Has the need to fill yoga classes and make money undermined both teacher and student alike?
The practice of hatha yoga was never meant to be an easy ride. Traditionally in India, when a guru accepted a student, it was not the student who called the shots, or indeed had any expectations that his sadhana (spiritual practice) was about ‘feeling nice’, or that his teacher should be attending to their needs. A teacher’s merit didn’t hang on whether or not they stroked the ego of any student that was fortunate enough to be accepted, and more importantly, the guru wasn’t faced with a financial imperative to fill his ‘shala’ with as many students as he could, lest he be unable to pay his rent, or get himself cancelled by his yoga studio.
We teachers can’t avoid some degree of compromise — bills do need to be paid, and when teaching in a yoga centre or gym, classes need to be successful. So it’s about knowing how much is too much, and what kind of compromising serves the practice versus what undermines it.
Despite the best intentions one may start with, once yoga classes became part of the ‘Wellness Industry’, something fundamental shifted. The rules of commerce caused yoga to mutate into another rat race, with success equalling the busiest classes, the most Instagram followers, the most YouTube hits, and Facebook likes. Each day seemed to bring a ‘new yoga style’ with some cool, made-up name, all racing outwards towards the periphery of what is physically possible rather than inward toward what yoga actually offers.
My personal opinion on this dichotomy is — it’s about the target. The aim. Hit it or fall short, that’s OK, but know what you’re aiming for, and at least aim in the right direction. Because, ultimately, what you’re aiming for is yourself (that’s Self with a capital ’S’)
But who am I to criticise? I myself started attending yoga classes all those years ago because I liked stretching — I wasn’t looking for enlightenment of any kind. I probably had a rather half-baked idea of what the word meant back then. Fortunately, I was blessed with good teachers, and I’m eternally grateful to all of them for the knowledge they shared, the wisdom they imparted and the discipline they instilled.
Eventually I settled on one system of hatha yoga and I continue to follow that teacher (he eschews the title ‘guru’), together with his partner and director of the school, and after 25 years they continue to lead me through the quagmire of modern day yoga practice and into a place of clarity. They have done this without compromising on what the actual purpose of hatha yoga is — to unify the ‘Sun’ and the ‘Moon’ within us and ‘die without dying’. This profound aim is never shied away from.
To hit the target, to even get close to the bullseye (whatever that may be in your life — if not yoga, something else), you have to truly see what it is you’re firing the arrow of your will towards, and not be distracted by superfluous, short-lived gains.
Whether you’re brand new to yoga or have been practising for years, if you’re curious about moving beyond the surface — if you sense there’s something deeper calling — then perhaps you’re ready to explore what lies beneath.
But hey! Even if you’re only interested in stretching, that’s fine too — it’s where I started after all, and I made it this far (and personally, I love teaching beginners because they don’t need to unlearn bad habits, the worst of which is thinking they already know it all). It doesn’t matter where you start, you just keep taking small steps, one at a time, towards a goal you can’t even see, even though it’s right here, now, in this moment, waiting.