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Modern yoga gurus are people widely acknowledged to be gurus of modern yoga in any of its forms, whether religious or not. The role implies being well-known and having a large following; in contrast to the old guru-shishya tradition, the modern guru-follower relationship is not secretive, not exclusive, and does not necessarily involve a tradition. Many such gurus, but not all, teach a form of yoga as exercise; others teach forms which are more devotional or meditational; many teach a combination. Some have been affected by scandals of various kinds.
Guru-shishya tradition
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Before the creation of modern yoga, hatha yoga was practised in secret by solitary, ascetic yogins, learning the tradition as a long-term pupil or shishya apprenticed to their master or guru.[4][5][6][7] The ancient relationship was the primary means by which spirituality was expressed in India.[8] Traditional yoga was often exclusive and secretive: the shishya submitted to and obeyed the guru, understanding that lengthy initiation and training under the guru was essential for progress.[3] So strong was the guru-shishya relationship that Vivekananda stated that "The guru must be worshipped as God. He is God, he is nothing less than that".[8]
Transformed role
[edit]The role of the guru in the modern world is radically transformed. Globalisation has extended the guru's reach into environments where they may be a stranger, and where the religion, purpose, and status of the guru is poorly understood. Modern yoga practices are often open to everyone, without any sort of initiation into any organisation or doctrine. The modern guru Jaggi Vasudev explicitly rejected "all that traditional whatever";[3] all the same, some yoga traditions still emphasise and respect a teacher's lineage (parampara).[3] For example, Gurumayi's Siddha Yoga pays careful attention to her predecessors, Muktananda and Bhagawan Nityananda.[9] Another major change was introduced by Vivekananda; his Ramakrishna Mission set the example of public service in education and medicine, something now practised by many other Indian religious movements. These religions thus shifted from a focus on personal salvation to public altruism.[8]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Shri_Yogendra.jpg/170px-Shri_Yogendra.jpg)
A further radical shift was from spiritual to physical in yoga as exercise, as pioneered by Yogendra, Kuvalayananda, and Krishnamacharya.[12] The transformed role of the guru can be seen in the case of one of these pioneers,[10] Yogendra, who explicitly rejected the role of traditional guru for a single pupil or shishya.[11] The physical context, too, is transformed along with the nature of the teacher's authority; yoga as exercise is often taught in an urban yoga studio, where the instructor's yoga teacher training stands in for the old guru-shishya relationship.[3] The trend away from authority is continued in post-lineage yoga, which is practised outside any major school or guru's lineage.[13][14]
The concept of the guru, along with mantra and meditation, reached the West in the 1960s with The Beatles' trip to India, for a Transcendental Meditation training course at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh.[1][2] Modern gurus since then have used the divine status of the traditional guru to claim that they were gods or goddesses. Some asserted they were avatars, earthly incarnations of a god, fulfilling the prophecy in the Bhagavad Gita that Vishnu would take on earthly form when the world was threatened by evil.[8]
Abuse
[edit]The potential for abuse in the transformed guru-follower relationship is large, and there have been multiple instances of apparent or proven sexual, mental, and emotional abuse by gurus.[15][16][17][18][19] Anthony Storr has documented, for example, the excesses of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh;[20] Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad have examined the betrayal of trust that is involved.[21] Swami Vivekananda said early in the modern era that there are many incompetent gurus, and that a true guru should understand the spirit of the scriptures, have a pure character and be free from sin, and should be selfless, without desire for money and fame.[22] Following the downfalls of several gurus accused of misconduct, practitioners have publicly debated whether gurus are still necessary.[23] As for how gurus can get away with abuse for so long, there is evidence both from research in psychology and from the recollections of former devotees like Daniel Shaw, once a senior member of staff in Gurumayi's Siddha Yoga organisation, that even if a guru is seen to be lying, devotees will ignore the matter and "keep on believing".[24]
Acknowledged gurus
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c Shearer 2020, p. 211.
- ^ a b Goldberg 2010, p. 152.
- ^ a b c d e Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 4–8.
- ^ Bühnemann, Gudrun (2007). Eighty-Four Asanas in Yoga: A Survey of Traditions. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-8124604175.
