This is a draft of a chapter that has been accepted for publication by Oxford

University Press in the forthcoming book Hindu Practice edited by Gavin FLOOD
due for publication in 2019. This draft was submitted to the Editor on
18.9.2017, and first uploaded on academia.edu on 24.7.2018. The published
version will be uploaded in due course.

Elizabeth De Michelis

THE MODERN SPIRIT OF YOGA:

IDIOMS AND PRACTICES
1. Introduction and overview
2. The emergence of modern yoga
3. The idioms of modern yoga
4. Methodological pointers
5. The practices of modern yoga
Postural practice
Literature samples
Revivalist
Nationalistic
Monastic transnational
Non-monastic transnational
Globalised
Healthist
Other modern yoga practices
Utopian projections and social engagement
6. Conclusion
 THE MODERN SPIRIT OF YOGA:
IDIOMS AND PRACTICES

1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 1

As shown in many of the present book’s contributions yoga, like other religio-spiritual
practices, has taken on countless forms and has been practised, modulated and
interpreted in multifarious ways over the centuries.2 Similarly, we will see that there
are many variations also in modern yoga, but by studying this phenomenon from a
bird’s eye point of view, we can detect overall trends and main ideological currents.

This chapter presents a brief re-examination of the modern yoga phenomenon and
field of studies. Based on my earlier publications on the topic (2004, 2007, 2008), it
aims at improving and expanding these earlier observations, at integrating some new
and older scholarship and at commenting on more recent modern yoga
developments. It starts with the briefest historical summary of the emergence of
modern yoga, now fairly well mapped in various academic studies.3 It then goes on to
argue that, developing in the wider ideological context of modern spirituality and
mirroring different socio-cultural milieus, modern yoga gave rise to five main yoga
idioms or discourses:4 the revivalist, from which emerged the nationalist, and the
transnational (in its monastic and non-monastic variants), from which emerged the
globalised. Last but not least, we find the a pervasive healthist idiom.

In order to help us interpret this rather exuberant panorama, a few methodological

pointers will be proposed. More specifically, the present chapter makes use of the
important work of Dutch anthropologist and scholar of religion, Peter van der Veer,
and of Indian-born, British professor of English literature, Srinivas Aravamudan.5 Van
der Veer’s latest book, The Modern Spirit of Asia (2014), further expands and defines
the analytical frameworks that this author started elaborating in Gods on Earth (1988)
and in Imperial Encounters (2001). As we shall see, his discussion of modern
spirituality is particularly relevant in the context of modern yoga studies.
Aravamudan’s Guru English (2006), on the other hand, displays an exceptionally

1 The author would like to thank Michelle Angot, Jason Birch, Costanza Ceccarelli, Massimo De
Michelis, and Jacqueline Hargreaves for reading and commenting on a previous draft of this text.
2 See the Introduction to Mallinson and Singleton (2017 :xii-xxvi) for a short but sharp history of yoga

and an overview of yoga scholarship.

3 A selection of references written in English, in chronological order: Sjoman (1996), Alter (2004), De

Michelis (2004), Strauss (2005), Alter (2006), Singleton & Byrne (2008) Singleton (2010), Jain (2015),
Singleton (2016), Williamson (2016), Newcombe (2017), Deslippe (forthcoming). Some solidly
constructed and entertaining biographies reveal a lot about modern yoga history and milieus at various
times and places, see for example Hackett (2012), Goldberg (2015) and Foxen (2017).
4 II am not using these two terms in highly technical fashion here, and for the purposes of this

contribution they may be seen as almost synonymous, except that the term ‘discourse’, following
Foucault, can be understood as having somewhat more socio-political and power-related implications.
5 Sadly, Prof. Aravamudan passed away prematurely in 2016, see

https://today.duke.edu/2016/04/srinivas, accessed 5.7.2017.

sophisticated and perceptive range of linguistic and literary scholarship which, while
extremely precise, manages to skilfully capture and describe the highly fluid nature of
modern and contemporary ideological shapeshifting, a characteristic enhanced by
today’s globalised, high-tech fuelled communications, and amply reflected in modern
yoga-related phenomena.

Following this, the chapter looks at the practices of modern yoga by focussing on key
insights afforded by looking comparatively and analytically at different postural and
non-postural styles of practice. This section also looks very briefly at the ideological
and teleological presuppositions that various types of schools hold. A few personal
reflections are offered by way of conclusion.

2. THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN YOGA

The cultural-ideological strands that contributed to the formation of modern yoga
started to emerge in the second half of the 18th c. as part of the colonial and
eventually imperial interactions between India and (primarily) Great Britain. An early
British, Enlightenment-style, more open-minded and curious interest in indigenous
lore and lifestyles was eventually sidelined by generally more dominant, anglocentric
and invasive economic, cultural, and missionary policies. This caused reactions and
resistance in South Asia,6 and also led to a rapprochement with a number of much
more sympathetic western intellectuals, including many esotericists, who were often
‘looking East’ for belief alternatives (or complements, or reformulations) to a
Christianity that was starting to lose its hegemonic status in Euro-America due to the
progressive cultural penetration of Enlightenment universalism and to the rise of
modern science.7 As van der Veer has demonstrated Great Britain, despite its
dominant stance, was in turn deeply influenced by these Imperial Encounters (2001).
Facilitated by technological progress on many fronts (printing, travel,
communications, manufacturing, etc.) individuals, ideas, and material goods were
travelling back and forth along progressively thickening and spreading networks.
Indeed, these interactions can be seen as the beginnings, and in some ways
paradigmatic, of the type of processes that will lead not only India and Great Britain,
but the whole world,8 toward full-blown modernity and eventual globalisation in the
second half of the 20th century.

How did modern yoga emerge in this context? Thankfully (and differently from a
couple of decades ago) this story is now fairly well known and more research is being

6 Eventually manifesting as the Indian independence movement leading to the 1947 Indian
Independence Act, and giving rise to ideological movements which, in their updated forms, are still
influential nowadays (see Jaffrelot 2007).
7 About the ‘turn east’ see for example Versluis (1993), Albanese (2012, Chapter 9) and De Michelis

(2004, Chapters 1 and 2); for a critical discussion of Western concepts of the “mystic East” see King
(1999); for in-depth studies of both Indian and European appropriations see Halbfass (1990); for an
up-to-date critical overview see van der Veer (2014).
8 In a manner of speaking. Some pockets or areas not or hardly touched by modernity still exist, but

they are shrinking fast, and can be understood to be more or less influenced by globalisation and by
the effects of the (posited) anthropocene (Zalasiewicz et al. 2008) even without their active
participation or knowledge.
carried out all the time.9 Here a quick look at some milestones will serve as a very
short summary.

