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Karmayogi
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India's Top Five Yoga
Centers
21
April 2008, Business
Week (US) magazine, by Nandini Lakshman
Yoga has been a part
of India's ethos and daily practice for over 5,000 years. But it is only
recently that the mind-, body-, and soul-enhancing benefits of yoga have
made it a global phenomenon. As yoga's popularity rises in the U.S. and
other Western countries, travelers increasingly are making their way to the
land of its birth. In India, yoga has grown in sophistication, and yoga
retreats have mushroomed across the country. They range from top-end luxury
spas to small hotels in religious centers such as Uttarkashi in the north
and Thiruvananthapuram in the south.
Yoga tourists in India
can also choose to study with neighborhood housewives who teach yoga in
their living rooms or at trendy studios begun by socialites. Fortunately for
the purists, there are several yoga schools run by grand masters who still
teach the practice in the time-tested way, steeped in ancient traditions and
philosophy. For them, yoga isn't instant nirvana; indeed, it is mastered
only after years of rigorous practice.
BusinessWeek
sorted through the available offerings, and for the truly devoted, here are
five top choices:
Ramamani
Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune
A must-visit place for
any serious yoga practitioner, the institute is run by the indefatigable,
90-year-old grand old man of Indian yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar, and his children.
The Iyengar school emphasizes in-depth study of
asanas (anatomically correct
postures) and pranayama
(breathing). It teaches students to adapt and modify their exercise routine
depending on the environment.
Situated in Pune, 250
kilometers (155 miles) from Mumbai, the institute caters to advanced
students of yoga. So before packing your mat and heading for India, learn
the basics from a certified Iyengar teacher in your country. Admission for a
monthlong $450 course is selective, and you can spend up to 18 months on a
wait list. Those who make the cut have to make their own arrangements for
boarding and lodging in Pune. Iyengar, called
Guruji, or master, counts
global celebrities such as Annette Bening among his students. Pune has many
decent hotels and eateries. The city is also home to the Osho ashram, set up
by one of India's best-known godmen—Rajneesh.
Krishnamacharya Yoga
Mandiram, Chennai
Based in Chennai,
south India, this institute teaches the viniyoga brand of gentle yoga. The
guru is T. K. V. Desikachar, an engineer turned disciple of his father T.
Krishnamacharya, a practitioner of holistic yoga. The course has five
elements of yoga including exercise, therapy, breathing, and meditation. A
four-week program is held twice a year—in February and September—and costs
$1,200 per person, minus boarding or lodging, which must be independently
arranged.
There's also a $900,
two-week intensive course in March specializing in any of the various
aspects of yoga such as healing or a specific meditation. The courses are
popular, so book well in advance. Bookings for September are already closed;
better luck for 2009.
Sivananda
Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram, Trivandrum
Situated in the sylvan
surroundings of the Neyyar dam and forests just outside Kerala's capital
city, Trivandrum, is the 12-acre Sivananda yoga ashram. "Our approach is
more holistic, offering yoga, devotion, and philosophy," says Swami
Sivaswaroopananda, the 46-year-old Italian doctor who came to India "for a
more meaningful life" more than a decade ago and is now its director. The
school, set up in 1977 by Swami Vishnudevananda, a disciple of Swami
Sivananda, offers structured yoga "vacations." There are two two-week-long
vacations a month. Peak season is November to April, and tariffs range from
$12.50 to $15 per head for a twin room, $8.75 to $11.25 per head for
dormitory or tent-style lodging. During the Christmas-New Year period,
there's a special culture, philosophy, and fitness camp offering a mix of
ayurveda and yoga ranging from $13.75 to $18.75 a day.
