Politics Beyond the Yoga Mat: Yoga Fundamentalism and the 'Vedic

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Politics beyond the Yoga Mat: Yoga Fundamentalism and the ‘Vedic Way of Life’ Patrick McCartney Articles Journal: Global Ethnographic Publication Date ǁ May 2017 ǁ Issue 4 ǁ Published by: Emic Press Global Ethnographic is an open access journal.

Place of Publication: Kyoto, Japan ISSN 2186-0750

Global Ethnographic and Emic Press are initiatives of the Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD).

Articles

Politics beyond the Yoga Mat:

Yoga Fundamentalism and the ‘Vedic Way of Life’

Patrick McCartney

ABSTRACT This article explores an under-appreciated relation between the quotidian practices of Western yoga practitioners and the global agenda of Hindu supremacism. It demonstrates how yoga, or rather, the yoga body, can be a political instrument. I suggest that yoga practitioners, whether they choose to or not, engage in tacit, naive and unwitting support of a Hindu supremacist ideology through the adoption of various yoga-inflected lifestyles within the global yoga consumption-scape.

first came across the phrase ‘Vedic there are multiple modernities and way of life’ in 2013 during doctoral hetereotopic spaces, there is a banal I fieldwork into the global yoga industry. consumption of yoga that includes adopting It was during my year of ethnographic variants of a ‘Vedic way of life’. The idea of fieldwork in the Shanti Mandir ashram in heterotopic spaces builds on the southern Gujarat, India, that I noticed this utopian/dystopian binary. It is neither good innocuous phrase on their website (Mandir nor bad, but different. It is a space where 2016). I took it for granted that I knew what ideas or groups have little perceived it meant, and that it was simply an connections with one another (Mead 1995: idiosyncratic phrase. However, it is 13). The global yoga industry is ostensibly ubiquitous and can be found in different an unregulated, heterogeneous market. ways across the internet. It is particularly While there are many yoga-focused guilds embedded in the marketing rhetoric of the and alliances, there is no global body that global yoga industry. In this article, I governs international best practices, or problematise this ‘Vedic way of life’ phrase, which has any control over what yoga is or and take a phenomenological approach to should be defined as. Furthermore, due to investigate what exactly people imagine a this heterotopia, the unrecognised ‘Vedic way of life’ to be. intersection between global yoga and Hindu The focus of this article is to supremacism allows for a supremacist demonstrate that through our practice of narrative to be subtlety infused within yoga we appropriate and consume various global yoga’s rhetoric. I argue that this can cultural symbols, ideas and practices. While lead to a type of banal nationalism. These

assertions are based on my almost 20 years of nostalgia for a future-past (similar, of working in the global yoga industry, and perhaps to a future perfect tense, i.e. ‘will as an anthropologist who works on the links have’) that is potentially more cohesive. It is between the production of desire, the considered the antithesis of the politics of imagination, and the economics hyper-consumption and perceived moral of religion. vacuity of the West. It is here we find in I assert that through adoption of certain some ways the source of yoga’s popularity yoga-inflected lifestyles we are (or at least and the greatest irony of all. Yoga’s at risk of becoming) unwitting supporters of popularity is a direct result of the capitalist an imperialist, Hindu supremacist agenda infrastructure and consumerism to which it that has global, expansionist aspirations. is constantly marketed as being antithetical. The broader aim of my research is to Yoga is a key instrument in India’s explore whether the ontological realities foreign policy, the re-making of ‘Brand may or may not be commensurable. There India’ and the rebranding of yoga (Gowen are parallel aspirations for an identity that 2014). As Gowen points out, rebranding includes the use of similar narratives and yoga and India is a counter-hegemonical, textual sources of authority, which are post-colonial ‘take back’ that builds upon sourced from the Sanskrit episteme, i.e. the centuries of oppression from colonial rulers justified ‘true’ beliefs found within the and frustration at how yoga is commodified Sanskrit literary canon. and seemingly cut off from its cultural roots When viewed through a utopian without due acknowledgement. For example, framework, the social, political, there are no royalties paid to the Indian state religious and economic implications of for the global expansion of yoga. Hindu supremacism, and its overlapping The normative idea of ‘yoga’ guides and intersecting relationship with the India’s soft power diplomacy on the global discrete, arguably similar, utopian stage through such events as World Yoga worlds of yoga practitioners urge us to Day and International Yoga Day. Prime consider many things. This article seeks Minister Modi is fond of asserting that due to assert that there is more to yoga, India to India’s cultural capital as the ‘home of and our consumptive practices than what yoga’, it is the self-appointed ‘world guru’ is happening on the yoga mat. (viśva-guru) that has the ‘necessary’ moral A ‘Vedic way of life’ is an appeal to superiority (i.e. dharma) that will save the tradition, nature, emotion, and authority. It world from consuming itself (Singh 2014). is perceived as being older and, therefore, As Reddy (2008: 99) asserts, the Vedic many consider its intrinsic properties as literature used today to interpret Vedic inherently better (read ‘purer’) than culture is representative of an ‘ideal’ society. anything late-stage capitalism and Western Bowman (2015) points out that this is based culture is supposedly able to offer. on a post-secular (re)turn towards a According to Darling (2014: 13), the reconstituted axial age (800-200 BCE), and temporality of nationalism, which relates to that as political borders become in some ideas of a ‘Vedic India’ allows for affective ways increasingly irrelevant, this has given attachments of collective unity and common political agency to many religious groups purpose to form. These affective bonds rely within transnational civil society. on narratives of loss, which invoke a sense Even though Van der Veer (2016)