—> Opening the scene there is of course the at least 2,500 years old history of the
various forms of South Asian yoga from which modern yoga gets its name and from
which, to greater or lesser extent, it draws inspiration.
—> In the latter part of the 18th century we find the circumspect admiration of yogic
performance in Orientalist circles.10
—> during the 19th century the development of the new disciplines of Oriental
Studies and of the Study of Religions contribute to a growing interest in Asia, and to
popularising various representations of yogic ideas and practices beyond South Asia.
—> In 1849 we find Thoreau’s (1817-1862) somewhat dreamy, poetical, ‘light-touch’
appropriation of yoga, which may be regarded as the earliest recorded instance of
modern yoga practice.11
—> From the 1875 onward we find the Theosophical Society’s eager study, adoption
and promotion of (their own versions of) oriental philosophies and practices, including
yoga.12

All of the above were fairly loose threads, even though the Theosophical Society
(and the zeitgeist) had started weaving them together into a more substantial whole.
As publications of the time indicate,13 many Euro-Americans were eager to find
practices and religio-philosophical approaches alternative to their native ones: new
forms of belief that they could adopt, or at least explore in some depth.14 Many South
Asians, on the other hand, resentful of ongoing colonial criticism and encroachments,
were eager to affirm the strength and value of their own traditions and cultures -
forcefully if need be. In some cases these two approaches were held by the same
person, an excellent example being Annie Besant (1847-1933), a prominent
Theosophist who also became a leading figure in Indian anti-colonial politics.15

9 For references see note 3.

10 See De Michelis (2004 :40-44). Knowledge of Indic languages and religions was extremely limited
outside of South Asia up to the last quarter of the 18th century. However, this started to change with
the establishment of British Orientalism in India. Inspired by the Enlightenment project and funded by
colonial commercial interests, gifted scholars such as William Jones (1746-1794) Nathaniel Halhed
(1751-1830) and Thomas Colebrooke (1765-1837), initiated the modern western academic study of
Indic languages and cultures, including religions. Constant relations with India, the growth of literacy,
the wider availability of printed materials and a growing popular interest in faraway places and
religions stimulated the spread of information thus making Indic religions and culture somewhat better
known in english-speaking countries, elements of yoga amongst them. For critical overviews of these
developments see Aravamudan (2006, Chapter 1 and especially :31-37), van der Veer (2014, Chapter
3) and note 7 here.
11 See De Michelis (2004 :2-3).
12 On the Theosophical Society see for example Bevir (1994), Godwin (1994, Chapter 14 ff),

Washington (1995) and Nanda (2010).

13 Cf. De Michelis (2004 :116-119), Versluis (1993).
14 The term ‘Euro-American’ is not meant as a strict technical term here. In different cases and at

different times other geographical locations may be included (such as Australia, or Asian and African
countries), the more so the more we go toward globalisation. But the overall ethos of the spreading
ideology can broadly be described as Euro-American in origin.
15 On Annie Besant see for example Bevir (1999). Individuals holding comparable ‘dual’ ideological

positions can be found also at other times. Mutatis mutandis David Frawley, also known as Vamadeva
Shastri, could be cited as a modern parallel: less politically prominent perhaps, but quite influential
ideologically (see McCartney 2017, who cites Dhawan 2017).
Finally in the 1890s modern yoga finds its first fully-fledged ideological formulation. In
1893 the Swami Vivekananda (born Narendranath Datta, 1863-1902), emerging from
his native Hinduism and Bengali cultic milieu16 travelled to the USA in order to attend
the Chicago Parliament of Religions and “to seek aid for [his] impoverished people”.17
Local esotericists and sympathetic intellectuals took him under their wing almost
upon arrival, which allowed him to quickly acquaint himself with any local esoteric
tropes and cultural tastes he may not have been familiar with back home. By bridging
the already narrowing gap between Eastern and Western esotericism and ‘spirituality’
and by adopting the “part-orientalist, part-anglicist theolinguistics” that his Brahmo
colleagues had already started elaborating,18 he acted as the linchpin that allowed
the wheel of modern yoga to be launched on its course. His Rāja-Yoga (1896), based
on lectures he gave on the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali, perfectly exemplifies a
presentation of yoga in this style. Blending elements of traditional yogic lore,
modernised oriental spirituality, physical culture, popular science and Euro-American
esotericism Vivekananda set the foundations for the modern style of yoga discourse.
His actions and affirmative self-assuredness captivated audiences both at home and
in the West, and his style of address and teaching started immediately to be
emulated by others.19 He was arguably the first one to fully embody the role of
modern transnational guru. Indeed Vivekananda’s style, at once exhortative and
condescending, irenic and martial, rationalistic and oracular, and each time updated
and adapted to orator’s personality and audience temper, has remained the standard
to this day.20

3. THE IDIOMS OF MODERN YOGA

Vivekananda treated many topics in his lectures, mainly religious, philosophical,
social and nationalistic. But from the point of view of modern yoga what should be
highlighted is that he contributed powerfully to the creation of the two main early
ideological strands of discourse, the transnational and the revivalist. As has been
repeatedly observed the contents and ideological bias of his lectures changed
depending on who he was talking to. Apart from other variables, the main difference
is that addresses to Western audiences expressed a Neo-Vedantic spiritual
universalism peppered with esotericist elements, whereas lectures delivered in India

16 De Michelis (2004 :101ff and passim).

17 Quoted in Killingley (2014 :23) who in his contribution provides an excellent overview of
Vivekananda’s life, thought, and role as seminal elaborator of modern yoga ideology.
18 Aravamudan (2006 :27).
19 How numerous and quick to materialise such forms of emulation were is demonstrated in recent

work by Philip Deslippe (forthcoming). The fact is also confirmed by Mazumdar who notes that the
1900 U.S. census reported that most of the 2,050 South Asian immigrants “were listed as students,
businessmen, professionals and religious teachers” (2003 :224), the latter being obviously considered
a legitimate, specialised line of work.
20 See also Angot (2012a :224-231) for a short overview of Vivekananda’s role and of his historical

context, and Aravamudan (2006, Chapter 1), the latter part of which is “an account of how neo-Advaita
and yoga as espoused by spiritual entrepreneurs such as Vivekananda and Yogananda took up the
mission of a rejuvenated Hinduism for the twentieth century” (:27).
often aimed at instilling pride in Hindu religion and Indic culture in general.21 Or, as
Aravamudan put it: “Ecumenical and almost Unitarian during his sojourn in the United
States, Vivekananda demonstrated chauvinist colors on his return to South Asia”
(2006 :56).22

While (modern) yoga was new and exotic for Euro-America, in South Asia it may be
seen as the transformative revival of some older traditions, or again, as key actors
stated some time later, as a “renaissance.”23 In fact the South Asian phenomenon
may more accurately be described, in the words of sharp analyst Agehananda
Bharati, as a ‘pizza effect’ or, more subtly, following Federico Squarcini, as a
‘Pygmalion effect’. The first states that the original pizza, a lowly and simple italian
food, got much enriched and widely popularised upon its export and subsequent
adoption in the United States. Eventually, being re-exported back to Italy, it became
something of a national symbol.24 This is strongly reminiscent of the history of
modern yoga in India. On the other hand Squarcini, in his excellent historico-
sociological study of the reception of South Asian religions in the West (2012), points
out that a “vast Pygmalion effect” has been at play in the context of cultural
exchanges between South Asia and Euro-America over the last couple of centuries:

This ‘effect’ consists in the capability of a prediction or of a prescriptive description to

find autorealisation. This implies that upon the emergence of an authoritative source
spreading an image of the nature or capabilites of a given, subordinate subject, such
an image ends up influencing - whether positively or negatively - the behaviour,
autoperception and autorepresentation of the subject itself.25

Swami Vivekananda was a key agent for both of these effects in both their revivalist
and transnational permutations, and he was the first to elaborate and to massively
popularise the idioms that go with each discourse. Hence his pivotal, inspirational
role as archetypal modern guru exemplar. It should be noted however that his
formative example was then followed and upheld by many after him, who thereby

21 See amongst others De Michelis (2004 :127-128 and more generally Part I), van der Veer (2001 :74
and 2014), including the following statement “One can truly say that [Vivekananda] packaged Indian
yoga as “spirituality” for a Western audience and brought it back to India, where it fundamentally
changed traditional conceptions of “spiritual exercise”.” (2014 :85). Beckerlegge (2014 :341)
comments on Vivekananda’s two roles as spiritual teacher to the West vs. “nation-builder”, whereas
Lise McKean analyses Vivekananda’s nationalist (what I here call revivalist) discourse in some detail
(1996 :280-285). This ‘dual’ mode of address is widespread, and can be observed to this day (cf.
Altglas 2014 :20); see also note 15.
22 Aravamudan calls them, respectively, the “cosmopolitan” and the “nationalistic strain” (2006 :57),

and provides examples while treating the topic at some length, see pages 53-57.
23 A“modern yoga renaissance” is proclaimed by a plaque at the entrance of the pioneering (modern)

