I am staying at a Yoga ashram in India, as it was close to the place I was traveling. I meet a lot of yogis here in the ashram. 90% of them are from Europe and America (as in continent) and the rest from India. After talking to many people, I get a feeling that a good percentage of the people are simply using Yoga to escape from the actual responsibilities of life. There is nothing wrong with taking a break to practice Yoga. But, I keep hearing the same stories being repeated.
can’t hold onto a job and decided to quit
giving up smoking
don’t know what I should be doing
wanted to meet new people
fascinated by all things Hindu, especially chanting
I was reading the translation of Upanishads the other day by Eknath Easwaran.
It says the students that went on the spiritual path, had such a strong desire to find the answers to know, to find the central principles which make sense of the world we live in. This fervent desire to know is the motivation behind all science, so we should not be surprised to find in Vedic India the beginnings of a potent scientific tradition.
Students were there in the ashrams or forests because they were prepared to devote a good measure of their lives – the traditional period was twelve years, to this kind of unique higher education. Where study meant not reading books but a complete reordering of one’s life, training the mind and senses with the dedication required of an Olympian athlete.
Coming back to my ashram experience, I find it very odd that these people claim superiority as they are supposedly on a spiritual path and very different from the normal people that want to get their latest flat screen tv.
I am also noticing that there is a Yoga teachers training program at the ashram where one can get to teach in just 30 days in a complete traditional gurukula parampara, where the students book through the cosmic internet for a small fee of about two thousand dollars. I heard that the students did not choose to be here (for two thousand dollars), but were chosen. All 250 of them and of course, no previous Yoga experience is necessary.
No wonder, Yoga seems like an escape and the cheapest way to have a career, all in 30 days.
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