warns anthropologists, at least, against using gender and race’ (Weiss 2016: 632). As yoga civilisational narratives, the Indian state is increasingly normalised, regulated and homogenises core axial ideals to create a institutionalised, the battle to control it and civilisational ethos. Examples are found its role in the means of persuasion intensify. within India’s official tourism and Engaging a queer epistemology assists in health/wellness marketing strategies (Union exploring the politics of imagination, the Ministry of Ayush 2016; Union Ministry of production of desire, the consumption of Tourism 2015). An example of its use within intangible goods inherent in the the wellness industry is the following: commodification of yoga, and the legitimising discourses used to achieve Welcome to Veda Spa – Veda these intertwined aims, which are social, means ageless, eternal “Science” commercial and political. or “Knowledge” built on Siddhantas and Unchanging *** Principles. Veda is not just a theory it is a map for how to derive In 1987 Swami Nityananda Saraswati practical benefit from the (1967- ) established Shanti Mandir, which knowledge. Our mission is to means the ‘Temple of Peace’, and of which become leader in the segment of he continues as the current spiritual head wellness spas in India by ensuring (Mandir 2016). Shanti Mandir is aligned a proper balance between with an older tradition (Sabharathnam et al. aspiration and potential investor so 1997). However, it is a result of contentious that the spa guests, developer and succession issues that occurred during the operator gets benefits from mid-80s schism in the Siddha Yoga empire, pampering treatments & therapies. which was created by the charismatic, (Vedaspas 2016) entrepreneurial, ‘Tantric godman’ Baba Muktananda (1908-1982) (Jain 2014; ‘Vedic’ ideas are involved in how the Williamson 2005). past, India and yoga are represented within Today, Shanti Mandir has a global the global consumption-scape, and how they network of ashrams and allied yoga centres. are operationalised to suggest possible, Its devotees support the organisation alternative futures through the production of through their generous donations of money, desire. The result is that many western time and labour. These investments of interpretations of a ‘traditional’ Indian yoga different species of capital are essential lifestyle are consumed based on these towards the growth of the organisation and official narratives, symbols and fetishised the implementation of its charitable work goods. Having then consumed the official (Jain 2013; Thursby 1991). narratives, they are often criticised for an The ashram, which is known as ‘insensitive appropriation’ of aspects of ‘Magod’ is located three hours north of Indian culture. Mumbai on the west coast of India. It is a Just like the BDSM community in 20-acre biodynamic mango orchard that was Weiss’ (2011) work, the yoga community is donated by a devotee of Muktananda in the involved in similar ‘circuits of capital, late 1990s, and has since evolved into an commodities, and neoliberal ideologies of āśrama, which is a cloistered, intentional