Yoga Institute in the Santa Cruz district of Mumbai, est.1918 (cf. photograph of the same in De
Michelis 2004 :xvii).
24 First mentioned in Bharati (1970 :273), and somewhat more elaborately described in Bharati (1980

:245-246). For a contemporary market analysis of this phenomenon see Askegaard & Eckhardt
(2012).
25 “Un imponente effetto Pigmalione … Questo «effetto» consiste nella capacità di una predizione o di

una descrizione prescrittiva di autorealizzarsi. Ne deriva che al momento in cui una fonte autorevole si
forma e diffonde un’immagine della natura o delle capacità di un dato soggetto – ad essa subordinato
–, tale immagine finisce per influenzare – positivamente o negativamente – il comportamento,
l’autopercezione e l’autorappresentazione del soggetto stesso.” (:138; own translation).
reinforced his aura and carried on this modern tradition.26 What is certain is that both
his example and his myth live on: indeed, the latter seems to be growing, especially
in India.

Over the 1980s and 1990s, in parallel with wider processes of globalisation and with
the rise of postmodernity, and of various religious and ethnic nationalisms we witness
the development of two derivative strands, each branching off one of the original
couple, diverging from each other even more than their ‘parents’, and similarly
localised one in India the other elsewhere (albeit with distinctive local adaptations).
We observe a more ideologically self-aware, at times more polemical and politically
engaged nationalist discourse emerging out of the revivalist one, and a globalised
idiom emerging out of the transnational one. A general background shared by all of
these idioms is the healthist one, which has its own tropes. Let us look a little more
closely at each of them in turn.

The nationalist modern yoga discourse can encompass diverse ideological positions
ranging from nationalist activism to cultural defence. Schematically put, activist uses
imply enlisting yogic ideas or practices for pursuing explicitly socio-political ends,
such as military-style drills, 27 or for theorisations of spiritual preeminence and
eugenic planning.28 Defensive positions, on the other hand, have become more
evident over the last decade or so, seemingly in parallel, and arguably as ideological
counter-reactions to powerful and fast-expanding trends of globalisation in modern
yoga. Defensive positions have been most distinctly voiced by members of the South
Asian diaspora living in North America, pressing for more informed, less exoticised
and superficial takes on yoga, as for example in the HAF’s (Hindu American
Foundation) “Take Back Yoga” campaign which was launched in 2008.29 Arguably
the South Asian cohort most likely to be directly exposed to highly commercialised
and at times facile elaborations of yogic lore, these critics contend that (globalised)
forms of yoga are all about cavalier commodification and reifying cultural
appropriation.30 The use of yoga as part of Indian Prime Minister Modi’s diplomatic
‘soft power’ can be seen as encompassing both of these positions.31

26 See Deslippe (forthcoming) and, in general (neo-)Hindu guru literature, including the references
listed in note 38.
27 See McDonald (1999 and 2003) and Vijayan (2009). In the last section of Vijayan’s chapter (:137-

141) the author gives a summary of RSS workings and indicates how yoga is included in its militaristic
drills. Photographs and videos of such drills, which also include sun salutations, can easily be found
online. For a brief history of Hindu nationalism up to 2006 see Jaffrelot (2007, Introduction).
28 Singleton (2007) has shown how eugenic theorisations were already being developed in the first

part of the 20th century. From the 1980s onward, these themes are more directly put to use in political
contexts, and become more widely popularised. The perils of actual and potential relations between
these themes and globalised yoga practice are explored by Patrick McCartney in a recent article
(2017).
29 See www.hafsite.org/media/pr/takeyogaback, accessed 3.7.2017.
30 For an enlightening overview of the history and ideology of U.S. diaspora Hindus see Mazumdar

(2003), about nationalist discourses in general see Jain (2015, Chapter 6 and especially the section
on ‘Hindu origins’ :142ff).
31 See the informative brief overview by Martin (2015). For more general treatments of the topic see

Hall (2012) and Gupta (2013).

However, apart from the powerful, economically and institutionally well supported
nationalist trend,32 we should also note alternative voices that speak differently to the
same problems. Vikram Zutshi (2017) thinks that “we should celebrate yoga, but not
for the reasons Modi and his admirers want us to,” meaning that yoga should not be
(exclusively) identified with Hinduism. Some Muslim representatives have at time
opposed certain aspects of yoga practice, when these have been proposed for
compulsory performance in national schools or as representative of the whole Indian
nation, the practice of sūryanamaskār (sun salutations) being especially
controversial.33 In a take less focussed on religious issues, and mixing defensive and
globalised themes, the Decolonizing Yoga group is also engaged in cultural
appropriation discussions.34 Lastly, critiques of certain superficial aspects of modern
yoga can also be made by way of humour and satire, as in the College Humour
YouTube video (2015) showing ‘Gandhi’ attending a modern yoga class.35

As for the globalised idiom of modern yoga,36 it started to emerge when (typically)
non-South Asian practitioners started to emancipate themselves in various ways and
to varying degrees, sometimes consciously and explicitly, sometimes de facto, from
yoga’s South Asian roots in order to embrace more individualistically oriented, Euro-
American inspired global paradigms, whether popular, scientific, religious, esoteric,
activist, artistic, entrepreneurial or, eventually, in countless synchretic mixtures of
these. There seems to be space for every imaginable permutation of yoga here, with
postural practice being the shared common ground in most cases.37

The globalised idiom is even more spiritually abstract and universalistic than its
parent, and the critical observer may find it difficult to discern a substantial intellectual
structure to it.38 There are, however, recurring themes and keywords: self-

32 About efficient institutionalisation see Mazumdar (2003); about financial support see for example
Sabrang (2002).
33 See for example newspaper reports by Fareed (2015) and Ali (2015).
34 http://www.decolonizingyoga.com/category/cultural-appropriation/ , accessed 5.7.2107.
35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBMc9s8oDWE , accessed 5.7.2017.
36 Concerning differences between transnational and globalised I follow Evans, who states: “Following

Kearney [1995], I take trans-national processes to be those trans-statal processes that are explicitly
personal, political and ideological, as opposed to the abstract universalism of globalisation” (2009: 49).
In terms of the present discussion, transnational indicate more ‘targeted’, relatively acculturated
discourses which mirror audiences’ ideologies and expected needs to some extent. Globalised
discourses are instead more general and universalistic (and in this sense abstract), more
multipurpose. They can be intellectually fuzzy and in extreme cases have been described as “spiritual
platitudes” (anonymous, own fieldwork).
37 Or alternatively some form of (neo-)Hindu meditation practice if the teacher emphasises a

meditational technique (see also note 38), or they may be more on the (neo-)Buddhist or secular
mindfulness side. About postural practice being a component of synchretic combinations note that it is
now common to refer to asana lineages. Internet searches for either of these italicised expressions will
bring up many examples.
38 This applies, by and large, to postural yoga, with which we are primarily concerned here, but less to