Parmarth Niketan,
Rishikesh
Nestling in the
Himalayas on the banks of the Ganges is Parmarth Niketan. The institute has
long catered to Indian travelers to the holy city of Rishikesh, which has
more yoga camps than eateries. The influx of foreigners heading to Rishikesh
on a spiritual path encouraged Swami Chidanand Saraswati, the president of
Parmarth Niketan, to offer yoga courses in English. Parmarth offers all the
yoga ingredients "in a spiritual ambience," according to Sadhvi Bhagwati, an
American scientist who visited India 11 years ago and stayed at Parmarth
"after an amazing spiritual experience." The ashram has 1,000 rooms on its
eight-acre campus. Room rates depend on the view—facing the Ganges will cost
more—but generally run from $7.50 for single occupancy and $20 for double
occupancy. Meals are vegetarian. The big event at Parmarth is the weeklong
International Yoga Festival every March. It typically gathers 550
participants from 32 countries with the objective of bringing together
different streams of yoga and healing arts including Reiki, Shinto yoga, and
power yoga.
Ashtanga Yoga Research
Institute, Mysore
This institute in
Mysore, a city of palaces and fountains near Bangalore, is much sought-after
by foreigners serious about yoga. It was established by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois,
93, a contemporary of B.K.S. Iyengar. Both were disciples of famous yoga
exponent T. Krishnamacharya. Jois propagated the ashtanga vinyasa brand of
yoga, which is the fast-paced synchronization of breath and movement
throughout the routine. The courses range from one month to six months.
Students can also take classes in Sanskrit, in which the ancient yogic texts
are written. The program costs $675 in the first month (the amount includes
registration fees) and then falls to $400 per subsequent month. The package
does not include board and lodging. Jois retired last year, and the
institute is run by his daughter Saraswati and grandson Sharath, an
electronics engineer. But Jois is always on campus for those who want to
consult him.
In the Mecca of
Celebrity Yoga
23 April 2008,
TIME magazine, By Madhur Singh
Natascha, a French yoga teacher, is a type that could be found in any
organic-vegetarian restaurant in any of the cosmopolitan cultural capitals
of Europe and the Americas. She has studied with the glitterati of yoga
masters, and is in town for a refresher course. "It's a dream life," she
says, while munching an organic vegetable hotpot at a café catering
exclusively to yoga enthusiasts. "You can practice yoga with the masters,
eat organic food, and rent a bicycle to take you around this beautiful
city!"
The beautiful city, in
this instance, is not San Francisco or Berlin; it's Mysore, in southern
India, which each year draw several thousand yoga pilgrims from around the
world. Mysore began its journey towards yoga mecca-dom in 1931, when a
40-something, five-foot-two-inch Brahmin was summoned by the ailing monarch
of what was then a princely state under British tutelage. Numerous doctors
had failed to cure the king's affliction, but the yogi succeeded within a
few months, and the king rewarded him by building him a yogashala
(yoga school) in his grand palace. It was here that the yogi, T.
Krishnamacharya, developed Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga — a comparatively aerobic
style whose devotees include the likes of Madonna and Sting, and thousands
of hipsters from Tokyo to New York. But it was necessity, rather than the
body-toning concerns of Western fashionistas, that shaped Krishnamacharya's
style: Most of his students were restless young boys, and he found that the
best way to focus their attention for purposes of meditation was to put them
through a rigorous regimen of strenuous postures, struck in quick succession
to minimize mental distraction. Today, the style appeals to Western devotees
whose priority is a high-energy workout rather than an inner journey.
K. Pattabhi Jois, who
taught Natascha here, was a disciple of Krishnamacharya, whose style he took
to the world. But she also studied with Jois's student B.N.S. Iyengar, who
moved away from his guru's rigidly-defined sequence of postures towards
greater emphasis on the spiritual. "If anyone asks me for advice, I suggest
Jois for flexibility, and Iyengar for concentration," she says, while
demonstrating a split and touching her forehead to the ground as
nonchalantly as a cat stretching after a nap.
