Is Yoga dead?

I have been reading a lot lately since I’ve been sick for two months.  My broken heart has given me the opportunity to make a pause and since I’m an avid reader,  I’ve been discovering blogs,  articles and watching videos about my favorite subject.

Yoga.

Yoga is the art of enlightenment.  Once we start practicing,  everything is seen in a new light.  This light is inside of us and has always been there.  Yoga is the intelligent technology to remember it and light up the path.

Yoga is not the latest app or the hottest YouTube Channel.  Actually,  yoga cannot be transmitted digitally and that is where  the paradox of modern yoga begins.  New generations think their lives can be documented through pictures and have grown with the belief  art can be taught through a screen.

Yoga definitely not.

My Guru is teaching this season in Mysore.  He embodies the presence and silence that come to us after many years of devoted practice and teaching.  He is a man of few words. He is also in social media but his posts are very much to the point.

In these days of Kali Yuga,  social media has degraded the sacred art of yoga into a series of challenges and competitions supported by the unstoppable paradigm of business.

You get “stuff”  if you actually manage to sustain yourself in the challenge.

I ask myself

“What about the devotion?

What about the shraddha (faith)?

What about the desire for truth?

All invisible forces that are with us through lifetimes as we travel the steep path of yoga. For these inner qualities we don’t need an app to remind us.  They are deep in our hearts and souls,  a burning desire for truth we call tapas.  Tapas is the desire for the transformation of our past samskaras (mind patterns) into the softness and plasticity of a flexible consciousness.

It has nothing to do with scrolling unceasingly on a phone or sharing the last super pic to achieve more likes.  This is a distorted way of presenting an art that has been sourced in the silence and peaks of sacred mountains in the North part of India.

The Himalayas are powerful reminders that yogis in the past used to surrender their material mundane lives and commit to  harsh and simple lifestyles so they could leave behind all worldly inclinations and pursue their connection to God.  I have been privileged to visit these mountains many times and when I’m there,  there is a powerful presence that is born from the silence of the trees,  the blue skies and the solid rocks. When I’m there I feel supremely content, peaceful and happy.

Silence is the language of yoga and you cannot Insta or Snapchat it. 

Million followers of  fabricated yoga stars are getting constantly bombarded with spiritual materialism.  Is this contributing to the spiritual evolution of mankind?  It is my personal perception it is actually enhancing the poisons of the false self  yoga is supposed to dissolve:  ignorance,  ego,  attachment and fear.

Yes,  every time I see a super powerful yogini in an impossible posture it triggers my fear.  What if I cannot imitate her?  What if my version of the posture for the challenge doesn’t look as flawless and pristine as hers?  What is my managing of effects and filters and other gadgets doesn’t serve me to reach the number of followers i’m waiting for?  What if I have to work with software engineers and IT geeks to manage my accounts? Wouldn’t that instantly dissolve my purpose to follow the yamas and piyamas,  truthfulness above all?

The whole dynamic actually triggers a lot of anxiety and envy in me.  And since yoga is the path of exploration,  it is valid and necessary to reflect daily basis in our actions and their consequences.  We call this Swadyaya and I get the feeling this digitalized yoga is not the spiritual practice I signed up for.

There is something about digitalization of that which is pure: It cannot be done.  No matter how good the marketing campaign,  no matter how talented the software team. It can only be felt by the pure heart of a seeker who is ready to make all kinds of sacrifices for their spiritual progress. How deep can we plunge into the silence of our souls and there,  undisturbed by constant notifications,  become One with who we really are.

Yoga has been deformed by the millennial need of images and likes.  Yoga is sacred as India is sacred:  as each one of us is sacred.  Agreeing to be involved with yogis who portray themselves as Asana Machinery is betraying our intention and purpose as truth seekers.  Thank God there are a few teachers who can still transmit the foundations of this mystical practice without falling into this trap.

These are the teachers I admire and follow. Yes,  I decided to let go of many popular ones,  even colleagues from my school who I have seen through the years. Divas  don’t resonate with me anymore.  There is an urgency in some of us that finds these intrusions vane and vague. Yoga is also the art of setting proper boundaries in our minds for that which is spiritually conducive and what is not.

I feel a deep sadness for how digitalization has eroded the roots and basics of the science of yoga I love.   I’m grateful for those who understand my perspective and refuse to be part of this circus.   It’s because of your commitment to the silence that I know I’m not alone in this quest.

The quest is for freedom which is the only substantial reason for the existence  of yoga.

The quest is for unconditional love which comes from the peace that reaches us when we have practiced for many years with unwavering devotion to our gurus and the blessings of those who have walked the path before us.

May we honor them always.