(neo-)Hindu meditation-oriented gurus’ theorisations, which tend to be more intellectual and to use the
transnational idiom. For an instructive analytical overview of these latters’ discourses, including
enlightening comments about the transnational guru phenomenon cf. Aravamudan (2006, Chapter 6)
and Fuller on ‘god-men’ (1992 :177-181); for biographies and contextualisations see Forsthoefel &
Humes (2005), Williamson (2010) and Gleig & Williamson (2013), while Singleton & Goldberg (2014)
empowerment, self-knowledge, self-realization, leadership, creativity, health and
healing including ‘overcoming blockages’,39 realising one’s potential, discovering
one’s passion, improving relationships and willpower, fostering spiritual growth,
reaching enlightenment and/or oneness, enjoying life to the full… Two further key
characteristic: globalised modern yoga, being roughly coetaneous and closely linked
with the internet, social media, etc. goes along with exceedingly visual and visible
forms of practice.40 Conceptually, if offers a dynamic and somewhat dissonant
mixture of highly commercialised and (at times extreme) countercultural formats.41

Such processes never happen overnight, but Smith and Boudreau’s Yoga for a New
Age (1986, first edition 1981) can be used to mark the beginning of globalised
discourses. Firstly, the book title suggests both the start of a ‘new era’ and close links
with New Age religion.42 Secondly, we find two passages at the beginning of the text,
which are both descriptive and programmatic in this sense. Smith and Boudreau
state:

Yoga is an ancient practice that has historically centered in India. … During [three
thousand years] yogic knowledge was held sacred, and its well-guarded
transmittal held it from the masses. In the past eighty years the manner of yogic
transmittance has changed, until today we find it is the pupil who shops around
and decides who his teacher will be, rather than the master who personally
selects a handful of students.
This being an age of mass communication, the teachings are now openly
presented through [various media] and many yoga centres throughout the world.43
As knowledge of yoga spreads … new devices are added to the teaching
techniques (:6, note added).44

also include some famous postural yoga gurus. For extreme globalised American assimilations see
Versluis, who coins the term “immediatism” (2014, esp. Part 3).
39 The healing theme can be very prominent in globalised postural practice, and it is understood

mainly along the lines of body-mind medicine as usefully mapped out in Harrington (2008). This book
can be very helpful for a deeper understanding of many modern yoga ideas and practices.
40 About the pre-electronic media genesis of this aspect see Singleton (2010, Chapter 8). As for the

contemporary panorama, even the most superficial internet search will result in avalanches of
materials. These obviously have to do with the quantity of people practising, but are also telling in
terms of types of practitioners, i.e. their high-tech profile.
41 For an informative and up-to-date overview of (globalised) modern yoga see Jain (2015); for more

general discussions on the commercialisation of spirituality see Lau (2000) and Carrette & King
(2005); for a trenchant analysis of the Indian situation see Nanda (2011); for an emic sample of the
countercultural voices see Horton & Harvey (2012); for an attempt at sharper ideological and political
theorisation aimed at “challenging neoliberal subjectivity” see Godrej (2016: 1).
42 Cf. De Michelis (2004), Hanegraaff (1996).
43 Of course in a sense the ‘well guarded’ affirmation has much of the ‘mystical East’ romanticisation

about it, given that yogic practices, if widely understood, have been pervasive in South Asia for
centuries, cf. bhakti. The confusion is probably between initiatic/esoteric and exoteric forms of
practice: no doubt globalised modern yoga can be considered almost as exoteric, sociologically
speaking, as bhakti in pre-modern india. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that certain pre-modern,
practices such as haṭhayoga may have been more popular and in certain ways closer to modern yoga
approaches than previously thought (see Birch 2015 and forthcoming; for a summary see Mallinson &
Singleton 2017 :xx-xxi). In any case, the shopping metaphor and the emphasis on technology are
telling, apt and prophetic.
44 These statements are also academically endorsed by Prof. R.S. Heimbeck, who concludes:
A further, more institutional example, is provided by the history of Kripalu Yoga, a
school that moved from transnational to globalised mode in the 1990s. The Kripalu
Yoga Ashram was established in 1972 by the charismatic guru Amrit Desai, and
remained in transnational mode up to 1994, when Desai was ousted following a sex
scandal. The institution has since morphed from an ashram-like setting to a
globalised-style mixture of wellness spiritual retreat and health centre. The way in
which today’s institution retells its own history shows a clear example of change from
transnational to global:

Kripalu’s history parallels the evolution of yoga in America, which progresses from
—> An exclusive reliance on Eastern tradition, teachers, and cultural forms
—> To the development of Western teachers steeped in the tradition and able to
transmit its authentic depths in formats appropriate to our time and place
—> To the integration of yoga with contemporary discoveries in medicine,
psychology, and science.45

To conclude this section, just a few words about the healthist idiom, to which we will
return briefly again in the section on practice: in some ways a very straightforward
application of yoga for purposes of health, therapy and fitness, it can also be seen to
have quite complex ideological implications.46 Occasionally used almost exclusively,
it is more often combined with the other modes depending on need, conditions and
teacher’s or school proclivities.

4. METHODOLOGICAL POINTERS
Revealingly, however, in most cases these varied idioms and discourses have a
common matrix, expertly described and discussed by Srinivas Aravamudan under
the umbrella appellation Guru English (2006).47 As he explains:

Guru English represents a transcommunal phantasm of global interactivity without a

strong sociological basis—or doctrinal core—to underpin its claims.48 A number of
religious universalisms and cosmopolitanisms come together through Guru English,
allowing these mutants and recombinants to jostle, proliferate, and clash within the

… an innovative trend is just now beginning to emerge, a trend towards adaptation of Asian
yoga beliefs and practices to the Western cultural milieu - a trend, if you will, toward formation
of an authentically ‘American yoga’ in which Asian and Western elements merge (Smith &
Boudreau 1986 [1981] :xi).
45 From https://kripalu.org/about/kripalu/our-history accessed 25.6.17. About the Kripalu school of

yoga see Wilson (1984) and Goldberg (2013).

46 About ‘healthism’ see for example Crawford (2006); about the struggles and ambivalences of

“medical yoga” see Alter (2005).

47 Which may be translated in non-english languages as needed, though the translation will inevitably

result in localised changes, variations and deviations, which may in turn become standardised in that
language.
48 Cf. van der Veer: “These newly manufactured spiritualities have a tenuous relationship with textual

traditions, guarded by centers of learning and spiritual masters. They are creative in their response to
new opportunities and anxieties produced by globalization” (2014 :192). Also cf. De Michelis: “These
peculiar conditions produced one important consequence: the ideological space occupied by East-
West religious discourses remained remarkably unstructured, as socially authoritative fora capable of
monitoring the quality of intellectual production were never created” (2004 :71 and passim).
 confines of a common theolinguistic frame. … Guru English operates within this hazy
space of East-West interconnection, a theolinguistics amply enabled by the fuzzy
logic of comparative philology and the dizzy identifications of colonial desire. A result
of interactional, transnational, translational, and transidiomatic exchanges, Guru
English sometimes produces the minimal amount of communicative noise and
sometimes engenders substantial neoreligious movements that animate practitioners
and their social worlds to the point of making recognizable history. (:30-31; note
added)

Much about this coherence-in-incoherence can be understood by referring to

Aravamudan’s own in-depth decoding of Guru English from 18th century Orientalism
to our days. But in order to get a sense of the wider socio-cultural frameworks within
which modern yoga operates we will do well to turn to Peter van der Veer’s The Spirit
of Modern Asia (2014). In this book the author surveys the same array of
multidirectional flows and cosmopolitan exchanges between South Asia and Euro-
America, but from from the point of view of anthropology and (what he defines as)
interactional history rather than through a literary and linguistic lens. It is worth noting
that both of these authors discuss yoga and some key and minor actors of modern
yoga history at length. Yoga in its modern forms is in fact the paradigmatic element of
modern and contemporary South Asian and South Asian inspired spiritualities,49 and
understanding the nature of modern spirituality greatly helps us to make sense of the
modern yoga phenomenon.

