Enjoyable article.
My wife became a certified yoga instructor a number of years ago and we, too, considered the aspect of cultural appropriation. I had mixed feelings about it.
If not for several Indian gurus I never would have embarked on a course of self-enquiry, but a great many non-Indian yoga teachers are really respectful of the art's roots. On the other hand, the US makes everything into a Disney version. I've been a martial artist for fifty years and have seen the way the Japanese art has been turned into an absurdity in too many places to count. So far, though, even though yoga teachers have varying degrees of fitness, it seems that a person can get a good workout almost anywhere she goes.
Americans like rewards and awards and titles, whether they deserve them or not. This is a generalization, of course, but it's obvious in every art form. In the least they like cool stuff, so what used to be practiced in the dirt under a tree is now in an air conditioned, sunlit studio on a fancy mat wearing designer clothing.
My friend whom I have mentioned, a vaidya from Bombay, told me that his older relatives were quite thankful to the British, Despite the havoc, looting, racism, deaths, abuse, and misery they brought to the Indian people during their untenable occupation, my friend said that it was the interest of several curious British men that revived Ayurveda beginning with translating the ancient texts. Ironically, though, here we are more than 80 years since the British pulled out of India and most of what is considered Ayurvedic practice today has become so watered down that it has nearly lost the core of its discipline.
Today's yoga is a far cry from the original ideal, which was to restore the unity between the individual mind and the totality of consciousness. It's now a form of exercise with stretching, contorting, and strengthening movements. And the yoga apparel industry has gone off the charts. Still, there is good with the absurd, and yoga is quite beneficial depending on what someone wants to put into their practice.
