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The Story of Yoga: From Ancient India to the Modern West
How did an ancient Indian spiritual discipline turn into a $20+ billion-a-year mainstay of the global wellness industry? What happened along yoga's winding path from the caves and forests of the sages to the gyms, hospitals and village halls of the modern West?
This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time. It leads us on a fascinating journey across the world, from arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through muscular Christianity and the British Raj, to the Indian nationalist movement and the arrival of yoga in the twentieth-century West. We discover how the practice reached its present-day ubiquity and how it became embedded in powerful social currents shaping the world's future, such as feminism, digital media, celebrity culture, the stress pandemic and the quest for an authentic identity in the face of unprecedented change.
Shearer's revealing history boasts a colorful cast of characters past and present, who tell an engaging tale of scholars and scandal, science and spirit, wisdom and waywardness. This is the untold story of yoga, warts and all.
This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time. It leads us on a fascinating journey across the world, from arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through muscular Christianity and the British Raj, to the Indian nationalist movement and the arrival of yoga in the twentieth-century West. We discover how the practice reached its present-day ubiquity and how it became embedded in powerful social currents shaping the world's future, such as feminism, digital media, celebrity culture, the stress pandemic and the quest for an authentic identity in the face of unprecedented change.
Shearer's revealing history boasts a colorful cast of characters past and present, who tell an engaging tale of scholars and scandal, science and spirit, wisdom and waywardness. This is the untold story of yoga, warts and all.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published March 15, 2020
39 people are currently reading
293 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 20, 2022
I picked this book up out of a desire to understand the roots of yoga. I started practicing yoga much more seriously during the pandemic and have noticed myself approaching in-person classes differently than I did in 2019.
Back then I wanted what I guess you'd call "gym yoga" or bougie western yoga- I was a regular at core power sculpt, etc. No shade on CPY, but post pandemic I started feeling weird in a lot of boutique class settings. Isn't it kind of jarring to work out to EDM and have the instructor shout at you that working hard today will give you nice abs/a nice ass, and then switch to chanting "om," bowing your head, and saying "namaste" to each other? Is it worse to chant and not know why you're doing it, or is it worse to totally opt out of the chanting? Or is it more respectful to not participate in this part of class if you honestly don't know why it's happening and you don't understand any sanskrit anyway?
I wanted to learn about the origins of yoga to untangle this for myself and to help get rid of the icky feeling I had sometimes at the end of class. It was really informative. I came away with a reading list of other texts and I feel much more informed and empowered to choose classes that I feel treat the yoga tradition with respect.
The first 1/3 or so is an overview of the ancient origins of mind-yoga. It feels academic. You'd want to do a quick read up on who Patanjani is, the basics of the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana, etc. I was glad that I'd taken an eastern religions class in high school, even if I didn't remember a ton of it.
From there, it goes into a fascinating account of how yoga proliferated in the west. I assumed yoga had entered the US in the 90s as a workout trend, but I was wrong! Amazingly, yoga philosophy became part of intellectual life in the us when Swami Vivekananda gave a successful speech at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. I did not expect Chicago to be a big player in this story but here we are.
From there we explore the creation of "body yoga," the poses most of us know today. While some seated postures have existed for thousands of years, the athletic workout we do now is heavily influenced by scandinavian gymnastics and the YMCA's role in India. Yoga as we know it is a product of many different cultures and (unfortunately) colonization.
I'd say that I now have even less of an idea of what comprises "real" yoga - it is an evolving thing, and it's not my place to say where it finishes evolving and becomes illegitimate. But I have a much better sense of what classes honor the history of Yoga and which ones don't, and I know what my own preference are.
Looking forward to reading and learning more in YTT!
Back then I wanted what I guess you'd call "gym yoga" or bougie western yoga- I was a regular at core power sculpt, etc. No shade on CPY, but post pandemic I started feeling weird in a lot of boutique class settings. Isn't it kind of jarring to work out to EDM and have the instructor shout at you that working hard today will give you nice abs/a nice ass, and then switch to chanting "om," bowing your head, and saying "namaste" to each other? Is it worse to chant and not know why you're doing it, or is it worse to totally opt out of the chanting? Or is it more respectful to not participate in this part of class if you honestly don't know why it's happening and you don't understand any sanskrit anyway?