In his book, van der Veer offers some groundbreaking interpretations of modern
spirituality, along with much else.50 After stating that “[c]ulture and religion are not
marginal but central to the formation of imperial modernity”, our author points out that
“[i]n the imperial encounter the cultures of India and China gradually came to be seen
as “spiritual” and thus as different from and in opposition to the materialism of the
West” (:6). We are not concerned with China here, but with the modern
transformations of spirituality (and of yoga). Van der Veer goes on to explain that
“[t]he spiritual as a modern category emerged in the second half of the nineteenth
century as part of the Great Transformation. As such it is part of nineteenth-century
globalization, a thoroughgoing political, economic, and cultural integration of the
world” (:36).51 He further states:

One can, obviously, find deep prehistories of spirituality in mysticism, gnosis, and
hermeticism, and in a whole range of traditions from antiquity, but modern
spirituality is something different that cannot be explained in terms of these
complex prehistories. … Spirituality is notoriously hard to define, and I want to
suggest that its very vagueness … has made it productive as a concept that
bridges many discursive traditions across the globe. My argument is that the
spiritual and the secular are produced simultaneously as two connected

49 Along with (neo-)Hindu forms of modern meditation (see note 38 for references), while other forms
of oriental spirituality are in the (neo-)Buddhist and ‘secular Buddhism’ camp. The latter two have roots
in various Asian locations, whereas modern yoga is more exclusively identified, geographically, with
South Asia and Hinduism (with exceptions, such as Tibetan yoga).
50 See van der Veer (2014a) for an overview and Dubois (2015) for a perceptive review.
51 See also van der Veer (2001 :159, Chapter 3 and passim) for some some of this author’s important

earlier theorisations on the subject. About the Great Transformation see Polanyi (1944).
 alternatives to institutionalized religion in Euro-American modernity (:36;
emphasis added).52

In my opinion this last argument (and its corollaries) can be a game changer in the
study of modern yoga. Unhinging the ‘spiritual’ from dominant social structures,
including earlier religious traditions and institutions, allows participants either to leave
them all behind and ‘go solo’ - possibly with their own self as ultimate point of
reference as in the New Age - or to radically reconfigure them in modernised forms,
whether localised nationalist, universalising transnational, or globalised. It also allows
them to take religious bricolage to extremes of individualistic syncretism, and to
produce own-yoga forms showcasing idiosyncratic mixtures of likes, talents,
inclinations, aspirations and personal history.53 This element plays well both with the
unchurched nature of traditional Hinduism and with the Protestant ‘priesthood of all
believers’ tenet, i.e. the two major ‘native backgrounds’ of modern yoga, thus
creating ideal conditions for the proliferation of transnational gurus and for the even
greater proliferation of globalised yoga teachers, styles and schools.

This modern spirituality is what all forms of modern yoga have in common, the ‘glue’
that holds them conceptually together as a recognisable phenomenon, despite
observable differences in belief, practice and institutional set-up. Even the most
avowedly secular yoga will continue to hold at least the potential of manifesting some
spiritual content just by virtue of calling itself ‘yoga’. However much some
practitioners, notably of the globalised type, may try to completely disengage
themselves from any metaphysical or Indic content, the fact still remains that if they
do call themselves ‘yoga’ at all, by definition their genealogy will somehow and
however remotely have to be found in South Asian religio-philosophical history.
Adaptation, even radical adaptation, yes; complete distancing - not possible,
otherwise they would have to call themselves something else. In any case there is,
unavoidably, great symbolic capital just in the name.54

Besides, as we saw above, van der Veer does argue that in modernity the spiritual
and the secular go hand in hand. And not only them: the complete ‘chain’ postulated
by our author includes also the modernised concepts of ‘religion’ and ‘magic’. Here
the reader will forgive a lengthy citation, but these are seminal points. Van der Veer
states:

52 And Euro-American modernity is the overall form globalisation takes. In his usual keenly perceptive
manner, Joseph Alter was also moving in this direction when he stated:
The development of yoga as a system of metaphysical fitness at the fin de siècle can only be
understood if the frame of reference is global, rather than colonial and nationalistic, and if one
looks at Christianity, Hinduism and other ideological articulations of belief in terms of a world
history of religious ideas at this period of time (2006 :759).
53 But nevertheless milieu habits and wider social patterns can influence such mixtures in certain

ways. This whole problematic has been skilfully examined by Véronique Altglas (2014), who looks at
Sivananda Centres and Siddha Yoga, along with other non (neo)Hindu organisations. I have come to
this book only late in my writing of this piece, but it also looks like it could provide very useful
methodological and analytical pointers for modern yoga research.
54 And importantly also, if the matter is viewed from a more anthropological angle, great potential for

public and socio-political efficacy, and for bestowing power and charisma on leaders (cf. van der Veer
2014 :170).
 [writing about the spirituality of the East] I discuss the concept of spirituality … in
relation to another equally potent modern concept that is often seen as its
opposite—namely, the secular. In doing so I will have to clear the ground for a
new perspective on spirituality that does not make it into a marginal form of
resistance against secular modernity, but instead shows its centrality to the
modern project, and a new perspective on secularity that shows the extent to
which secularity is deeply involved with magic and religion.
Already in the nineteenth century the concept of religion had become part of a
narrative of decline or displacement that has been systematized in the
sociological theory of secularization. The gradual transformation of a transcendent
hierarchical order into a modern immanence that is legitimated in popular
sovereignty and is characterized by the market, the public sphere, and the nation-
state has transformed the role of institutional religion and in some historical
instances (but not in others) marginalized it, but at the same time it has freed a
space for spirituality. Spirituality escapes the confines of organized,
institutionalized forms of religion and thus the Christian model of churches and
sects that cannot be applied in most non-Christian environments. It is thus more
cross-culturally variable and flexible and defies sociological attempts at model
building. At the same time all the concepts that are used in this context (religion,
magic, secularity, spirituality) either emerge or are transformed at the end of the
nineteenth century and enable both anti-religious communism in China and
religious (Hindu and Muslim) as well as spiritual (Gandhian) nationalism in India.
(2014 :7-8)
….
What I present [in this book] is an interactional history that emphasizes relations
between Euro-America (also known as “the West”) on the one hand and India and
China on the other, with an emphasis on what I call a “syntagmatic chain of
religion-magic-secularity-spirituality.” I borrow the term “syntagmatic” from
Saussurean linguistics and use it in a nonlinguistic manner to suggest that these
terms are connected, belong to each other, but cannot replace each other. They
do not possess stable meanings independently from one another and thus cannot
be simply defined separately. (ibid. 9) … This syntagmatic chain occupies a key
position in nationalist imaginings of modernity. (ibidem)

And, most importantly, the terms of this syntagmatic chain

emerged historically together, imply one another, define one another, and function
as nodes within a shifting field of discourse and power that is, itself, always being
negotiated, invented and re-invented through historical and social processes
(2014a, 5th paragraph).

So van der Veer shows us the shifting architecture of these modern, imperial and
post-imperial conceptual structures, continuously changing and adapting under the
influence of fast-paced globalisation, but nevertheless shaping ideas, communities
and institutions as they evolve. These insights throw a new and revealing light on
modern yoga phenomena, it seems to me, over and above what the author himself
discusses about yoga in his book.55

55The book analyses yoga at length as a key example, but is not centrally concerned with it (see 2014
:169-170).
Srinivas Aravamudan, on the other hand, gives us tools to decode the detail of
modern yoga’s idioms and discourses. He shows us why (historically) and how
(semantically) “they do not possess stable meanings,” and how they “function as
nodes within a shifting field of power.” He shows us, in other words, how the
mechanics of coherence-in-incoherence of Guru English, “a language variant of
South Asian origin” (2006 :5) came about, and what some of its main themes and
parameters are. Aravamudan also offers us penetrating socio-linguistic analyses of
several famous modern Hindu and modern yoga thinkers and gurus, including Raja
Rammohan Roy, Keshubcandra Sen, Vivekananda, Yogananda, Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi and Deepak Chopra.

