The Journey of the Modern Hatha Yoga to the West

In the recent past, there has been a dizzying explosion of Hatha yoga in the West. More cultures are appreciating and accepting the idea of yogic practices to introduce balance. Even some celebrities are familiar to yoga styles and acknowledge this ancient practice to be the reason of their healthy lifestyle. What started as a means to meditate is now an active lifestyle regimen. Ananda, Bikram, Kundalini, Anusara, Viniyoga are some of the mind boggling names in the list of traditional yoga.

Some of the above mentioned forms of yoga can be performed by everyone while others are quite complicated and require a flexible body. There is a wide array of yoga moves that show a direct and uninterrupted connection to India while other forms are modified to adjust the western trends but they still bear faint resemblance to the original Hatha yoga.

Starting off with yoga as a teacher can be a bit of challenge since there are various schools and styles. But before moving on let me assure you that yoga has been modified in the last thirty years more than in the past few centuries. Hatha yoga was not recognized as the predominant form until the fourteenth century. It was the time when yoga was identified as Hatha Yoga Pradipka in the west. A couple of centuries later, yoga evolved into various forms that were like distant cousins to the original hatha yoga.

Despite being separate entities, different strands of yoga showed amalgamation with various practices such as martial arts, Taoism, and dance. It also involved acrobatic stretching in all dimensions which incorporates ancient teachings and New Age Philosophy to provide flexibility beyond imagination. Interestingly, the West focused on the aspect of asana practice while neglecting the pranayama and meditation part. Though we hear enchantments and music, the aspect of true meditation seems missing.

Irrespective of the type of yoga, we can witness ancient threads of wisdom in recent practices. Believe it or not, Hatha yoga articulates contemporary teachings in the west inspired by yogis in India who have been performing them for centuries.