It is a common enough saying – a picture is worth a thousand words – and unlike certain other oft-repeated proverbs, this is one that we know instinctively to be true. Human beings like pictures. A graph is easier to understand than a list of numbers, a picture is easier to grasp than a long-winded description. Some yoga posture are well nigh impossible to describe in words, yet a simple stick figure can show you exactly how to fold and twist your arms, legs and other appendages to achieve it, should you choose to do so. For that matter, the use of an Indian toilet is so much easier to understand when drawn in a picture. Easier drawn than used, of course, but that’s a different story altogether.

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“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet…”

- Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West”

It is taken almost as a self-evident truth in contemporary Western public discourse to talk about the Western way as embodying the values of rationality, truth, and of course, democracy. This is then held in juxtaposition against the Eastern way, which conveniently comprises everything that the West is not – intuitive, spiritual, and irrational. Even ardent admirers of the East – philosophers like Thoreau or scientists like Jung, have subscribed to this view, even if their position was one of admiration.

One manifestation of this supposed stranglehold of the East on philosophical pursuits is the periodic flowering of Godmen, much like mushrooms in mold. If there is one industry that has survived the vagaries of economics, it is this. It is always on an upswing, and there is never a shortage in demand for the next shaman from the East. India in particular has catered admirably to this demand, from genuine philosophers like Tagore to flamboyant glamor-gurus like Rajneesh or Mahesh Yogi to unapologetic charlatans like Deepak Chopra or Bikram (of hot Yoga fame). Yoga in particular presents an interesting sub-culture within Western society, and some of the same attitudes may be glimpsed among Yogis, though in this case usually couched in uncritical admiration. For example, a Yogi in San Francisco would consider his education incomplete, unless he has made at least one trip to India – the purpose of which is unclear. Perhaps to breathe the enlightenment-laden air. I was once asked, without a trace of irony, whether my soul took flight like a dove when I stepped on Indian soil. My bemused response was that I was too busy with my feet stuck in the dirt to notice.

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In keeping with the topic of change and impermanence, I’d like to take a closer look at one of the most quoted poems of all time. I refer to the “The road not taken”, a poem by Robert Frost that is more commonly, and mistakenly, referred to as “The road less traveled”. The mistake stems from the portion of the poem that is most quoted -

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Shorn of their context, these lines hang in the air like some vacuous inspirational slogan, vaguely self-congratulatory in tone. Here, look at me, I took the road less traveled by, and look where it got me, they seem to say. And indeed this is the most accepted meaning of these lines. It is precisely in this sense that these lines have been quoted in wall hangings and self-help books, in greeting cards and wrapping paper; they have been repeated and reproduced until they have been leached of any semblance of their original meaning. Even the most profound truths will be reduced to inanity by endless (and mindless) repetition – witness the “Serenity Prayer” – and so it has been with this poem as well.

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Figure of a woman at Albany Waterfront Park apparently sinking into Virabhadrasana. Even scrap art needs yoga to stay limber.