I wanted to learn about the origins of yoga to untangle this for myself and to help get rid of the icky feeling I had sometimes at the end of class. It was really informative. I came away with a reading list of other texts and I feel much more informed and empowered to choose classes that I feel treat the yoga tradition with respect.
The first 1/3 or so is an overview of the ancient origins of mind-yoga. It feels academic. You'd want to do a quick read up on who Patanjani is, the basics of the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana, etc. I was glad that I'd taken an eastern religions class in high school, even if I didn't remember a ton of it.
From there, it goes into a fascinating account of how yoga proliferated in the west. I assumed yoga had entered the US in the 90s as a workout trend, but I was wrong! Amazingly, yoga philosophy became part of intellectual life in the us when Swami Vivekananda gave a successful speech at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. I did not expect Chicago to be a big player in this story but here we are.
From there we explore the creation of "body yoga," the poses most of us know today. While some seated postures have existed for thousands of years, the athletic workout we do now is heavily influenced by scandinavian gymnastics and the YMCA's role in India. Yoga as we know it is a product of many different cultures and (unfortunately) colonization.
I'd say that I now have even less of an idea of what comprises "real" yoga - it is an evolving thing, and it's not my place to say where it finishes evolving and becomes illegitimate. But I have a much better sense of what classes honor the history of Yoga and which ones don't, and I know what my own preference are.
Looking forward to reading and learning more in YTT!
November 20, 2020
This book deserves a wider audience - by going back to the Vedas and Patanjali and through to the 21st century, Shearer explains how yoga is where it is now - a glorified gymnastic routine.
Most importantly, he offers suggestions for how to re-introduce the meditative aspects of yoga that have been ignored and stripped out for western consumption. Essential reading for serious practitioners and teachers of yoga.
Most importantly, he offers suggestions for how to re-introduce the meditative aspects of yoga that have been ignored and stripped out for western consumption. Essential reading for serious practitioners and teachers of yoga.
March 24, 2021
Shearer's is an interesting, if unoriginal, book. Disambiguating California yoga with its emphasis on acquiring this worldly benefits like stress relief, slowing the aging process, or accentuating orgasms from yoga as an Indic religious practice with other worldly spiritual, physical, and mental benefits is by no means an unecessary task. But it has been performed more ably, and with more wit, by David Gordon White who has also done a lot of serious work showing the esoteric goals of attaining siddhis or benedictions associated with advanced yoga practice, like astral projection, mind control, and taking possession of others' bodies, have always been intertwined with the exoteric goals of attaining siddhis that afford adepts improved physiques, enhanced strength and flexibility, and superior powers of concentration. Shearer's humorlessness, or editorial negligence, shines through when he fails to see that The Reductress is a satirical website and its essay on Yoni Yoga titled "This Yoga Sequence Will Push All the Blood to Your Clit" is a sardonic bit rather than an instruction manual.
Shearer's discussion of yoga's gradual decoupling from Hinduism in the West betrays a prosecutorial zeal antithetical to the letter and spirit of the sales pitch many Indian yoga instructors took to the Western market for wellness routines where they peddled body yoga and mind yoga respectively as no-equipment physical exercises and practices of mental hygiene. His own accounts of the modus operandi of Bikram Choudhury [founder of Bikram Yoga] among others, who has massaged yoga into an endurance building exercise regimen of sorts with no religious component, should've given him the distance needed to tell that Indian practitioners' idea of what yoga is is still contested terrain. Attempts to include yoga as an exercise in school have been met with resistance in India and abroad; and this is no accident. At different times different Indian practitioners have chosen to downplay or place front and centre the religious aspects of yoga. Shearer's commitment to secure Indian ownership over yoga, in its mind, body, soul directed varieties, allows him to speak out of both sides of his mouth on the topic of cultural appropriation. He's happy to celebrate George Harrison's song 'Dear One' and casual yoga practice as a respectful embrace of Indian tradition but is apprehensive that the success of renowned Indian yoga instructor B.K.S. Iyengar's gymnastic and ostensibly desacralized brand of body yoga has furthered the decoupling of yoga from a Hindu religious world view. Shearer's criticisms of bhogi yogis, or rogue yoga instructors who use the art to finance their scandalous lives, are measured and span over the period ranging from the days of the earliest known yoga practitioners to contemporary yoga gurus. For a much more substantive, monograph length, treatment of the topic of rogue yogis see David Gordon White's (2009) "Sinister Yogis."