The café shares a
compound with the Mysore Mandala Yogashala. Just before sundown, a batch of
eight students — all foreigners — are beginning their evening session with a
Sanskrit mantra invoking Patanjali, the sage who compiled the Yoga Sutras,
expounding ashtanga, or eight-limbed, yoga philosophy. The room is dimly lit
and already slightly clammy when the students begin huffing and puffing
their way through ten repetitions of surya namaskara, or sun
salutation, the opening asana. Within a few minutes, their bodies are
glistening with sweat as they flex themselves into scary positions,
sometimes tugged and pushed by the teacher, all apparently impervious to the
army of mosquitoes buzzing all around.
A host of similar
schools have emerged in the wealthier neighborhoods of this prosperous city
in recent years. Jayakumar Swamyshree runs Pranava Yogadham, where he offers
courses of varying durations, but usually with up to four sessions in a day.
Like many teachers and students, he is critical of Jois's brand of yoga,
which many teachers in Mysore have adopted — largely to attract foreign
students and their dollars. "Yoga's about liberation, emancipation, inner
peace, harmony... That's the ultimate aim of yoga — kaivalya. It's
not just about a perfectly sculpted body," he says. He also says Jois's fees
— $700 for a month-long course, three to four times the amounts charged by
other schools — are excessive, "especially as he doesn't even teach himself
any more. His daughter and grandson take the classes."
In the town centre,
near the imposing Mysore Palace, is the older Sri Patanjala Yogashala. Up
its ancient, carved staircase is the room where B.N.S. Iyengar sees students
twice a day. On this day, a young Canadian woman is taking notes on
kundalini yoga, another of Iyengar's specializations. "Without philosophy,
yoga is just gymnastics," he says, adding that it's a shame that so few of
his students are Indian.
The influx of
foreigners has created a small yoga economy in Mysore. "Whatever they want,
we give," says N. Harish Bheemaiah, managing director of Mysore Mandala
Yogashala — lessons in classical Indian dance, music and painting,
sattvik (vegetarian) food, accommodation, ayurvedic massage, and so on.
In between coconut groves and rice paddies, cafes and eateries catering to
foreigners have sprung up. An Austrian Cafe loudly announces itself with an
orange-and-blue sign; not very far away is a Subway sandwich shop. But the
locals are largely unaware of their city's status among the international
yoga jet-set. Many do not even recognize famous teachers' names. The
visitor, in fact, may be better off asking directions from a foreigner — at
least when they're trying to find a famous yoga teacher.
22 April 2008, Business Week (US)
A few months ago the
gentleman driving my car between New Delhi and an old fort in Alwar district
in Rajasthan had to stop to accommodate a collection of villagers protesting
water shortages. It is perhaps a sad commentary on this serious
problem—water shortages are endemic to Rajasthan, a desert state — that the
protest barely registered with me. But what I found interesting, after being
stuck behind a line of bullock carts, buses, trucks, and cycle rickshaws all
patiently waiting to move around the protest, was the equanimity with which
the protest was received. Everyone was inconvenienced, but there was no
"protest" against the protesters. Nor was there any attempt by the political
classes against whom the protests were directed to subvert the protesters in
any way. A conversation with the driver suggested much local angst was being
acted out on the public stage about the corruption that obstructed the quest
for a water shortage solution.
Both water shortages
and corruption are problems that China shares with India. But the public's
attitude to voicing objection to these problems is different in small
Chinese towns similar to those in India's Alwar district.
India System
Encourages Airing of Grievances
It is becoming common
to assert that protests now occur routinely in China, but this is only
relative to the benchmark of their absence in the past. Chinese villagers
think twice before protesting any grievance, water-related or otherwise. And
protesting all but the most widespread economic corruption remains
unfeasible in China. When there is protest it is in response to a legitimate
grievance, but is akin to street theater—described thus to me by a
Yale-educated lawyer volunteering time in China. The protester does not
really expect anything to change, but hopes that his "performance"—poignant
and serious—results in some incremental monetary compensation.
