10 Noteworthy Yoga Developments to Recall in 2015

[cbayer]

http://religiondispatches.org/10-noteworthy-yoga-developments-to-recall-in-2015/

BY ANDREA R. JAIN JANUARY 5, 2015



1. The Passing of a Towering Figure

B. K. S. Iyengar died on August 20, 2014 at the age of 95. Iyengar played a central role in constructing and popularizing modern postural yoga, a collection of modern systems composed of some combination of posture synchronized with the breath and found in a variety of forms in nearly every urban area across the world. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga (1966) has served as a standard reference on postural yoga since its publication. His influence on the global popularization of yoga is measureless, and the students he left behind are countless.

2. Yoga For All

Many yoga advocates expressed increased concern about the disparity in access to yoga and its concomitant near absence among disenfranchised populations despite the many evidence-based claims regarding its physical and mental health benefits. In 2014, many non-profit organizations, including Yoga 4 Change, the Prison Yoga Project, Yoga Behind Bars, and the Africa Yoga Project to name just a few, made yoga more accessible to at-risk youth, veterans, prisoners, and those suffering from substance abuse.

3. Take Back the Yoga

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi appointed Shipad Yesso Naik the first Minister of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) as a part of a larger reorganization of his cabinet. Modi and Naik share common goals: define yoga as authentically and originally Indian, reclaim yoga for India from illegitimate co-opters across the world, and make yoga readily available to Indians across the nation. In short, reclaiming yoga for India became a central part of Modi’s nationalist agenda.

4. High Yoga

After debuting from October 2013 to January 2014 at the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the “Yoga: The Art of Transformation” exhibition travelled to the San Francisco Asian Art Museum and finally to the Cleveland Museum of Art. The exhibition served as the first major art survey of yoga in the United States and provided visual representations of yoga’s complex, dynamic history, ranging from philosopher-ascetics turning inward in pursuit of salvation through realization of the true self; to ecstatic devotees turning outward in pursuit of divine union with the Lord Krishna or the Lord Shiva; to sinister villains channeling bodily energy in pursuit of temporal power; as well as modern practitioners of postural yoga. This diversity of images invited audiences to consider the multitude of yoga forms as well as both reverent and ambivalent reactions to yoga throughout its history.

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[AtheistCrusader]

1. Depending on the individual, yoga with death metal is just as effective as yoga with meditation.

Yes, it does work for us "big burly men." too. But there's a WHOLE lot of woo bound up with it.