- ^ Mallinson, James (2011). Knut A. Jacobsen; et al. (eds.). Haṭha Yoga in the Brill Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Vol. 3. Brill Academic. pp. 770–781. ISBN 978-90-04-27128-9.
- ^ Singleton 2010, p. 173.
- ^ Neehan, Jack (21 March 2017). "Yoga: James Mallinson uncovers the ancient traditions of the great yogis". SOAS. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
- ^ a b c d Dubey, Rajeev (2015). "New Hindu Religious Movements in Contemporary India: A Review of Literature". Sociological Bulletin. 64 (2): 152–170. doi:10.1177/0038022920150202. JSTOR 26290776. S2CID 157640220.
- ^ Pechilis, Karen (2004). "Gurumayi, the Play of Shakti and Guru". The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States. Oxford University Press. pp. 219–243. ISBN 0-19-514538-0.
- ^ a b c Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 60–79.
- ^ a b Goldberg 2016, pp. 7–15.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 1–4.
- ^ Lucia, Amanda J. (2020). White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals. University of California Press. pp. 75 ff, 136 ff. ISBN 978-0-520-37695-3.
- ^ Wildcroft 2020, pp. 5–22.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Horton, Adrian (20 November 2019). "'He got away with it': how the founder of Bikram yoga built an empire on abuse". The Guardian.
- ^ "International Yoga Day: 5 yoga gurus who were accused of sexual assault". Indian Express. 21 June 2018.
- ^ a b c Park, Tosca (11 February 2015). "Modern Yoga: Turning a Blind Eye on Sexual Abuse Allegations?". Yoga Basics.
Other yoga masters have also been involved in sexual abuse scandals with their students, notably, Kausthub Desikachar, Sai Baba, Swami Shyam, Swami Satchidananda, Swami Rama, Swami Muktananada, and Amrit Desai.
- ^ Stuart, Gwynedd (15 July 2020). "Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse". Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
- ^ Storr 1996, pp. 45–64.
- ^ Kramer & Alstad 1993, Gurus & Sexual Manipulation: The Betrayal of Trust.
- ^ Sheldrake, Philip (25 September 2014). Spirituality: A Guide for the Perplexed. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 142. ISBN 978-1441187215.
- ^ Yoga Unify (27 April 2021). "Do Modern Yoga Students Need a Guru?". Yoga Journal. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ Beck, Julie (13 March 2017). "This Article Won't Change Your Mind" (PDF). The Atlantic. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
- ^ a b c d Newcombe, Suzanne (2017). "The Revival of Yoga in Contemporary India" (PDF). Religion. 1. Oxford Research Encyclopedias. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.253. ISBN 9780199340378.
- ^ Wagner, Paul (30 May 2019). "Sri Anandamayi Ma: The Perfect, Profound and Mysterious Flower". Gaia. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
The Non-organized, Non-Proclaimed Guru
- ^ "Anandamayi Ma". Om-Guru. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
Though she was never formally initiated by a guru, one evening she spontaneously performed her own initiation, visualizing both the ritual scene and movements. Simultaneously, she heard the chanting of initiatory sacred words (mantras) inwardly.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 38–59.
- ^ Chaama, Sridhar (16 August 2012). "Remembering a guru". The Hindu. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ Hatfield, Julie (23 April 1996). "Yoga on steroids, or feel the yearn Health: Practitioners say they get sweat and a sense of calm out of Ashtanga, a vigorous series of postures that looks conventional, but a lot faster". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
Beryl Bender Birch, author of the book "Power Yoga" and generally regarded as the ultimate power yoga guru.
- ^ Shearer 2020, p. 210.
- ^ Syman 2010, p. 260.
- ^ Stukin, Stacie (15 July 2020). "Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse". Los Angeles Magazine.
- ^ "A New Report Details Decades of Abuse at the Hands of Yogi Bhajan". Yoga Journal. 15 August 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Suar, Swati Snigdha (18 June 2015). "Meet India's 10 most renowned yoga gurus". Rediff.com.
- ^ a b c Jain 2015, p. 66.
- ^ Godwin, Richard (18 February 2017). "'He said he could do what he wanted': the Scandal that Rocked Bikram Yoga". The Guardian.
- ^ Griswold, Eliza (23 July 2019). "Yoga Reconsiders the Role of the Guru in the Age of #MeToo". The New Yorker.
- ^ a b Leviton 1990, pp. 123–124.
- ^ a b Jones & Ryan 2007, pp. 124–125, Desai, Guru Amrit.
- ^ Beck, Phillipa (4 December 2019). "Power and Prana: When Yoga Leads to Abuse". Retrieved 17 August 2021.
Amrit Desai was the spiritual head of Kripalu from the 1970s until his abrupt departure in 1994. The charismatic, kundalini-raising guru was a master at creating a powerful, direct experience of prana, or life-force energy
- ^ Goldberg, Ellen. "Amrit Desai and the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health" in Gleig & Williamson 2013, pp. 63–86
- ^ Jones & Ryan 2007, p. 237, Kripalu Yoga.
- ^ Cushman, Anne; Montgomery, Lizette (February 1995). "Yogi Desai Resigns From Kripalu". Yoga Journal (January/February 1995): 40, 42.
- ^ Schneider 2003, p. 116.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 210–233.
- ^ Roig-Franzia, Manuel (29 March 2012). "Scandal contorts future of John Friend, Anusara yoga". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, p. 210.
- ^ Gilbert, Sophie (19 September 2000). "At last: a guru for the impatient". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
- ^ Sloane, Carly (24 May 2019). "Celebrity Yoga Guru Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa Explains Why Cindy Crawford, Demi Moore, Miranda Kerr and More Stars Love Her Style of Teaching". US Magazine. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
- ^ Pechilis, Karen (2004). "Gurumayi, the Play of Shakti and Guru". The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States. Oxford University Press. pp. 219–243. ISBN 0-19-514538-0.
- ^ Williamson, Lola. "Swamis, Scholars, and Gurus: Siddha Yoga's American Legacy" in Gleig & Williamson 2013, pp. 87–114
- ^ a b c d e f g "Yoga Day Special: India's 7 most renowned Yoga Gurus who redefined Yoga internationally". India TV News. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Chetan, Mahesh (5 March 2017). "10 Most Inspiring Yoga Gurus of India". Indian Yoga Association. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 122–146.
- ^ a b Syman 2010, p. 278.
- ^ a b Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 283–307.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 107–121.
- ^ a b c De Michelis 2004, pp. 187–189.
- ^ Rosman, Katherine (8 November 2019). "Yoga Is Finally Facing Consent and Unwanted Touch". The New York Times.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 83–106.
- ^ Jones & Ryan 2007, pp. 33–34, 247.
- ^ "Kriyananda: An American yoga guru who loved India (Tribute)". Business Standard. 22 April 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ Mattson, Doug (30 October 2002). "Jury: Copyrights violated by church". The Union. Grass Valley, California.
- ^ "$1 million judgment against swami". Palo Alto Weekly. Palo Alto, California. 27 February 1998.
- ^ Goa, Helen (10 March 1999). "Sex and the Singular Swami". San Francisco Weekly.
- ^ a b "15 Yoga Gurus That Are Empowering The World Through Social Media". Influence Digest +. 5 June 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 190–211.
- ^ Safransky, Sy (July 1976). "An Interview With Swami Muktananda". The Sun Magazine. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
Muktananda was said to be a living saint, a perfectly realized human being, a sadguru — the highest of gurus.
- ^ Syman 2010, pp. 242, 260, 278.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 190–209.
- ^ Harris, Lis (14 November 1994). "O Guru, Guru, Guru". The New Yorker. pp. 92–93. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
- ^ Lewis, James R.; Tollefsen, Inga B. (2016). The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements: Volume II. Oxford University Press. p. 293. ISBN 9780190466190.
A few female gurus have gained international recognition... Sahaja Yoga's guru, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.
- ^ Webster, K. (December 1990). "The case against Swami Rama of the Himalayas". Yoga Journal.