Much more could be said here, but the length of this chapter will not allow it. These
are vast and complex topics, the above has only scratched their surface. But it is
hoped that these theoretical pointers will allow interested parties to look at modern
yoga phenomena in relatively novel and perhaps deeper ways. For now, we will try to
apply them, and what has been said before, to a short analysis of the practices of
modern yoga.

5. THE PRACTICES OF MODERN YOGA

Postural practice
The practice of āsana or yogic postures has surely come centre stage in the very
visual and physically oriented contemporary world.56 Āsana practice is very often the
entry door to other types of yoga practice or study, especially for non-South Asian
populations. But there are quite substantial differences, overall, about the ways in
which postural yoga is cultivated, performed and employed within the five main
currents of modern yoga highlighted above: the revivalist, nationalist, transnational,
globalised and healthist.

If we drastically simplify and schematise the panorama for the sake of brevity,57 and
use the ideological orientations outlined above comparatively, we can say that the
earlier, revivalist style of postural practice in India was mainly influenced by the
tenets of modern physical culture and by martial and ‘man-making’ motivations, all of
them rooted in healthist spirituality.58 The nationalist style of āsana practice, on the
other hand, can be primarily exemplified by the yogāsana elements found in the
military-style training of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh),59 and can also be

56 About āsana practices old and new see the very informative video overview by James Mallinson
entitled “From tapas to hard yoga”; interested parties may wish to see the videos of further lectures
presented at the same symposium on Yoga and Visual Culture, see http://tinyurl.com/Y-
VCSymposium , and to consult the related exhibition’s catalogue, which includes materials on modern
yoga, see Diamond (2013).
57 Exceptions, cross-influences and overlaps can surely be found; what is proposed here is a

simplified schematisation which may be helpful for interpretation, reflection and critical discussion
purposes.
58 Cf. Singleton (2010 and 2016). Examples: Sri Yogendra’s Mumbai Yoga Institute; Lonavla

Kaivalyadhama Institute; early phases of Sivananda’s Divine Life Society. About the latter see Strauss
(2002), also reprinted in Singleton & Byrne (2008).
59 See McDonald (1999, 2003). This author’s short documentary video on 1998 RSS training (2007)

shows militaristic-style exercise and a few moments of sūryanamaskār practice (at 2:55).
found, to a greater or lesser extent, in the many yoga shivir that are run in India (Alter
2008). Yoga here is primarily aimed at cultivating health and fitness, both physical
and spiritual, not only of the individual but also, crucially, of the nation. The
practitioners are mainly, though not exclusively, urban middle-class South Asian,
whether in India or in diaspora settings.60

Transnational āsana practice is more often than not linked to the person of a guru -
whether him or herself is a master of āsana or not - and the style is therefore often
named after the guru, their school, or some distinctive element in their thought or
taught practice. One is likely to find a devotional element here: stronger perhaps, and
with a somewhat ‘centripetal feel’ (everything revolves around the teacher; full-time
communal living may be possible) when the guru is a monastic, more relaxed when
the guru is not. When these yoga styles are cultivated and promoted by a monastic
or para-monastic organisation, they are often just one element of a more
comprehensive range of teachings, practices and ways of life, including both yogic
and non-yogic components (specific religio-philosophical content, ashram life,
monastic training, volunteering, worldwide social activism, etc.).61 Conversely, the
yoga of non-monastic gurus is usually confined primarily to teaching elements of
yoga practice: āsana, prāṇāyāma, meditation and relaxation. There may be elements
of philosophy and therapy, especially in the case of more advanced study, but not
much else.62

The most outstanding and immediately striking aspect of globalised forms of modern
yoga practice is the extremely acrobatic and exceptionally high aesthetic standard of
āsana performance: BKS Iyengar’s accomplished poses, the seamlessly dynamic
āsana sequences that used to leave audiences speechless in the 1980s are all but
commonplace nowadays, replicated and exceeded in countless images and videos
everywhere.63 Commercialisation elements are evident: trademarks, businesslike
institutional set-ups, online class subscriptions, online shops offering vastly
diversified practice tools and lifestyle paraphernalia, strong social media and internet
presence, franchising systems, jetsetting teachers and retreat circuits, cutting edge
publicity campaigns in association with relevant trade names, etc. However, different
and somewhat overshadowed by the acrobatic and corporate visibility of the ‘louder’
forms of yoga, we also find a large and diverse range of non-business-minded
teachers and practitioners active in countless locations. Ranging from culturally
mainstream suburban housewives, to professionals with a sideline or alternative

60 Examples: RSS practice; Vivekananda Kendra (see Beckerlegge 2014); Swami Ramdev. The
latter’s vast enterprise can be seen as nationalistic, healthist and transnational by turns and by
degrees: for academic analyses see Chakraborty (2006 and 2007), Alter (2008), Sarbacker (2014)
and Khalikova (2017); for an emic view see Raj (2010).
61 Examples: Sivananda yoga lineages (post-Sivananda); Bihar School of yoga lineages; unaffiliated,

self-standing monastics such as Sadhguru Jaggy Vasudev’s (Isha Foundation) and Shri Shri Ravi
Shankar (Art of Living). About the last two see see Waghorne (2014).
62 Examples: Iyengar Yoga; Ashtanga Yoga of Pattabhi Jois; Bikram Yoga.
63 There is also the other side of the coin: Matthew Remski is exploring the ‘dark underbelly’ of

extreme āsana practice (see http://matthewremski.com/wordpress/wawadia-a-working-thesis/ ).

interest, to offgrid counterculturals and radical activists, they all contribute to the
contemporary shaping of “yogaland”.64

Globalised yoga usually aims at all forms of self-improvement and at achieving better
performance in various key aspects of life: not only yoga practice, but work,
relationships, health, and “realising one’s potential” this, or something to similar
effect, being an expression often found in schools’ explanations of their methods and
missions.65 In this, globalised yoga is thoroughly post-modern, exhibiting what we
could call ‘New-liberal’ tendencies (a mixture of New Age and neoliberal) which, as
philosopher Antoinette Rouveroy would say, “promote hyper-subjectivity through
injunctions of performance and enjoyment, that is of production and consumption …
that force the subject to continuously over-produce itself as subject.”66

Finally, the pervasive healthist approach can, in India, be seen as having a

grassroots and homely feel to it, especially when compared with the more ‘polished’
transnational and globalised styles. There is a taken-for-granted familiarity with the
practice here, due to its being culturally native, as opposed to the exotic or ‘trendy’
appeal often found in the case of non-South Asian practitioners. The latter also tend
to be overwhelmingly white and female, and more oriented toward modern spirituality
tropes than Hindu ones.67 But whether in India or worldwide, plentiful followers are
attracted to postural yoga practice by the prospect of health benefits and of finding a
sense of community, albeit in different ways depending on location.68

Literature samples
Here are some exemplary literature samples for each of the five groups described
above, to give a sense of ideological content and style:69

