I recently moved back to San Francisco, pretty much the Yoga capital of the world besides LA and a few other places. The entire yoga scene here feels so fake. I feel like I have been dropped into a thick goo of yoga talk, veganism, raw food, partner yoga and acro yoga. I liked it when I fell into it many years ago. Now it feels very claustrophobic, sticky, limited, brain dead and meaningless. While I agree that all forms do need to evolve, I do not want to be part of this eco system anymore. Yoga is turning into a completely different organism. I am done with this goo.

Yoga in SF is all about if one can wrap their leg around the neck while balancing calmly on just one hand or may be even a finger. Now you can do all of that with a partner, either to impress the partner or be impressed by the partner. I do think western Yoga has become a separate species, a form of its own. Yoga exists today only because it has been resurrected by the west. So, the path of Yoga evolution is completely in the hands of the west as well. I do hope it finds a balance somewhere instead of calling anything Yoga.  I have always dreaded the poses that one needs to do with a partner, a handstand or downward dog or the wheel or anything else. I don’t like involving another person in my practice. Partner and acro yoga creates a great break point for me.

Of course, I can ignore all the white noise and stick to my practice and what I believe in. I do understand I do not have to get into a tizzy just because anything can be called Yoga. The Yoga lessons that made a big impact for me were not the physical aspects at all. The Yoga sutras made a lot of sense, especially the santosha and aparigraha. The contentment and being non-greedy have been some of my biggest lessons from the Yoga Sutras among others. I do not find any of it here in SF Yoga and I will not shell out almost $20 for a physical practice anymore. Home practice it is for me, for a long time. Adios, (SF) Yoga!

I am not sure what it is. Is it my vagabonding through India to study Yoga or is it Vancouver or is it my injured knee? Western “vinyasa” does not make sense at all to my body. This is the style I have practiced for so many years until I went to India. My teachers at my teacher training in San Francisco were primarily trained in this style, for they were direct disciples of the California Yoga queen Shiva Rea. I used to enjoy this style a lot. Not anymore. I am trying to figure out what happened.

I was at a “vinyasa” class last week. Music was Jazz. Sade and others were taking turns to provide the vocals.  The instructor told us to press on the golden egg between the root chakra and the genitals. Some more chakra talk continued. My golden rule of thumb had always been to avoid a class where the teacher talks about chakras. I normally draw the line at bandhas. Most instructors understand bandhas. Chakra talk is so DC (Deepak Chopra) and is what I classify as saccharine sweet. It is mostly mumbo jumbo to me. I understand chakras in the real yogic sense, but not in a yoga class where the instructor is trying to sound cool.

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I am not fond of using music for my yoga practice. I enjoy yoga without music, for I can hear myself better, feel the joints open up and feel the flexibility increase as the class progresses. I think yoga is all about going independent of all dependencies. It is about getting rid of all the layers, not about adding things. I think it is okay to use music in a public class, as everyone is at a different stage of evolution. And for many, it is just a workout.

Using music is alright, if the music used is good. I am aware of the reggae, rock, trance and all the variations.  In San Francisco, the music choice was quite decent. Even though the Sanskrit was butchered in all the new age lounge music, it still had a rhythm. Om Man-ee pad-meh hooooom. During my teacher training in San Francisco, I was even taught how important music is and how it must be used to build a tempo. Personally, I do not want to use music as it is a distraction to go to Apple music and buy the songs. It costs extra and it is unnecessary nuisance. If I do use music in my class, I make sure it is interesting.

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This is obscene. Not because they ask you to expose. Asking to expose yourself to yoga is quite clever. Obscene are the prices inside the store. The yoga mats and the spandex clothing are unbelievable. I am so used to seeing the “Ohm” symbol on the asses of my fellow yogis in SF.  I knew they were for cool people.  While I was always content doing my yoga in Old Navy yoga clothes, I thought the name lululemon sounded kuku.

Lulu and lemon sounded silly and quite ridiculous to me.  I did not know these are clothes I cannot afford in this lifetime, or don’t want to as I have no need for them. I spent less than one minute in this store and made for the exit. This is a shop specific to yoga clothing and was started in Vancouver. It definitely has a huge following everywhere I go.  Just when I am studying and going deeper in yoga and realize that you don’t need much at all to be in the Yoga path, here is one store that will sell you so much to look the part. Amazing, how many people fall for it.

I realize how precious my knees are, every single time I get hurt. My left knee hurts so bad that I cannot do any ’serious’ yoga. I mean the typical western vinyasa flow with tons of warrior poses. Western vinyasa flow is what I normally practice, if my knees were any good. Now I am practicing ‘mild’ yoga to heal my knee. It is so ironic that my knee got hurt while practicing yoga. I should correct it, I got hurt while doing yoga mindlessly. Led by a famous teacher in an ashram in India along with 250 people. It happened 10 months ago and it still hounds me. It took a long time to heal while I was in India and I reached a stage where I could actually practice Mysore style astanga. I was doing good for a while, I had forgotten all about the knee pain or that I was injured so recently. The knee injury resurfaced back in the last few days, when I was in a hurry to get back to my daily practice. Now, all I think of is my knee. I know it hurts every single millisecond.

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I was in India during the Ganesha festival and I remember explaining to an American friend what it was all about. I was telling him that praying to Ganesha who is an obstacle remover has a few asanas involved. One of the main ones is where a person holds on to their ears and asks for forgiveness for all the mistakes. It is called Thoppu Karanam in Tamil. It is nothing but a dynamic utkatasana.

And then I read an article in the magazine Hinduism today, that some nut case has patented this sequence as “Superbrain Yoga”. I could not believe the nuttiness involved in patenting something that is followed in a religion for hundreds of years.

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