Protests, stripped to
their essence, are expressions of points of view about underlying issues.
The Indian system encourages the airing of alternative points of view,
whereas the Chinese one discourages it. This is immediately apparent in
physical barriers to information considered "sensitive" in China. Whereas
the Rajasthani driver took me to meet someone who could describe the water
problem in the hope that I'd contribute to finding a solution, in China I
was steered away from villages where equivalent problems were being wrestled
with, not by apparatchiks
but by well-wishers who were sufficiently versed in the mores of the system
to think that I would not be well served by such curiosity. There are also
technological barriers, including Internet filters, buttressed by the
efforts of several hundred thousand people assigned to police content that
the state deems problematic to its interests.
The story is similar
for academics. Belgian-born economist Jean Dreze has continually criticized
India's dismal record on social indicators. For this, India rewarded him
with citizenship in 2002 and he continues to serve on influential national
commissions. Contrast this with Perry Link, Princeton professor of East
Asian studies, one of several U.S-based academics on a blacklist for
harboring views that China's Ministry of Public Security considers unsavory.
Lack of Information
Hurts Investors
The existence of
business-centered media, like Caijing,
free to discuss some hitherto unmentionable topics, indicates real and
welcome change. But, in the main, some points of view remain unwelcome. On
contentious issues, stability trumps everything, and points of view that
might compromise stability are unwelcome in public.
So the information
environment is one that I'd describe as biased (toward palatable viewpoints
for the state, and away from the whole picture) but noise-free (that is, an
easily understandable story is told). In India, in contrast, there is a
melange of views. Each point of view competes for influence. The media
engage in no-holds-barred competition. The observer, Indian or outsider, has
an opportunity to piece together the entire picture from multiple points of
view. The information environment is the mirror inversion of China's, noisy
but unbiased.
This information
policy affects businesspeople and investors directly. In Mumbai, competition
between the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange has
resulted in a multifold increase in efficiency of the equity markets in
India. Stock prices convey, as they do in the developed Western economies,
information about the underlying real assets of the company and thereby
allow the market to accomplish its core purpose of reallocating money from
poorer to better investments.
In China, in contrast,
there is little competition between stock markets (e.g. Shanghai and
Shenzhen), the government intervenes in equity markets, and equity prices
are less informative about underlying risks and opportunities. Publicly
available price data therefore have less influence on the decisions of savvy
investors. They rely instead on information uncovered through operating in
the real sector in China, through back-channels,
guanxi (relationships) and the
like. Foreign investors often prefer to get China exposure through holdings
in companies operating on the mainland but traded on better-run stock
exchanges outside the country.
Self-Censorship a
Problem in China
It is no surprise,
then, that by standard norms of good corporate governance practice, Indian
companies do much better than do Chinese. The former have to communicate
with shareholders and the media just as do Western companies, and have built
up the experience and the internal organizational abilities to do so. The
Chinese have a longer way to go in learning to embrace public market
participants. Whether one considers arbitrary shakeups in the boardrooms of
large Chinese enterprises, sometimes orchestrated by the Chinese leadership,
or ham-fisted attempts to buy assets in the West without adequate disclosure
to explain their intent, the underlying cause of problems is an inability or
unwillingness to communicate.
For outsiders visiting
the countries, the spanking new roads and hotels in China justifiably evoke
admiration. These are the visible signatures of the economic miracle. But
they are less than half of the story. The invisible signatures are the
censorship and the even more insidious self-censorship, less than before,
but still resilient. Anyone browsing the Web in China today will see two
incredibly cute Disney - inspired characters in black and blue. I initially
mistook these for Fuwa, the dolls that are mascots for Beijing's 2008
Olympic Games. But they are Jing, a male police officer, and Cha, his female
colleague; Jing and Cha together spell the Chinese word for police
jingcha. They are there to
remind Netizens that monitoring is ongoing. What you see is not what you get
in China, not yet.
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