To his credit Shearer also discusses the rebranding, or reappropriation, of yoga for ethno-nationalistic chest thumping by right wing groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [founded by the man who assassinated Gandhi for being too soft on Muslims], and political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party under whose government yoga has been elevated to a live policy topic along with other homeborn antediluvian arts like ayurvedic medicine and itihasa or mythistory. In attributing the status of veteran yogi to the prime minister, and member of the BJP, Narendra Modi, Shearer shows himself, once more, to be either hopelessly gullible or wearing saffron tinted glasses. The book is unique in broaching the relatively taboo topic of yoga induced psychosis, and the potential physical health hazards posed by poorly informed yoga practice which pushes sedentary people into contortions they aren't prepared to handle.
Shearer's discussion of yoga's gradual decoupling from Hinduism in the West betrays a prosecutorial zeal antithetical to the letter and spirit of the sales pitch many Indian yoga instructors took to the Western market for wellness routines where they peddled body yoga and mind yoga respectively as no-equipment physical exercises and practices of mental hygiene. His own accounts of the modus operandi of Bikram Choudhury [founder of Bikram Yoga] among others, who has massaged yoga into an endurance building exercise regimen of sorts with no religious component, should've given him the distance needed to tell that Indian practitioners' idea of what yoga is is still contested terrain. Attempts to include yoga as an exercise in school have been met with resistance in India and abroad; and this is no accident. At different times different Indian practitioners have chosen to downplay or place front and centre the religious aspects of yoga. Shearer's commitment to secure Indian ownership over yoga, in its mind, body, soul directed varieties, allows him to speak out of both sides of his mouth on the topic of cultural appropriation. He's happy to celebrate George Harrison's song 'Dear One' and casual yoga practice as a respectful embrace of Indian tradition but is apprehensive that the success of renowned Indian yoga instructor B.K.S. Iyengar's gymnastic and ostensibly desacralized brand of body yoga has furthered the decoupling of yoga from a Hindu religious world view. Shearer's criticisms of bhogi yogis, or rogue yoga instructors who use the art to finance their scandalous lives, are measured and span over the period ranging from the days of the earliest known yoga practitioners to contemporary yoga gurus. For a much more substantive, monograph length, treatment of the topic of rogue yogis see David Gordon White's (2009) "Sinister Yogis."
To his credit Shearer also discusses the rebranding, or reappropriation, of yoga for ethno-nationalistic chest thumping by right wing groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [founded by the man who assassinated Gandhi for being too soft on Muslims], and political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party under whose government yoga has been elevated to a live policy topic along with other homeborn antediluvian arts like ayurvedic medicine and itihasa or mythistory. In attributing the status of veteran yogi to the prime minister, and member of the BJP, Narendra Modi, Shearer shows himself, once more, to be either hopelessly gullible or wearing saffron tinted glasses. The book is unique in broaching the relatively taboo topic of yoga induced psychosis, and the potential physical health hazards posed by poorly informed yoga practice which pushes sedentary people into contortions they aren't prepared to handle.
August 12, 2020
It's pretty dense. Although the chapters are arranged chronologically, the narrative repeatedly jumps through time. I found this difficult to follow. A lot of good info here, just thought it could be more sensibly arranged
August 11, 2021
As a Yoga Teacher I have greatly enjoyed the book. the author explains the History of Yoga while trying not to give too much of personal commentary. Perfect for continuing or starting your education on the subject.
Want to read
May 14, 2020Received as a gift from my dad. So thoughtful of him.
August 10, 2021
As a yoga beginner, it was a complicated book to process at times. I could use some cheat sheets. But it is most likely not the author and just me.
Read
December 14, 2021NBN
September 18, 2023
- available in SG NLB 294.543609 (Sengkang
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews