One of the statement often attributed to Einstein “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about th’universe!”.
Perhaps this statement seems to be quite true in the case of followers of misguided derivative yoga trend.
Every now and then some new concept is introduced in the name of yoga and people start following religiously as their savior without even understanding if it means anything.
In the past I could see dog lovers come up with new concept “Doga”, than recently another come up with “Broga” and before that another gentleman from India come up with “Laughing yoga” and not to mention flowing yoga or acrobatic Ashtanga yoga from Mysore, do they mean anything?
Yoga simply means “Union” and that’s it, no more no less, so are the followers of “Doga” following the concept of “Dog Union” or Vinyasa Yoga followers following “Flowing Union” or followers of acrobatic Ashtanga yoga from Mysore following the belief of “Acrobatic Union” or the follower of “Broga” believe in “male oriented union” and so …
In the past Ancient sages in India looking for the deeper meaning of life realized that one has to go beyond mind to understand that and that would need long hours of sitting meditation practice. So in the eight steps of yoga”Union with supreme” they had one of step called Hatha Yoga for the well being of the physical health (which people in the West understand as exercise).
However that pure Hatha Yoga practice also involves concentration practice of mind by holding postures for a minute, so how come yoga practice with Dog can help in concentration instead it will destroy the concentration, similarly how laughing yoga can help in concentration practice?
Unfortunately, people follow without understanding the whole concept of yoga and some misguided people would continue to confuse and mislead others with the various derivative of Hatha Yoga in the name of yoga.
Issued in the public interest learning Hatha Yoga by Subodh Gupta.