community like the western concept of a which in this case refers to the non-dualistic monastery. Shanti Mandir describes it as a (advaita) school of thought. Vedānta [‘the ‘beautiful and serene natural setting’ end (anta) of the Veda’] is the later (Mandir 2016). Even though Shanti Mandir philosophical developments of the is a new religious movement and promotes a Upaniṣad-s. While Vedānta is a philosophy, neo-Advaita/Hindu philosophy,i it offers an at its core it is also an epistemology that orthodox and Sanskritic form of religious aims to offer individuals techniques to practice and identity, which originated in the identify what suffering is through Vedic period (1200-500 BCE). This is when determining ‘right’ or ‘true’ knowledge from the oldest scriptures of Hinduism were ‘false impressions’ (Chatterjee 2003). This composed in the Sanskrit language, which refers to the cultivation of self-awareness as many consider to be the ‘Latin of Asia’ an attempt to end false cognitions that the (Times of India 2014). Sanskrit is perceived subject and object are the same. However, it as having ‘divine’ status as a deva-bhāṣā also refers to what this epistemic (divine-language). Shanti Mandir provides a community (i.e. Shanti Mandir as a glimpse of what this ‘Vedic way of life’ community of seekers of ‘right knowledge’) encapsulates on their website: consider valid, which is domain-specific, and quite often non-arbitrary, in the sense it 1. Guiding seekers to the direct is difficult, if not impossible, to verify the experience of divinity through subjective truth claims made by members of Sanskrit chanting, silent meditation, the community. study of sacred texts, the offering One way to understand a Vedic lifestyle of service, and participation in is through the term vaidika which relates to sacred rituals the notion that someone knows the Vedas and conforms to the rules prescribed for 2. Continuing the Vedic tradition proper ritual and moral conduct (vaidikatva). through teaching the Vedic way of Central to a ‘Vedic’ identity and lifestyle is life and the philosophy of Vedanta, the chanting of Vedic (Sanskrit) texts. performing the ancient sacred According to Saraswati (2010: 1), the rituals of the tradition, and principle text of such a lifestyle is the Ṣaṭa receiving other saints of the Rudrīya, which is also known as the tradition Rudrāṣṭādhyāyī or the Śrī Rudram. Recitation is said to have ontological 3. Shri Muktananda Sanskrit benefits of removing spiritual obstacles and Mahavidyalaya – a free Sanskrit mental-emotional blockages school that provides a rounded and (citta-naiścalya). Saraswati (2010: 4) quotes authentic exposure to Vedic verse 24 of the Kaivalyopaniṣad (the teachings (Mandir 2016) Upaniṣad of Beatitude), which asserts that whoever recites the Rudram will be freed Sanskrit, particularly Vedic Sanskrit, is from various types of sin. Shanti Mandir has an integral part of this community’s published through YouTube a recitation of religious practice. It is also clear from the this text under the title: Havan with second point that the ‘Vedic way of life’ is Rudrashtadhyayi-Vedic fire ritual (Mandir encapsulated by the ‘philosophy of Vedanta’, 2015).

As per Shanti Mandir’s list above, the context related to ‘sciences’ or ‘technologies’ act of chanting Sanskrit mantra-s is the of the ‘self’ or ‘spirit’. Shanti Mandir’s yoga principal technique employed to guide organisation, namely Shantarasa Yoga ‘seekers to the direct experience of divinity’ employs this rhetorical technique: and ‘invoke the Guru’s eternal presence’ (Mandir 2014). The Rudram is the first text The parameters of that model recited every day in Shanti Mandir’s ashram. however are way too narrow to The reason for the primacy of chanting is verify the expansive view of the that its efficacy is said to come from being a yogic science. Yogic science is type of nāda-yoga (union through sound), hard for the westerner to access which includes the following steps from the unless they have direct contact famous ‘eight limbs of yoga’ (aṣṭāṅga-yoga): with authentic adepts and sitting in a fixed position (āsana); rhythmic teachings. (Pezet and Pezet 2015) breathing (prāṇāyāma); withdrawing the senses (pratyāhara); leading to focused Shanti Mandir’s approach to attention (ekagrata), concentration legitimating itself rests on providing the (dharaṇa), meditation (dhyana) and aesthetic experience of ‘enjoying quietude possibly even the purportedly final, blissful and right knowledge’ state of samādhi. (śamatha-vipaśyanā-vihārin). This is built Apart from worship of the guru around a ‘search for truths about the world (guru-seva), chanting forms the base of that start out from an enchanted, animated, Shanti Mandir’s ‘modern yoga’ or practical divinized view of nature’, which is philosophical tools, which it offers from its considered ‘as legitimately scientific as the position within the hyper-competitive global search for truths in modern science. This is yoga industry. In line with Weber’s ideas the edifice on which the defense of Vedic related to disenchantment and science rests’ (Nanda 2003: 139). Keeping rationalisation, Shanti Mandir asserts that this in mind, the discussion now moves to the gap between knowledge (jñāna) and take a broader look at the concept of wisdom (vijñāna) can be bridged through ‘modern yoga’. their system of yoga, as Shanti Mandir claims to provide an ‘ideal environment for *** seekers to immerse themselves in a traditional way of spiritual life, as passed I align my understanding of ‘modern down from the ancient sages’ (Mandir yoga’ with that which pertains to the last 2016). 100 years of a global, transcultural, and Shanti Mandir embeds itself within a increasingly commercial exchange of ideas narrative built upon an ancient tradition. and practices. Alter (2004) and De Michelis Presenting itself as a competent alternative (2005) explain their general concept of to modern secularism, it cultivates desire for ‘modern yoga’ as that which refers to, but is a nostalgic return to a pre-modern era, not limited by, a physically-oriented, which is an expression of modernity, and gymnastic-inspired, bodily regime of static not its antithesis. McMahan (2008: 13) or sequenced postures (āsana-s), which explains how this re-enchanting discourse is likely includes breathing practices bound within an ironic self-validating (prāṇāyāma) and meditation (dhyāna).

What we understand as ‘modern yoga’ is not Ayush and giving it independent status in an exclusively ‘Indian’ phenomenon. 2014 (Union Ministry of Ayush 2015). The Instead, modern yoga contains cultural mandate of this ministry includes elements of both Europe and India rebranding and promoting yoga in what is a (Singleton 2010), which have formed battle to reclaim yoga as something through cultural and temporal bricolages distinctively Indian. The aim is to increase (Altglas 2014; Critchley 2001: 8). India’s cultural pride and its share in a Yoga and Hindu religious nationalism multi-billion dollar spiritual-health tourism are linked through a general idea of a market. As Gowen (2014) explains, ‘Indian greener, more sustainable and holistic officials have begun efforts to reclaim yoga worldview. This is presupposed by a for the home team, making plans for a broad transcendental idealist philosophical expansion of the wellness practice into all position. The metaphysical and facets of civic life’. epistemological doctrine of non-dualist The packaging of yoga-related spiritual (advaita) Vedānta asserts that an idea, tourism compounds a romanticisation of namely Brahma, is the fundamental India and yoga through the symbols, images component of reality, and that while an and narratives used to create an essentialised, objective, external reality does exist, ‘othering’ gaze of the Orient. This process Brahma is the supra-sensible reality beyond exacerbates the transposability of yoga onto these categories. Kitiarsa (2008) and Halter other spaces and into different cultures. This (2000) explain how the commodification is clear through the possibility of booking a and merchandising of Indian cultural ‘yoga holiday’ in over 120 countries, across practices creates a cultural process that five continents, through one website (Book relies upon the marketing of ethnicity. In Yoga Retreats 2016). comparison, Sinha (2011) expands on how Vitebsky (1995: 183-184) asserts that this process of Hinduisation effects both the the forces of modernisation are responsible domestic and international images of the for homogenising local cultural practices Indian state. Whether we consider our and knowledge, which are subsumed by understanding of ‘Vedic’ to be a 1:1 global forces. This creates flexible and representation or not, our consumption of ambiguous boundaries, particularly between yogic lifestyles impacts on how we perceive ideas of ‘authenticity’ and what was/is India and yoga, and how India perceives and considered ‘traditional’ and ‘new’. markets itself. Technology allows us to imagine, consume Nanda (2003) explains that the forces and travel to translocated places to of the global market are turning India, or experience ambiguously ‘traditional’ yet commodifying India, into a Hindu-ised syncretic forms of yoga, which are market, which relies heavily on the priority transposed and intermingled with local claims of the ‘scientific Vedas’ for knowledge traditions. legitimacy (Nanda 2015: 43). In a coup for Nanda (2009) explores issues related to the Indian government, UNESCO how global processes of trade, marketing announced yoga’s inclusion on its list of and commodification are homogenising intangible cultural heritage (UNESCO ‘Brand India’ into a ‘Hindu India’. 2015). This is partly due to the Government Interestingly, in a recent conversation with a of India introducing the Union Ministry of yoga teacher in Sydney, Australia, this idea

