Sacred Practice

Commercialized yoga is departure from spiritual origins, experts say

The word yoga is most often defined as a yoking, or union. Its practice strives to unite the individual soul with the "greater soul" of the universe, traditionally through four main paths: karma (action), bhakti (devotion), jnana (wisdom) and raja or ashtanga (mental and physical control). Hatha yoga, which most Americans call simply "yoga," is in fact just one aspect of ashtanga.

"A yoga master in India is a highly evolved spiritual being, not a gymnast," said David Frawley, the director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, N.M., who writes and lectures on the controversy.

But Americans tend to focus on fitness alone, perhaps because "as a culture we are extremely physically oriented," as Hindu University's Tiwari put it. "We are enamored by the physical aspect of who we are. Some of us even worship our bodies."

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