64 Thanks to Patrick McCartney for pointing out this expression. For references on some of these
forms of yoga see note 41.
65 Examples: Jivanmukti Yoga; various forms of Power Yoga; Forrest Yoga; Baptiste Yoga; many

younger teachers who, whether emerging from established ‘asana lineages’ or not, now have a
prominent personal image strengthened by substantial social media activity; numerous yoga studios
and online yoga teaching setups.
66 Rouvroy video recording of lecture (2012, passage at 51’05” to 51’43”).
67 For emic comments by South Asian observers on differences between these two styles of practice

see Baitmangalkar (2014) and Johnson & ahuja (sic, 2016); for gender and other statistics see note
88.
68 For a discussion of community and other aspects, see Evan’s stimulating contribution (2009), a

thoughtful overview and discussion of the Laughter Yoga school. As for examples, while the healthist
discourse is ubiquitous, ‘branded’ yoga schools are unlikely to be 100% healthist, whereas yoga as
practised in gyms and spas may well be primarily healthism-based.
69 Disclaimer: these samples are chosen at random - the statements of each of these discourse styles

are very standardised, so examples are extremely easy to find, though if analysed individually each
one can be interesting and revealing in its own right. Therefore, whether they come from one school or
another does not really add or take away anything from the overall argument presented here, and
neither is the present selection meant as a comment on any one school in particular, given the general
tone of the present contribution.
 Revivalist
ANCIENT CULTURAL HERITAGE
Yoga occupied in the cultural history of India from time immemorial an
unparalleled and distinct recognizance [sic]70 as the one and only practical system
of physical, mental, moral and spiritual culture. … Its elaborate technique of
physical education, hygiene and autotherapy endows exuberant health
contributive to longevity; its intricate psychosomatic and mental practices
habituate one to moral and mental discipline; and its sublimal psychic education
and processes finally culminate into positive and lasting happiness and peace.
(Yogendra 1956 :17, note added)

Nationalist
Objectives of Patanjali Yogpeeth (Trust) [of Swami Ramdev]
1. To achieve complete eradication of all the sorrows, physical illness, mental
peace and attainment of bliss, received from our ancestral sages through Ashtang
Yog, Raj Yog, Dhyan Yog Hath Yog, Aasan and Pranayam etc. … building a
disease free society. …
2. Organizing and advertising the Yog Ayurved camps, seminars and meetings
through out the world.. To build a healthy world through indigenous food, pure
food, herbs. Preservation of Indian culture through development and research, in
Ayurved. We are going to build Trusts & branches all over the world so that this
mission will reach to the every nook and corner of the world. …
7. Character building, moral upliftment and knowledge of culture ,awakening of
national pride , equitable society, arrangement of study and teaching of Veda,
Geeta, philosophy, upnisad, grammar for the welfare of world . … To help … the
healthy and wealthy development of nation. Conducting and constructing
institution [sic] to spread Indian spiritual knowledge in the world.71

Monastic transnational
Isha Yoga distills powerful, ancient yogic methods for a modern person, creating
peak physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. … Sadhguru’s introductory
program, Inner Engineering, introduces Shambhavi Maha Mudra - a simple but
powerful kriya (inner energy process) for deep inner transformation.
Isha Foundation, a vibrant spiritual movement also implements several large-
scale human service projects to support individual growth, revitalize the human
spirit, rebuild communities, and restore the environment … with its active and
dedicated volunteer base … throughout the world.72

Non-monastic transnational
Bikram Choudhury founded Bikram’s Yoga College of India. We are fully
dedicated to the wellness of the millions of people around the world. We spread
the therapeutic value of Hatha Yoga through 26 postures sequence, which is
known as Bikram Yoga.73

70 It could be argued that such mannerisms (translations and influences from Indian languages) are
characteristic of certain registers of Guru English; see more of them in the same and in the following
quotations.
71 From: http://www.divyayoga.com/about-us/vision-and-objectives/ accessed 26.6.17.
72 From: http://www.ishafoundation.org/Isha-Foundation/overview.isa accessed 25.6.17
73 [sic] From: https://www.bikramyoga.com/about/bikram-yoga/ accessed 26.619
 Globalised
The Baptiste Yoga™ practice and programs are designed to empower you with
the focus, training and insight you need to achieve consistent results in the most
important areas of your life. A potent physical yoga practice, meditation practice
and active self inquiry are used as tools of transformation – encouraging
participants to reclaim their full potential, discover creativity, awaken passion, and
create authenticity, confidence and new possibilities.74

Healthist
This book outlines a safe, effective, low-cost approach to back rehabilitation
without drugs or surgery. You’ll learn a simple and practical system to heal your
back, restructure your body and cope with stress. You’ll learn how your daily
activities may be hurting your back and how to modify them to prevent pain and
injury. You’ll become more sensitive to early warning signs of an impending “back
attack” and learn what to do to ward it off. Most important, you’ll learn a fitness
programme based on a philosophy that encourages both positive health practices
and a positive outlook.75

Other modern yoga practices

The practice of (modern forms of) prāṇāyāma or breath-related techniques, seems
also to be fairly well developed in modern and contemporary yoga schools, along
with various other haṭhayoga-inspired techniques like kriyā, ṣaṭkarma, mudrā,
bandha and meditation. Some form of yoganidrā or total relaxation usually also plays
a role.76 The elements of practice described so far clearly show how modern yoga
owes its greatest debt to traditional forms of haṭhayoga practice, and indeed
haṭhayoga texts are often referred to by schools and studied by more committed
practitioners. However, we should remember that, along with these sources, modern
yoga styles have also been “shaped by the practices and discourses of modern
physical culture, “healthism” and Western esotericism” (Singleton 2010 :22).

The other oft-invoked great textual source of inspiration is Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra
which we could however claim, along with Michel Angot, is “plus célèbre et célébré
que vraiment connu”.77 According to this translator and commentator, in fact, the
Yoga Sūtra was, originally,78 ultimately and primarily about radical transcendence or
‘deliverance’ (kaivalya) of the individual resulting in the self-effacement and eventual
extinction of the practitioner (2012 :120-143), an outcome that is hardly attuned to the
aims sought in virtually all forms of modern yoga, that is, some kind of improvement

74 From: https://www.baptisteyoga.com/pages/about-us accessed 26.6.17

75 Schatz (1992 :1). Written by a medical doctor and senior Iyengar Yoga teacher, this book is a clear
example of straightforward, competent use of postural yoga for preventive health purposes and
specific therapeutic applications, with just a touch of healthist ideology added.
It will be noticed that health-related elements are present in all six statements, cf. earlier comments on
the pervasiveness of the healthist idiom.
76 See Singleton (2005); about yoganidrā see Birch (2014).
77 “…rather more famous and celebrated than actually known” (2012 :13). Michel Angot is one of a

handful of contemporary philologists who have studied the Yoga Sūtra in depth; a short but rich
exposition can be found in Angot (2016). About modern interpretations and understandings of this text
see Singleton (2008).
78 Things changed over the many centuries of yoga’s history (cf. Angot 2016).
in one’s life conditions.79 It may be worth noting in this context that theYoga Sūtra
section mostly cited, adhered to for practical guidance, and relied upon within
modern yoga schools is the so-called aṣṭāṅga (“eight auxiliaries”) one,80 as opposed
to the seminal first pāda, arguably because it is much easier to ‘match’ haṭha- and
modern yoga styles of thinking and practice to this part of the text.81 Nevertheless,
the fact that this text is held in high esteem coupled with the deep reverence for
Sanskrit chanting inherited from traditional indic culture has also brought about a
modern practice of Yoga Sūtra chanting (see Nevrin 2004) and study.82

Looking further at the detail and variety of the practices cultivated within modern and
contemporary yoga schools would take us far beyond what we can do here, so that
must be left for another time. However, there are two last points that could usefully
be made, as they are general, and arguably have a bearing on the great majority of
modern yoga schools as they represent, implicitly or explicitly, the ‘greater hopes’
held out by many of them, i.e. they say something about their ultimate vision for
individual and social healing and transformation. They can thus also be understood
as presuppositions that inform their practice.

