyengar's success was the patronage of the Bombay

Parsi community that introduced Iyengar to the publisher at Allen and Unwin. Together with Bombay Lawyer Birjoo Taraporewala, they edited and revised the original edition of the now-famous Light on Yoga.217 It was the patronage of Taraporewala that formed the

Light on Yoga Trust, which provided the funds to buy the property that would be home to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Institute, Iyengar's home turf in Pune.218 Further, it was a member of the Bombay Parsi community that introduced Iyengar to Yehudi

Menuhin.

The patronage of Menuhin, perhaps more so than any other factor, catapulted

Iyengar out of India and into the world of transnational yoga.

Beginning in the late 1930s, and then with the support and encouragement of Yehudi Menuhin in the late 1950s, B.K.S. Iyengar transformed asanas and

215 DeMichelis, pp.197-198. 216 Kadetsky, p.153. 217 Ibid, p.256. 218 Ibid. 77

pranayama into what has come to be known, around the world, as a kind of full bodied, prop-assisted, performative Yoga gymnastics.219

It was Menuhin who introduced Iyengar to the "cream of the Western world."220 On numerous trips to Switzerland, paid for by the Menuhin family, Iyengar worked as a

"personal trainer" to Menuhin.221 This was another crucial moment in the history of yoga teaching. In India, Iyengar was referred to as a guru, a master. In Switzerland,

Iyengar became a "hired man." Krishnamacharya had bent his rules in order to accommodate a wider audience to fill the void left by the usurping of his royal patronage. Iyengar, on the other hand, underwent a further, more dramatic, bending of the rules as a result of his newfound private, bourgeois patrons. Iyengar was conscious of the complexities and contradictions of transnational yoga even in the earliest period of the popularization of his method:

... in the 1950's when I went to the U.K., we had independence only three years before. Naturally these people were very powerful and we were slaves from India. So they were looking at us as just another of their slaves. So how difficult for slave drivers to respect a subject coming from a slave?222

The transition from master to slave, master to employee, guru to teacher has occurred without much notice in contemporary yoga traditions. A recent book, Teaching

Yoga, by New Zealand yoga teacher Donna Farhi does not even mention the word guru.

The book describes teaching yoga as an essentially professional activity, one that should be guided by professional codes of conduct,223 as opposed to the extremely intimate

219 Alter, 2004. p.24 220 Iyengar, 2000. p.48 221 Kadetsky, p.156 222 BKS Iyengar. Interviewed by the Author. Jan.9, 2009. 223 Donna Farhi. Tegching Yogg: Exploring the Teocher-Student Relgtionship. Berkley: Rodmell Press, 2006. pp.138-139. 78 relationship between guru and disciple.

Thus far we have been discussing patronage in terms of a monetary relationship.

This is not the only form of patronage relevant in terms of the Krishnamacharya lineage.

Much of the development and success of this guru-parampara, particularly as it relates to Iyengar and Jois, can be associated with "celebrity endorsements" and what I will refer to as intellectual patronage. An example of this form of patronage is the relationship of Iyengar and Jiddhu Krsishnamurti. The two men met in 1948 when

Iyengar went to see a series of Krishnamurti lectures in Pune.224 The Theosophical

Society's "anti-guru" Krishnamurti eventually started taking yoga classes with Iyengar. In his autobiography, Iyengar talks about teaching Krishnamurti asana but never mentions what, if any impact Krishnamurti had on his philosophy. In a textual survey of Iyengar's philosophical development from Light on Yoga, to Light on Pranayama, to Light on the

Yoga Sutras, DeMichelis aruges that Krishnamurti was indeed very influencial on

Iyengar's thought.225 Dr. Gokhale was able to provide Iyengar with a medical vocabulary to enhance his appeal in terms of his encounter with modernity. J. Krishnamurti provided Iyengar with a theoretical background that enabled him to move away from his

"mixture of traditionalism and Neo-Hindu ideas to more de-traditionalized, cultic milieu style theories and elaborations."226 The move away from traditionalism toward what might be referred to as "new age spirituality" is precisely what so endeared, and continues to endear, Iyengar to so many of his western students. That, combined with

224 Iyengar, 2000. p.42. 225 DeMichelis. p.203. 226 Ibid, p.204 79 the celebrity-by-proxy of being the "guru to the stars," has made Iyengar one of the most well-known yoga teachers alive today.

It is ironic that the thought of a guru, B.K.S. Iyengar, should be so influenced by the prototypical anti-guru, Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti is well known for his disavowal of the entire guru tradition, regarding the guru as the "chief obstacle to spiritual liberation."227 In order to better illustrate this irony, compare the following quotes.

From Iyengar:

When it comes to meditation, I am a purist I have to declare the truth; you cannot meditate from a starting point of stress, or bodily infirmity. Meditation is the Olympic final for yoga. You cannot turn up half fit.228

And from Krishnamurti:

If you accept some authority who says "Meditate along these lines," you are merely a follower, the blind servant of a system or idea. Your acceptance of authority is based on the hope of attaining a result, and that is not meditation.229

As DeMichelis points out, Iyengar learned from Krishnamurti how to operate in the interests of newly forming "east-west spirituality" movements; however, DeMichelis does not address the rather glaring conflict between these two powerful figures in contemporary yoga. One was a "reluctant guru,"230 the other gracefully embraces his guru role.231

Early students of Iyengar, prior to the construction of the Institute in 1975, practiced yoga in the Iyengar family home. Some of these early students reported that

227 Kakar, p.45 228 BKS Iyengar. Light on Life. Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2005. p.183 229 J. Krishnamurti. Edited by D. Rajagopal. Think on These Things. New York: Harper Collins, 1964. p.56 230 Kakar, p.45 231 My interview with Iyengar was interrupted a number of times by his students stopping to touch his feet as they entered the library in the basement of the Institute where the interview was taking place. 80

Iyengar was, at that time, very much under the influence of Krishnamruti. He ridiculed teaching certificates and insisted on being called a "yoga instructor" and not a guru.

There are only sketchy details about how and when this changed, but at some point

Iyengar and Krishnamurti had a "falling out." In his biography, Iyengar never mentions his pedagogical breakup with Krishnamurti. Erich Schiffmann, a popular American teacher, reports that when he asked Krishnamurti, in the early 1970's, with whom he should study yoga in India, Krishnamurti suggesed T.K.V. Desikachar rather than Iyengar.

Schiffmann also mentions an experience in an asana when he was particularly relaxed and alert, Iyengar said "You see! It takes Krishnamurti twenty years to get your mind quiet. I can do it in one class."232 The evidence points to some kind of disagreement that resulted in Iyengar and Krishnamurti going their separate ways. Although this borders on indulging in yoga gossip, it is interesting to note this early tension in contemporary yoga between the inner vs. the outer guru. In the above quote

Krishnamurti is clearly arguing that people need to discover an inner authority, an inner guru. Iyengar, for a short period, taught yoga in exactly that manner. That did not last, however, as Iyengar Yoga today is a rigid, hierarchical system.233

There does not appear to be a discernible pattern that would give any indication that the role of the guru has been evolving over time from outer to inner, eastern to western, gods to guides, or guides to gods. The role of the guru in yoga teaching has indeed changed, many times, over the course of history and continues to do so. It

232 Erich Schiffmann. Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness. Toronto: Pocket Books, 1996. pp.xxi-xxii 233 There are 13 levels of Iyengar Yoga certification from "introductory" to "Advanced Senior 3" see Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States website, http://www.iynaus.org/Search/search.aspx (accessed July 13, 2007) 81 changes as it suits the needs of gurus and disciples, teachers and students, in particular historical contexts. These ever-changing roles tell us much less about the gurus themselves than the social and political contexts in which the gurus are teaching.

Krishnamacharya, for example, did not decide to teach Indra Devi because he realized that his Brahminical chauvinism was ill advised. That decision was made by his patron, the Maharaj of Mysore, whose political interests were served by maintaining friendly relationships with the diplomats with whom Devi was associated. Likewise, the seeming about-face in teaching style demonstrated by the post-independence Krishnamarcharya towards being more tolerant and modifying postures to meet the needs of his students rather than aggressively modifying his students to meet the needs of the postures can be viewed in an economic rather than a spiritual context. While teaching at the Yoga

Shala at the Mysore Palace Krishnamacharya had no inclination toward making yoga more accessible. That came only when the patronage of the Maharaja was removed and his livelihood depended on maintaining students. With no support from wealthy patrons, Krishnamarcarya was effectively pushed into changing his mode of teaching by changing economic conditions. 82

8.0 A CLOSING

We might be inclined to conclude, then, that the guru is indeed not central to yoga practice. If the role of the guru is such that it may change and fluctuate according to external circumstances, it must not be of particular importance. We might conclude that there has been a significant decline in the quality of yoga instruction - namely that yoga is degenerating to an aesthetically-orientated form of physical conditioning - coinciding with the decline in the centrality of the yoga guru. Both such conclusions would be, in my estimation, simply a continuation of the inner tension of the yoga tradition documented by this thesis. Rather than "choosing sides" it is much more interesting simply to observe that the sides themselves are indicative of a much larger picture. Yoga teachers can become exalted gurus and gurus can become humble yoga teachers, depending on the interests of the teachers themselves and the interests of their patrons. It was certainly in the interests of the Maharaja of Mysore that the fellow teaching asanas in their palace be considered a great guru rather than journeyman asana teacher just trying to make a living. Upon moving to Chennai the harsh, demanding guru suddenly no longer felt it was appropriate to subjugate his students.

Rather, a more loving and accepting teacher emerged not coincidentally around the same time that student recruitment and retention became an issue. The story of BKS

Iyengar is a mirror image of the story of Krishnamacharya. The humble asana teacher from Pune, upon procuring a new form of patronage (i.e. celebrity endorsements), now saw fit to transform his persona into 'the lion of Pune' which led to the hierarchical system of Iyengar yoga that now spans the globe. 83

These examples are not intended as indictments of Iyengar and his guru

Krishnamacharya. Their accomplishments as yoga teachers speak for themselves. They are both true masters of their craft. However the Krishnamacharya lineage, or any other guru parampara, cannot exist in a yogic vacuum. Yoga teaching is an event that has a specific historical and temporal context. Failure to note the context in which yoga teaching takes place limits students and scholars of yoga in terms of a full understanding of the tradition. The debate over the role of the guru in yoga teaching, namely if yoga has been evolving or devolving, is a matter for the guru and disciple. For our purposes, it is sufficient to note that yogins on both sides have ideological and material interests that they are attempting to defend in the course of the debate. The guru, as a source of power and authority, is best contested territory over which theological and ideological conflicts have taken place throughout the history of yoga teaching. I hope that this thesis will make a contribution to a greater understanding of those conflicts. 84

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