Modern Yoga

Not possessing one religious rooting in particular, hatha yoga in the West has become extremely popular as a purely physical exercise regime, and is now considered slightly distanced from its original philosophical purpose. Thousands of Britons practice Hatha Yoga, and in the region of 30 million Americans. On the Indian subcontinent, however, the traditional practice can still to be found, in which the guru-shishya (teacher-student) relationship exists without need for sanction from non-religious educational institutions. Hatha yoga in fact gave rise to many of the great yogins and yogis who made their way into international consciousness in the 20th century, and the ethos has been well preserved in India, Nepal and Tibet.

Yoga is still an everyday practice in India. People will perform Yoga practices such as Sūrya namaskāra (a yogic set of asanas and pranayam dedicated to Surya, the Sun) in the morning or various types of body therapy based on Yoga. For Hindu holy-men, Yoga is central and fundamental to everyday life. While Yoga is not always practiced with the same holistic rigour in the West, it is a set of practices and beliefs deeply rooted in religion and society of the Indian subcontinent.

In the West, followers of yoga have taken a less spiritual approach and focus more on the physical part of the discipline, the stretching and breathing. While Yoga is a religion to many, the majority of practitioners in the West separate yoga from its spiritual goal, seeing it strictly as an fitness regimen, or an overall program of keeping physical and emotional wellbeing.