More than just a pose
I was at a swank party recently when a half-Indian, half-white friend pulled me across the room to join his conversation.
He had mentioned to friends—white friends—that he had attended a yoga class and had been upset by the use of Hindu religious terms. They thought he was being touchy. They were making fun of him by chanting, "Namaste," and bowing mechanically from the waist.
Besides mispronouncing namaste—it's NUHM-us-thay—the partygoers were using it the wrong way. It's a salutation, not a chant, and has gone out of style as too formal in many areas of India.
As an Indian-American, I accept that yoga has gone mainstream. Hinduism is an all-encompassing and welcoming religion that accepts even atheists.
My problem is that there hasn't been a mainstream discussion about how tens of thousands of non-Hindus are practicing an art central to that religion while not always representing it properly. And there hasn't been much talk about how American yoga studios are making money from selling that religion.
Partially, that's the fault of American Hindus. We haven't really brought it up. Again, our religion is very accepting. But, generally, we don't really like to make waves.
I found this attitude to be true among at least half of my extended family. That extremely unscientific sample divided into two groups: The immigrants don't think this is a big deal, but many of my fellow first-generation Americans have a small story of yoga outrage.
My sister attends classes, but on her first visit, a religious faux pas was immediately apparent. A small statue of a Hindu god sat in front of the room. If my sister did the postures correctly, her feet would have pointed in its direction. In Hinduism, that's the highest symbolic gesture of disrespect.
This issue has been a big problem before. You might have heard about the flap in 2003 over American Eagle's selling of slippers with images of a Hindu god. That was outrageous enough to get even Hindus to protest.
A cousin who grew up in America attended yoga-instructor training classes in New York taught by a "guru" who was supposed to be an authority. But when the teacher explained the philosophies of Hinduism, he got the basics wrong.
And there are rights and wrongs. Though, like any religion, Hinduism is open to interpretation, yoga fundamentals are laid out in its most ancient texts. Most people in my cousin's classes didn't know that.
Though instructors who mention the complicated names of their swamis may want to impress their students, this does not indicate approval by a Hindu authority. Present-day Hinduism is incomprehensibly diverse. You can probably find a guru to back up virtually any assertion. It doesn't take much to call yourself a swami. In fact, there are lots of them back in India.
The immigrants have a point, though. Yoga does a lot of good for a lot of people, and I'm glad that more people are discovering it. But my family's elders grew up in India, where they weren't minorities; most people around them were Hindu. They never needed to explain their religion to people, so they don't see why Hindus who grew up in this country might be more critical of how Hinduism is portrayed here.
As someone who has confronted caricatures of Hinduism all my life, including the turbaned bodyguard in "Annie" and Mike Myers in "The Love Guru," I'm a bit more protective and defensive.
Though yoga is a part of Hinduism, it's just that: a part. We're talking about one of the world's ancient religions. There's a lot more to it, including the values and ethics that guide my life. Out of respect for those philosophies, I only wish people who pay money to experience my religion could know more about it.
Or, I wish they could remember that yoga isn't just something taught in trendy studios—it's part of a religion and culture that deserve respect.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-yoga-hindu-namastesep14,0,5894059.story
No comments:
Post a Comment