- ^ Charet, F. X. "Ram Dass: The Vicissitudes of Devotion and Ferocity of Grace" in Gleig & Williamson 2013, pp. 15–40
- ^ Vaucher, Andréa R. (2013). "America's Guru: Ram Dass at 82". Tricycle Magazine (Winter 2013). Retrieved 7 September 2021.
- ^ Narain, Priyanka Pathak (31 July 2017). "How Baba Ramdev became the Guru of Yoga Programming on Indian TV". Firstpost. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
- ^ Jain 2015, p. 67.
- ^ a b Landau, Meryl Davids (February 2012). "In Times of Scandal". Elephant Journal. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
Here I was, eager to learn yogic principles like nonharming and truthfulness, while Swami Satchidananda, the guru at the head of this teaching center, was being accused of harming and lying aplenty. I don't know if the accusations were ever proven, but the disciple who claimed she'd had a longstanding, not-really-welcome sexual relationship with the supposedly celibate swami was pretty convincing
- ^ Syman 2010, p. 261.
- ^ Hammond, Holly; Cushman, Anne (January 1992). "Satchidadanda Controversy Heats Up". Yoga Journal (102): 18.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 261–279.
- ^ "Sathya Sai Baba: Guru and philanthropist who was revered by millions but whose career was dogged by controversy". The Independent. 23 October 2011. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
With 1,200 ashrams in more than 100 countries, the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba was seen as a reincarnation of god by his devotees, who included prime ministers and presidents of India, business magnates, film stars, artists and world-class sportsmen and sportswomen, who all gave generously to his social welfare projects.
- ^ a b "'Secret' sex shakes yoga school", Keith Platt, Mornington Peninsula News, 20 January 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
- ^ a b "Guru sex scandal at Mt Eliza yoga retreat", Miki Perkins, The Age, 20 January 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
- ^ a b Kaur, Ishleen (15 June 2021). Guru: Living a lie (Podcast). Guru: Yoga - Power - Abuse. BBC. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 17–37.
- ^ Syman 2010, p. 59.
Sources
[edit]- De Michelis, Elizabeth (2004). A History of Modern Yoga : Patañjali and Western Esotericism. Continuum Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8264-8772-8. OCLC 51942410.
- Gleig, Ann; Williamson, Lola, eds. (2013). Homegrown Gurus: from Hinduism in America to American Hinduism. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-4792-6. OCLC 862746284.
- Goldberg, Philip (2010). American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation – How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-385-52134-5.
- Goldberg, Elliott (2016). The Path of Modern Yoga: the History of an Embodied Spiritual Practice. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions. ISBN 978-1-62055-567-5. OCLC 926062252.
- Jain, Andrea (2015). Selling Yoga: from Counterculture to Pop Culture. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-939024-3. OCLC 878953765.
- Jones, Constance A.; Ryan, James D. (2007). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Encyclopedia of World Religions. J. Gordon Melton, Series Editor. New York: Facts On File. ISBN 978-0-8160-5458-9. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016.
- Kramer, Joel; Alstad, Diana (1993). The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books/Frog. ISBN 978-1-883319-00-7. OCLC 27684736.
- Leviton, Richard (March–April 1990). "Yoga in America: The First 100 Years". Yoga Journal (91): 40–.
- Schneider, Carrie (2003). American Yoga: The Paths and Practices of America's Greatest Yoga Masters. Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-0-7607-4558-8.
- Shearer, Alistair (2020). The Story of Yoga: From Ancient India to the Modern West. London: Hurst Publishers. ISBN 978-1-78738-192-6.
- Singleton, Mark (2010). Yoga Body: the origins of modern posture practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-539534-1. OCLC 318191988.
- Singleton, Mark; Goldberg, Ellen (2014). Gurus of Modern Yoga. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199938728.
- Storr, Anthony (1996). Feet of Clay: a Study of Gurus. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-638423-6. OCLC 35395042.
- Syman, Stefanie (2010). The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-23676-2.
- Wildcroft, Theodora (2020). Post-Lineage Yoga: from Guru to #metoo. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78179-940-6. OCLC 1152054676.