became clearer when they explained the ideas that creates an obfuscated sense of following: ‘I didn’t realise there were ‘tradition’ through the banal and naive Muslims in India. I thought they were all enculturation into various yoga lifestyles by Hindu, and maybe some Buddhists as well’. practitioners across the globe. Below, Remski explains how the Hindu An example is the growth in ‘Christian supremacist forces (known as Yoga’, which further nuances our Hindutvavādin-s) seek to homogenise all understanding of the globalising processes things yogic into a narrow vision of India’s related to ‘classical’ and ‘modern’ yoga(s) heritage: (Green 2016). This example demonstrates how a ‘yoga narrative’ is used in an There is rising Hindutva discourse alternative way to the layer of interpretation that seeks to reclaim all things I am suggesting, and how it does not have to yogic into a homogenized vision of necessarily draw on the same narratives as Indian heritage. It is motivated by Hindu supremacists or the dominant just grievances against colonial narrative within the yoga industry, which is humiliation, the white privilege typically ensconced in a Hindu idiom. and racism of early Indology, and However interesting Christian yoga is as a the postcolonial disempowerment new, alternative expression of the yoga of a global wealth inequality idiom, it is not representative of the against which asana has emerged Hindu-oriented ontology inherent in as a royalty-free ‘modern yoga’, which is the dominant form multi-billion-dollar cultural export. present within the transglobal yoga industry. But the loudest part of this While some yoga studios do not discourse is twisted by explicitly promote any spirituality or saffronisation, the belief that the religion for fear of either offending someone, terms as polysemic as “yoga” can or because they believe yoga is not part of be defined (let alone owned) by religion, many yoga business owners do cultures as diverse as global install statues of various Hindu deities, have Hinduism, and the false murals painted on studio walls, or include assumption that global academic particular Hindu and Buddhist symbols on Indology hasn’t changed in a websites. century. (Remski 2015)

Jain (2014) explains that the multi-directional transplantation of cultural wares intertwines us all in the same cultural processes. This ‘distant-led’ cosmopolitan commodification of knowledge has, at its Śiva-natarāja in corner of a yoga studio core, a contest over yoga’s narrative power Source: (Absoluteyoga 2016) to link the past, present and future (cf. Vitebsky 1995: 182, 191). Like anything I have taught yoga in various studios seen from a distance, it is the close-up across the world for the past twenty years. details that are generally elided. In this case, For more than one year I have been an it is the intertwining of people, spaces, and active participant observer using a

cyber-ethnographic methodology in a our favourite music is for playing in classes. variety of closed and public forums related This discussion was interesting, as it quickly to yoga. My use of a cyber-ethnographic moved into the ethical issues around method is an evolving process. I have licensing, distribution, and playing of focused my attention on the closed Yoga copyrighted material for commercial Teachers’ group on Facebook, which has purposes. It sparked a stimulating more than 19,000 global members. I have conversation driven by yoga teachers who permission from the moderators to conduct are also professional musicians. Other topics research, and I frequently disclose my include what might be the best type of position as an academic. I also post relevant insurance for a sole trader or business, how information about my personal experience to market a new class more effectively, what as a yoga teacher and practitioner, and share other yoga teachers do to de-stress, how to my ideas and yoga-related news with this deal with our own injuries, or how to deal community like other members do. There with problematic students. are some very active members who form a A fascinating conversation focused on core group of regular posters and responders. how to recognise and facilitate safe spaces There is also a wide range of ideas for people with mental illness and victims of regarding the history, roles, purposes, and domestic or sexual violence who attend our legitimacy of various yogic practices and classes. This is an important issue for yoga identities. The poll below was created by teachers as most are not trained counsellors. another member. It demonstrates the level of However, yoga classes are often marketed affiliation with Yoga Alliance, which has as a place for the healing of emotional over 81,000 registered teachers and schools. trauma. The argument is that, through movement, a form of somatic therapy allows for the release of emotional baggage, and a postural practice can become a mode of healing (Brahinsky 2007). A very topical issue is the most appropriate ways to verbally cue postures or make a physical assist. Just like in a BDSM context, consent is important, and it is also important to be mindful of verbal and physical ‘triggers’. However, the most passionate discussions generally focus on the ontological possibility of metaphysical bodies and the ‘history’ of ‘real’, ‘serious’ or ‘traditional’ yoga. An example of a poll created in the There is also a strong anti-intellectual Yoga Teachers’ group ethos amongst many yoga teachers. This is Source: (Yoga Teachers 2017) countered by an active core of atheists, rationalists and sceptics who provide I quite often engage in discussions counter arguments to the logical fallacies raised by other members of the group. Some that are often proposed by individuals who examples include discussions around what have a lower level of scientific literacy.

