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Fast-forward to the 21st century, and consumerism itself has arguably become a religion, fueled by a retail industry that's open 24/7, easy credit cards, and product promotions that bombard us day and night. It's hard to get from home to yoga class, or anywhere for that matter, without being sold something by someone. The Dalai Lama's image looms over a freeway interchange sharing a billboard with the Apple computer logo. From the Canadian firm that pioneered the placement of advertising posters above men's urinals in restaurants comes audio ads projected from tiny speakers hidden in the urinals' aluminum walls. And in a recent ecology journal, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo expresses confidence that butterflies can be genetically tooled to allow company logos on their wings."
Within such a context, is it at all surprising to find yogi pillows, tantric bedroom sets and chi machines bought and sold, not to mention yoga weekends in the rainforest and yoga cruises to exotic ports? Not at all, says Professor Weissler. "Nothing in our society escapes commodification." Yoga: over 18,000,000 served McDonald's had a problem. The corporation wanted to expand its hamburger empire onto the Indian subcontinent, but most Indians consider cows sacred. So McDonald's, adapting to the culture, introduced the Maharajah Mac, which is sort of the American Big Mac, and sort of not. It's big. It's got a bun. But the patty in the middle is made from ground chicken and local spices. The Maharajah Mac was a success, and McDonald's of India is soon to open its 100th outlet.
At the same time, a certain Indian import continues to expand throughout the US market. Americans, like Indians, have their own consumer tastes and ideas about sanctity. And yoga, like the Big Mac, must bend. It has therefore been adapted to fit into a culture that promotes, perhaps above all, the pursuit of body beautiful and the generation of profit. So it seems apt -- even inevitable -- that Yoga USA emphasizes the sexy yoga butt along with the serene yoga mind. And it seems equally apt that the practice of asanas, once done barefoot on dry earth, is now performed on glossy mats by people wearing designer fashions.
That's just the way it was meant to be, say some devotees, and there's nothing wrong with it.
"We are not Indian. We're not living 3,000 years ago. We are here, and our practice reflects and serves and supports us here," says Nixa De Bellis, Vinyasa Yoga instructor in New York City. "The great masters who sent their disciples to the West to bring the tradition here must have known it would change in a radically different culture." Yeah, but change to incorporate yogalates in yogatards? And hip-hop yoga?
"I don't know anything about yoga hip-hop, but it sounds like fun!" says Leslie Harris, who teaches yoga in Manhattan, and has many certificates from Integral Yoga. "If that's where people choose to enter the practice, that's fine. A good number of those people, once they've started the process, will surely discover that yoga has much more to offer."
Echoing that same sentiment, Barbara Benagh, founder of Boston's Yoga Studio, says, "Yoga can fit into the fitness box. But it won't stay in that box."
And what of the well-stocked gift shops beside the hip-hop and yogalates studios?
David Newman, founder and director of Yoga on Main in Philadelphia, trained in the Viniyoga tradition, isn't into anything too crazy where it comes to the practice, but he does have a gift shop, and he isn't at all apologetic for it. "I had the center for nine years, and suddenly felt the urge to expand. I decided to open a temple disguised as a store," he says. "Some people are hungry for God realization. Some are hungry for a cool T-shirt with an Om sign on it. We are here to feed people, and to meet them on their level. The wonderful thing is that somebody may come in to buy a T-shirt and end up developing a regular practice in yoga."
Asked if he feels any ambivalence making money off trinkets, Newman displays no defensiveness. "I'm sure there are people out there merely looking to suck money out of yoga's popularity. But there are others generating income in a sweet and spiritual way. I'm totally in celebration of what we're doing."
Alan Finger, who co-owns six yoga studios in the New York area, is a true yoga entrepreneur. He says he doesn't know what his revenues are, but suggests that he's not hurting for money. And he sees nothing wrong with that whatsoever. "Money itself is not a problem, although it can be," he says. "The question to ask is whether it is helping you to deepen your evolution, or is it dragging you down."
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