Artifacts | To ‘Om’ or not to ‘Om’?

Vanessa Moore

Apart from being the longest day of the year, last Sunday was also special for another reason. It was the first ever UN international day of yoga. Promoted enthusiastically worldwide and supported by 177 countries, the day was the brainchild of Indian Prime Minister Nahendra Modi, who viewed it as a demonstration of the country’s cultural soft power.
While Modi’s aim was to promote peace and harmony through the several-thousand year old practice, many were worried that it was a bid by Hindus to spread Hinduism. As a result, to placate Muslims, the “sun salutation” exercise was cut from Delhi’s Sunday morning mass routine, together with the Hindu “Om” chant.
While it’s true that yoga is rooted in Hinduism and carries religious associations in India, for most of the world the religious aspect plays a negligible role is what’s often seen primarily as a form of physical exercise. Yoga as we know it today is only about 100 years old and was re-invented in the West, so much of what is taught nowadays is actually an evolution. From yoga centres in LA to gyms in London, most of the exercises are now an Americanised offshoot of the original.
The problem with yoga is that while it’s often seen as a spiritual practice, it’s not always necessarily the case. The business of yoga is also an intensely commercial one with a multibillion-dollar industry. On the other side of it, most western yoga clichés are pretty awful – hippies, chanting and creepy new age cults – and it’s hard to navigate between the two. Despite its paradoxes, yoga can be beneficial to anybody, regardless of age or abilities. But unlike India’s Muslim objectors, am I right in thinking that you don’t have to embrace the spiritual side if you don’t want to?
In a documentary I recently watched called “Enlighten up”, filmmaker Kate Churchill tries to address precisely this question by finding a yoga novice and charting his progress over several months to see if the change is more than purely physical. Kate immerses guinea pig journalist Nick in yoga, and follows him around the world visiting gurus, celebrities and teachers. As Nick investigates yoga, the more contradictions he discovers, and in the end he ultimately strays from the plan.
Like Nick and most yoga students, when I started it was purely for the physical. Having been through two cycles of physiotherapy for my back and shoulder, it was actually my physio who recommended I try it. As someone who regularly goes to the gym, physical and mental fitness are pretty high up on my list, so yoga ticks both those boxes for me. And what I’ve found is while the chanting may not be for everyone, the sweating and the work out definitely are.
So is yoga always more than just a workout? Although it’s seen as a path to realizing the higher self, there are definitely secondary benefits on the way that are more than purely physical in terms of mental and emotional wellbeing. Yoga is a catalyst for change and can be seen from its use in schools, prisons and other social settings to help alleviate suffering.
Yet most great yogis maintain that yoga is both a spiritual and a physical practice. Yoga goes far beyond the mat and is a way of life. But personally I think you can choose to take whichever side you want to from it. Like most sports or hobbies, for most people, we won’t ever become experts, but we can choose to partake in varying degrees and to varying extents. For those so inclined though, there’s definitely room to take it to a deeper level.
With yoga, like a good curry, what you get in India and what you get in the West are two totally different things. While you can enjoy your westernized chicken korma, if you choose, you also have the option of digging deeper and discovering what an authentic masala dhosa or a biriyani is. Taking yoga metaphorically, you can likewise choose how far to ride and when to get off.
As for me, unlike the guy in the film, eight years later I’m still doing yoga. While I now do the chanting and occasionally meditate, I haven’t become a Hindu and I’m not about to join some new age cult anytime soon. Like anything in life, it’s all about choices. And luckily we’re all free to bend like pretzels and then perhaps a little more happily, go back to our day jobs after.