Scientific literacy, epistemological representations of a perceived, ‘authentic’ relativism, pseudo-science and what yoga tradition. This is regardless of whether constitutes ‘valid knowledge’ are some of yoga practitioners are cognisant in any way the most common topics of discussion. of when the Vedic period is posited to have Based on my own observations in yoga occurred, or what the normative, idealistic studios and in online forums, the most texts from this period prescribe the Vedic common deities found in yoga studios are: lifestyle or identity to be. Śiva-natarāja (the dancer), Kṛṣṇa (the flute I assert that the quotidian, ‘traditional’ player), Hanumāna (the monkey) and practice of (modern) yoga is promoted as a Gaṇeśa (the elephant). Interestingly, ‘legitimate’ representative of a much older, Buddha is also quite popular. One ‘eternal’ (sanātana) cultural idea, and that respondent believes that this is because the cosmopolitan yoga practitioner has very Buddha statues are easier to get and little appreciation of the historicity of possibly less confronting than some Hindu several premodern periods. The fact that a statues. Another popular approach includes ‘Vedic world’ is located so far back in an honouring one’s lineage with life-size ancient past, and does represent what many photos of gurus, like the ‘pioneers’ of people consider an ‘eternal’ past, allows modern yoga, such as T. Krishnamacharya, mention of it to be transposed in an B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, and T.K.V. uncritical way into discussions of yoga in Desikachar (Goldberg 2016). These are cosmopolitan yoga studios around the world. hung on the walls in yoga studios For example, another yoga teacher from (McCartney 2016a). Sydney, Australia explains how:

Yoga teacher-training courses are expensive. They compress so much information into intensives. There is no way that a graduate will know everything at the end of the course. The idea of the Vedas is just too abstract for people that it doesn’t seem to mean anything. Pictures of Iyengar performing various yoga Yet, it is splashed across marketing postures stuff all the time. But people talk Source: (YogaTrail 2016) about the Vedas as if they just bumped into them down the street.

So, it’s interesting how it is at the same time everywhere, but at the *** same time nowhere. I would like to Phrases like the ‘Vedic Way of Life’ or know more about Vedic stuff, but the ‘Vedic Lifestyle’ seem quite innocuous where do I begin. It seems like and appear to have little consequence. Yet, I such a huge topic, and if I wanted argue this imagined ‘world’ forms the to do it properly I think I’d have to cornerstone of essentially all variants of a go to India. But I’m not interested ‘yoga lifestyle’ that manifest globally as in that.

practitioner or yoga teacher/trainee from the Another set of examples comes from Hindu supremacist? If the same episteme asking questions on the Yoga Teachers’ and texts, language, and cultural practices Facebook page. The following replies to my are invoked and glorified by both groups, questions regarding people’s attitudes how do their imagined communities, future towards a ‘Vedic lifestyle’ demonstrate a worlds, and ontologies differ? variety of syncretic and ambivalent positions: ‘Vedic would mean following the *** Vedas, i.e. [b]eing Hindu’; ‘It’s 2016. Why does anyone want to follow something Yoga is political. Whenever we thousands of years old? Shits [sic] whack’ consume either tangible or intangible things (McCartney 2016c). What we know of the like buying clothes or have (spiritual) travel Vedic past from archaeological and experiences, we are involved in political linguistic records demonstrates, quite acts of consumption. Any assertions convincingly, that this culture was not otherwise demonstrate a lack of vegetarian (Rosen 2011). However, a third understanding of how our desires affect the example demonstrates that one teacher’s social domain. A lot of people consider understanding of ‘Veda’ apparently comes themselves and yoga to be thoroughly from attending Grateful Dead concerts: apolitical. Just about every yoga teacher-training course outline explains the I’d say a majority of the Grateful centrality of the Bhagavadgītā to the yogic Dead subculture is all about Veda. thought-world. The following explanation […] It made me think of my days comes from the Sivananda Yoga touring with the Grateful Dead and teacher-training curriculum. It explains how how that hippie like subculture the Bhagavadgītā is: shaped my farm girl thinking…I don’t think I’d ever met a Considered one of the greatest vegetarian or even heard of yoga spiritual texts of the world, the until I broadened my experiences Bhagavad Gita contains subtle and in that Deadhead lifestyle – that’s profound teachings and has a what I meant by the majority of the universality which embraces every Grateful Dead subculture is aspect of human actions. It probably living this Veda ideal. symbolises the solution of the (McCartney 2016c) eternal struggle between the spiritual and the material in every Critiques of globalisation are necessary, human being’. (Sivananda Yoga as it privileges Eurocentric perspectives and 2016) cultural practices while undermining local and ethnic thought-worlds. However, This text is also central to the Vishva globalisation also makes possible greater Hindu Parishad’s (VHP; World Hindu trans-cultural exchanges and understanding. Council) politico-religious identity (VHP This is what we see happening with the 2016). Both the VHP’s patriarch, Ashok continued rise in the popularity of yoga. Singhal, and India’s Foreign Minister, What separates the Western yoga Sushma Swaraj have made repeated calls for