Utopian projections and social engagement

With the exception of the primarily health-oriented and non-monastic transnational
yoga schools and practitioners, which in this sense seem to be more down-to-earth,
a substantial number of the schools belonging to the other groups manifest what we
could call missionary and universalistic vocations, broadly placed along a right-
conservative (nationalist) to centre (transnational) to left-leaning or libertarian
(globalised) para-political spectrum. Oversimplifying the point, it can be said that they
propose, in various ways, to take yoga to everyone for the betterment and healing of
the whole of humanity, seemingly basing this vast programme on the underlying
assumption that individuals much improved by yoga will change radically and start to
behave splendidly, creating better societies. This strikes some observers as a rather
naive and utopian assumption: Aravamudan for example notes “the utopian
projections of contemporary gurus” (2006 :25).83

In the case of nationalist yoga in South Asia, and in light of a recent history of
communal unrest in that part of the world, the possible supremacist implications of
such a programme create concerns of potential radicalisation and violence.84 As for
the worlds envisaged by transnational gurus, one wonders why some of their

79 Indeed, even the ultimate ‘realized’ or ‘enlightened’ states promoted and allegedly showcased by
many well-known modern gurus and masters do not seem to have much to do with self-effacement.
80 Yoga Sūtra II.29 to III.10; see Angot’s important comments on the translation of aṅga in his note to

Yoga Sūtra II.29 (2012 :475).

81 Such a strategy may in fact not be new, but well established also in pre-modern forms of yoga,

perhaps for comparable reasons, cf. Mallinson & Singleton (2017 :xx-xxi).
82 These latter enterprises are challenging ones, especially considering that the majority of students

and practitioners who engage in them do not know Sanskrit. However,they can also produce
worthwhile results, see for example Ceccarelli (2016).
83 See also McCartney’s (2016) critical reflections.
84 A recent newspaper article (Mohanty & Kasturi 2017) exposes some of the ways in which yoga-

related matters can be implicated into the socio-political affairs of the subcontinent.
creations and idyllic projections bring to mind Peter Weir’s 1998 film, The Truman
Show. Elsewhere, certain globalised yoga environments adumbrate a kind of New-
liberal, neotribal prelapsarianism, perhaps based on leagacies from the 1960s, but
also mixed with Protestant voluntarism; one wonders how well they will stand the test
of time.85

As for “[t]he question of change”, Agehananda Bharati addresses it in some detail in

a 1982 publication (Chapter 4). He concludes that “mystical experiences” (yoga being
primarily and paradigmatically aimed at attaining them, however conceived)86 may
change a person’s view of themselves in at times unpredictable ways, but most likely
not their “interactional patterns with other people and with human society at large”
(:99-100), and argues against the “wrong assertion that the mystical life makes
people better” (:90-91), or that it “generate[s] moral splendour, scientific grandeur or
any other extra-mystical excellence” (:99).87 Ultimately, he insists that “[t]he
improvement of the human race is something that must be achieved by means other
than mystical” (:91).88

Having said that, it is also a fact that there are countless testimonials bearing witness
to the undeniable, widespread and at times life-changing benefits brought about by
various types of engagement with modern yoga. This may at least in part explain why
the number of people practising it (and forms of meditation) has been steadily
increasing over the last few decades.89 The growing popularity and positive impact of
yoga on the life of many cannot be denied.

In 2008 ago Klas Nevrin surveyed these matters in intelligent and informed fashion
(:130-135). Concerning the choices that may have to be made when attempting to
give a balanced shape to contemporary forms of yoga — very much a work in
progress — he concludes: “The challenge, it seems to me, lies in being able to
recognise both the beneficial and empowering effects of yoga practice and the

85 D’Andrea’s work (2006, 2007a, 2007b) is relevant here: he writes about the “neo” or “global nomad”
cohorts found at the intersections of yoga, dance (techno, rave) and some meditation/health resorts.
Besides, the possible, deeper ambiguities of these last two cultural environments should also be
considered, see for example Iwamura (2011a and 2011b) and McCartney (2017).
86 Bharati (1982 and 1978).
87 The many teacher, guru and ‘God-men’ scandals regularly surfacing in India, and seemingly more

and more often also in modern yoga circles, seem to support this view.
88 This book, along with the previously mentioned article (Bharati 1970) still make for informative and

provocative reading as they comment in learned and aware fashion on seminal aspects of modern
yoga history, despite the book’s “arrogant tone which mars an otherwise impressive treatise” (Robbins
1978 :83). The recently published recording of a lecture (Bharati 1978), also discussing several
relevant themes, shows a feisty but rather friendly intellectual.
89 See for example Ding & Stamatakis (2014) for England and Clarke et al. (2015) for the USA, giving

results for growth trends from 1997-2008 and 2002-2012 respectively. A quick overview of the latter
paper’s key facts regarding yoga and meditation may be seen here:
https://nccih.nih.gov/research/statistics/NHIS/2012/mind-body/yoga (accessed 12.9.2017). The most
recent Yoga Journal survey (2016, https://www.yogajournal.com/page/yogainamericastudy, accessed
12.9.2017), while ultimately a market and marketing survey, and therefore to be taken with a pinch of
salt, does most likely reflect a very substantial, increase in the number of USA practitioners between
2012 and 2015. Anecdotally, there seem to be similar growth patterns in many places worldwide, with
possibly the Arab world and sub-Saharian Africa (but not South Africa) quantitatively lagging behind
(author’s informed guess).
limitations and any questionable norms that may be involved” (ibid. :135). A level-
headed suggestion, though possibly not always easy to implement. More knowledge
and awareness of yoga’s long history and manifold tenets, up to and including
modern yoga, may help in such endeavours.

6. CONCLUSION
This brief overview has hopefully provided readers with food for thought and with a
few tools that may allow them to discern more easily some of the elements that have
contributed to shape modern forms of yoga. It seems clear that from the practice
point of view the main pre-modern borrowings have come from haṭhayoga, but it
could be argued that many of the modes of transmission and of the theories —
contextualisations, interpretations, elaborations, and aims — that have been applied
to them are peculiarly modern, and in any case heavily influenced by localisation in
different and far-ranging lands and cultures. After all, that would be quite logical if we
consider that the (relatively) recent yoga ‘renaissance’ is, as we have seen, very
closely linked with modernity and, more recently, with postmodern and globalised
dynamics. No doubt more traditional forms of yogic belief and practice survive in
places especially, though not necessarily exclusively, in Asia,90 but it may not be very
easy for modern individuals, especially non-Asians, not so much to physically
encounter them, but rather to psychically, participatively penetrate them, and be
penetrated. In any case it would be, as the expression goes, a whole new ball game,
though in this case an old one, which would also have to contend with modernity to
some extent.91

Commenting on the relative paucity of pre-modern interpretations in modern yoga is

not meant as a value judgement, but as a statement of fact based on current
evidence. In any case, it would seem that whichever yogic elements have made it
through to modernity, even if at times heavily (or indeed all too lightly!) reinterpreted,
or occasionally transformed beyond recognition, have nevertheless a peculiar yogic
potency of their own, as seems to be borne out by the experience of countless
practitioners. Still, while yoga did change continuously throughout the centuries and
millennia of its history, it would seem that this last change into modernity may have
been more radical than any preceding one. And yet, while the spirit of today’s yoga
may well be modern, the substantive is still the spirit.

90 Where and how many will depend on how broadly or narrowly yoga is defined. For an engaging and
informative overview of many forms of yoga, including some not mentioned in this chapter, see White
(2011).
91 Cf note 8, and Mallinson’s video mentioned in note 56 about the modern vs traditional practice

dynamics.