PODCAST | A look at the yoga revolution on International Yoga Day

Moneycontrol News
Even before the optics of International Yoga Day began to dominate news cycles and social media feeds, not to mention your inboxes, yoga was one of the most successful Indian exports. Kriya yoga perpetuated and popularised by Yogananda Paramhansa all over America in the 1920s turned him into a spiritual icon and made his 1946 book, “Autobiography of a Yogi” a bestseller internationally.

There was also Krishnamacharya who not only brought his Yoga wisdom to the West but also mentored three legendary yogis with a global following, namely B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, and T.K.V. Desikachar.

In 1958, Indian-born Swami Vishnu-Devananda, as also his book “The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga,” became definitive reference points for scores of Yoga practitioners around the world. He went on to establish the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers, all over the world.

It would take the sixties, when America was awash with the naive idealism of flower children, when a yogi arrived on the international stage, to truly mainstream the idea of yoga as a lifestyle choice. Yes, we are talking about Maharishi Mahesh yogi whose mantras of transcendental meditation spawned an empire that included thousands of teachers, millions of followers including The Beatles, and over 1,200 centers spread across 108 countries. So yes, as we said, yoga has been a part of the global spiritual landscape much before the ideation of International Yoga Day.

I am Rakesh and today on Money Control Podcast, we are celebrating International Yoga Day with backstories about how and why this ancient meditative discipline captured the imagination of the world.

We were telling you about how yoga became an international phenomenon and we cannot miss the decades of the sixties and the seventies because these changed forever the way yoga was taught and learnt across the globe.

Apart from Mahesh yogi in the sixties, there was another master, B.K.S. Iyengar, whose innovative classes and book “Light on Yoga” caught the attention of serious practitioners. Iyengar yoga is still used as a benchmark for committed asana practice around the world. It will not be far-fetched to say that Iyenger yoga marked a "before" and "after" watershed moment in the spread of Yoga in the West because everyone who came after BKS Iyeneger was in some way influenced by his fastidious and uncompromising emphasis on anatomical correctness.

From Amrit Desai to Swami Rama – who is supposed to have stunned Western researchers with his ability to control his autonomic nervous system functions – to Swami Satchidananda – another another of Swami Sivananda's disciples – to Baba Hari Dass, there were many Indians who created empires with their teachings.

And then came another influential master in the form of Pattabhi Jois who arrived in the US in 1975 and established what is now revered and practiced worldwide as Ashtanga-Vinyasa yoga. A specific discipline that is now being perpetuated by caucasian yogis who come to India to study Ashtanga and then travel to exotic locations around the world to organise retreats and teach the next generation of aspiring Yogis worldwide.
It is because of pioneers like these and T.K.V. Desikachar, son of the great master Sri Krishnamacharya, and publication of yoga journals and books that today the west has embraced yoga whole heartedly.
The way yoga is practiced and viewed has undergone a major transformation though.
We now have a generation of Instagram-friendly yogis endorsing designer wear, running YouTube channels and webpages with millions of followers, and occasionally getting into unsavoury controversies like Bikram Choudhury whose hot yoga practice was one of the most popular trends in the US, and is still followed by actors like Sonakshi Sinha.

In the eighties, a much more understated yoga guru like Rama Bans in Bollywood was credited for transforming Rekha from a young, voluptuous beauty to someone who acquired mindfulness, yoga-contoured elegance, and a life long habit of self-care.

Today there are celebrity yoga teachers in India with a long line of famous clients. There is Mumbai-based celebrity aerial yoga expert Anushka Parwani who has trained the likes of Jacqueline Fernandez; Deanne Pandey who has trained Bipasha Basu and Lara Dutta; the much in demand Payal Gidwani who has worked with clients like Kareena Kapoor Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Malaika Arora Khan, Farhan Akhtar; and counting. And many more who come in the category of "personal instructors" and travel with the stars to international locations even.

The point being simply this – it pays to teach and to learn yoga, in more ways than one. And to stay in the public eye like Rujuta Diwekar who shot into fame by supposedly helping Kareena Kapoor to acquire her size zero frame.

And just so that the mango people don't feel left out, services like House Joy and Urban Clap are now offering the attention of certified Yoga teachers who can come home and put your life back in the shape it was always meant to be in.
How much does it pay to be a successful, visible Yogi? Well, take Baba Ramdev as a case study whose audience-friendly mass Yoga events not only attracted celebrities like Shilpa Shetty and Hema Malini but also thousands of less prominent followers, and who has now gone on to build an empire of a shuddh desi brand of wellness. Brand Patanjali is the fastest growing FMCG company in the country with an annual turnover to the tune of about 10,200 crore rupees!

So as we said before, most of this growth and propagation of yoga happened even before a UN resolution designated June 21 as International yoga day. The nonstop coverage of public events on yoga day may have added to the larger than life optics but yoga's brand equity around the world has always been considerable.

Yoga is a multi-billion dollar industry, over USD 80 billion to be exact, if only because it appeals to the basic human need to connect with the self in an increasingly disorienting world.

Ayurveda and yoga have always had an international appeal but now even a more expansive allied wellness industry has sprouted and it includes fad diets, juice cleanses, health farms, and the use of ethnic power foods like millets, raagi, drumstick leaves and more in modern cooking techniques.

According to some reports, alternate therapies like Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Siddha and Unani etc, coupled with yoga boast a very impressive annual turnover of around 120 billion dollars and the business continues to expand .

An interesting article in Yourstory.com cites an Assocham study, according to which the demand for yoga instructors is expected to grow by about 30-35 percent in the years to come.

Those seeking to teach and cater to the ever increasing demand for instructors make a beeline for institutes like the Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana or VYASA in Jigani and Bengaluru. While a consolidated approach towards learning and teaching in centres like Akshar Power Yoga is attracting young saadhaks in droves.

Enlightenment aspirants from all over the world wait for months to book an empty slot to be able to come and learn at the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore.

Today yoga has as many versions as it has teachers.

From shinto yoga to goat yoga – where yes, baby goats share breathing space with amused yogis – to beer yoga, which is for those who do not want to put themselves under too many spiritual restrictions.

The merchandising and accessory industry is not inconsiderable either as it taps into the need to own the most stylish yoga mats, wear branded yoga apparel, play specially curated yoga playlists during practice, visit the most stylish studios and more.

It is anyone's guess, if the materialistic connotations and commercialisation of Yoga have diluted its real purpose. Or if a discipline that was about connecting with the often-neglected inner self is now becoming a social media humble brag, beautifully photographed and choreographed asanas against sunsets and five star locations.

Does yoga need an audience to be meaningful… we don't know, but if the path to personal enlightenment is flush with profit, we don't see anyone complaining. Happy International yoga day everyone, and may the yogi within always stay woke and connected to what we think of as meaningful and fulfilling.