the Bhagavadgītā to be enshrined as the Crisp and his guest, Duncan Peak nation’s ‘holy book’; however, in on a transformational, week-long counterpoint, it is argued that India’s journey. We will be studying the Constitution is already the nation’s holy Ramayana, a book which is book (Roy 2014). Sushma Swaraj believes steeped in traditional yogic that the Bhagavadgītā should be made philosophy and the virtues of mandatory reading in all government devotion, duty, dharma and karma. schools because it will help ‘purify minds’ (Power Living Australia 2015) (Press Trust of India 2015). This is regardless of the fact that the Union In a response to a question about Territories of India, as per the 42nd dharma that I posed to the founder of Power Amendment, comprise a constitutionally Living Australia, Duncan Peak wrote that: socialist and secular nation that does not have an official state religion (Government Our understanding of Dharma is of India 2007). one of moral duty or the Central to the Hindutva concept of nature/essence of a thing, pending ethno-nationalism is a Hindu majoritarian on how it is used? We relate it to identity, a Hindu nation, and the concept of the Purusha Artha’s that are the sanātana dharma (‘eternal moral principles’) four aims of a human life. We (Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS; Hindu believe from these teachings we Awakening Society) 2016d). An example of should try to understand and live how this manifests in discourse is in the our dharma. Better to live our own rhetoric of the HJS, which asserts that ‘the dharma then try to succeed in strength of the unrighteous and traitors to someone elses [sic], as the Gita Dharma is on the rise’ and that the Hindu teaches. We try to encourage nation should be established on the ‘guru people to discover their dharma principle’ (HJS 2016c). and feel comfortable with The principle of Hindu dharma is used prosperity as long as it is through as a counterpoint to secularism. It is the core the eyes of dharma. We hold a of the Hindu nationalist identity and the retreat ‘Being of Purpose’ where globalist agenda. Dharma is also central to we take student [sic] through a many yogic concepts and dialectic week of understanding their discourses. This is regardless of whether one signature strength and how they considers themselves a ‘modern’ or can serve the greater good in an ‘traditional’ yoga practitioner. Power Living attempt to get them clear on their Australia is arguably the most successful own dharma. It definitely blends yoga business in Australia. The ways it modern teachings but is inspired evokes nostalgic ideas like dharma are by vedic [sic] wisdom. (Power witnessed in the following two examples: Living Australia 2016)

500HR TEACHER TRAINING The following excerpts show how HJS PATHWAY | BYRON BAY | invokes this term, and what its thoughts are MARCH 2016 on ‘modern’ yoga: Join Master Facilitator Keenan

Are those, who remove ‘Om’ and the yoga community. Those of you ‘Surya-namaskar’ from ‘Yoga’, who use the word “politics” so thinking that they have more frivolously, consider that word as a knowledge than our Sages and place holder for “human rights”, Seers? ‘Yogasana’ is not just “student safety and well-being”, physical exercise but it is also “freedom” etc etc. if [sic] you are spiritual exercise. ‘Dharma-drohis’ ***privileged*** enough to working at psychological level are consider those ideas, and what is not remembered either for their happening right now as mere work or even by their names; politics, perhaps you should check whereas what is advised by Sages yourself and read up on allyship, remains eternal as there is and take a good long meditation to un-manifest power of ‘Om’ in think about the things you are able them. (HJS 2016b) to disregard, ignore, or forget because of that privilege. HJS wishes all Hindu (McCartney 2016b) [Number of Dharmabhimanis a Blissful New ‘likes’ = 21] Year! Let us resolve to Strive with all our Strength for Regardless of such pro-social, activist Re-establishing Ramrajya again. attitudes like the representative samples (HJS 2016a) above, the overwhelmingly ‘liked’ comment shows that many yoga practitioners are These statements are qualified by the deeply ambivalent (and ignorant) of following excerpts from responses to a yoga-related politics, and how it is involved question I posed on the Yoga Teachers’ in glocal processes of exploitation and Facebook page. Note how I have included consumption. the number of ‘likes’ these comments Yoga and politics DON’T mix!! received. This is an attempt to show how the Like at all!! Stop trying to impose community responded and identifies with your feelings onto others! We the comments of others: aren’t all upset about it like you may be! (McCartney 2016b) What you said about Dharma [Number of ‘likes’ = 124] resonates truthfully. It is an important part of teaching yoga to The support for this type of response bring the world into balance as this demonstrates a central point related to my effects our Karma. When it comes overall assertion that the general to world peace, disasters in the ambivalence many western yoga world [sic] to ignore these things practitioners have toward glocal politics for me is ignoring some of the helps facilitate the assimilationist processes deeper things of yoga. (McCartney of an expansionist, Hindu agenda, which 2016b) [Number of ‘likes’ = 18] directly incorporates the soft power of yoga into broadening the sphere of cultural, Most of the comments on the political and economic influence of the thread have redeemed my faith in Indian state. This occurs through the yoga

practitioners’ uncritical consumption of a While some Western yoga practitioners homogenised cultural practice like yoga, understand the political currents that yoga is which is central to both the emic and etic involved in, or at least appreciate that a perceptions of Hindu supremacist legitimacy. yoga practice does not necessarily preclude If the cosmopolitan yoga practitioner does social activism, many Western yoga not value cultivating a more expansive view practitioners have very little desire to know beyond the edge of their yoga mat, then about the domestic politics of India, yoga’s there is little reason to assume that a critical historicity as opposed to its ‘history’, the perspective will result. Yoga plays an political history of yoga as a cultural important part in the soft power initiatives reformation against Brahminical hegemony, of the Indian state. However, ‘modern yoga’ its role in the Hindu expansionist agenda, or also relies on the same textual corpus for the semantic power of overlapping worlds inspiration, identity, answers, guidance, and and memes in which they stretch, breathe, moral certitude that Hindu supremacists do. meditate, consume, and imagine. I argue Therefore, we must seek clarity through an that our unwitting involvement with ethnographic and historical sociological overlapping ideas does not preclude comparison of the ontological nature of participation in or support for worlds we these proposed metaphysical bodies, so that might not be aware of or feel comfortable we can determine the commensurability being associated with. Yoga has a lot to between the utopian future of global yoga offer humanity. Just how authentically and nation-state of Hindu supremacism (cf. ‘Vedic’ we imagine ourselves, our van der Veer 2016: 54). communities, and nations to be is something Within Shanti Mandir’s ashram my we must explore more. transgressive discussions with residents and visitors alike regarding politics and yoga were often met with derision. An example of a typical response makes it clear: ‘I haven’t Patrick McCartney come here [to the ashram] to discuss politics Visiting Fellow with you. I am here to deepen my [yoga] Australian National University practice and my relationship with my guru’. [email protected] It is interesting, however, that this was the typical response of most western devotees. In contrast, several of the Indian devotees were generally quite happy to talk about ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS politics. This shows a gap in how politics is I am indebted to Karl-Stéphan valued within different global yoga cultures, Bouthillette and all the members of the Yoga and more importantly within discrete yoga Teachers’ group for their insightful communities. comments and invigorating discussions.

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i Malinar (2009) describes the concept of inclusivism, which refers to the inclusion of other religious systems within the hierarchy of one’s own theological perspective. The neo-Hindu proselyte Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) suggests in an inclusivistic manner that while all religions are equal, Hinduism, and in particular, Advaita Vedānta, just happens to be a better alternative (Vivekananda 2006). The term ‘neo-Hindu’ reveals quite tender spots in the collective Hindu-Yoga imagination. It is considered by some to be a colonial construction that has a pejorative application that is used to undermine the credibility and temporal longevity of Hinduism (Morales 2016). However, the term specifically refers to the reformation of particular Hindu philosophies and subsequent identities, which occurred at the colonial intersection with Christianity, and was an attempt to create national, cultural and political unity in defense of a burgeoning national identity (Sharma 1999). The promotion of the concept of jīvanmukta is one reason for Advaita Vedānta’s philosophical prestige, as it promotes the possibility of attaining liberation in this very life. However, there are very few people that have apparently achieved this state (Sharma, 1999). The neo-Hindu concept of jīvanmukta differs from Śaṅkara’s ninth-century interpretation due to the emphasis of an ‘ideal’ identity that includes visible elements of social activism (Srivastava 1990). The emphasis on charitable works is one reason why organisations like Shanti Mandir can be considered a neo-Hindu organisation (Mandir 2015). This focus on a broader concept of charity is also part of a cultural bricolage that formed during the colonial period (Hatcher 2007).