யோகா சந்தைமயமாக்கப்படுவதை பற்றிய ஜான் பிலிப்பின் கவலை

நியூயார்க் திரைப்பட இயக்குனரான ஜான் பிலிப், இந்து யோகா தியானம் ஆகியவை முதலாளித்துவத்தால் ஆக்கிரமிக்கப்பட்டு பகுதி பகுதியாக பிரிக்கப்பட்டு விற்பனை செய்யும் பொருட்களாக மாற்றப்படுவதாக கவலைப்படுகிறார். அது பற்றிய அவர் எடுத்த படத்தை பற்றி பிரிஸ்பேன் டைம்ஸ் கட்டுரை.

யோகாவும் யோகா சம்பந்தப்பட்ட பொருட்களும் சுமார் 8 பில்லியன் அமெரிக்க டாலர் பெறுமானமுள்ளது.

யோகா சந்தைப்படுத்தப்பட்டுள்ளதை பற்றிய இவரது கவலை தேவையற்றது என்பது என் கருத்து.

யோகா பற்றிய அறிவை இப்படிப்பட்ட சந்தைப்படுத்தல்கள் பரவலாக்குகின்றன.

அதில் உண்மை நாட்டம் உள்ளவர்கள் தேவையான யோகா பயிற்சியை நிச்சயம் பெற்றுக்கொள்வார்கள்.

Capitalism blurs serenity of yoga
May 2, 2007

Yoga, the ancient Indian discipline whose aim is to join mind, body and soul, is being transformed by Western capitalism into franchises and pricey products, according to a documentary film.

Yoga, Inc made its debut recently at the 10-day Toronto international documentary film festival, Hot Docs.

"When an industry is that big, commercialisation is unavoidable, and there will always be people swimming around the edges who are ready to cash in," said New York-based filmmaker John Philp.

But for a practice that is "rooted in renunciation" it is odd that it is making some people rich, he added.

Yoga, the film shows, is an $US8 billion ($A9.67 billion) industry with moguls such as Los Angeles superstar yoga teacher Bikram Choudhury and his more than 750 franchised studios worldwide leading the way.

The word itself is used to promote everything from vodka to chakra panties.

Philp, who previously tracked the career of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani in his film Rudyworld, said he was intrigued by the dissonance between the sports-like notion of competition and the yogic ideals of serenity and enlightenment.

The film explores the clash between karma and capitalism by focusing on a court battle between a group of yoga teachers calling themselves the Open Source Yoga Unity and the flamboyant yoga impresario Bikram.

In 2003, Bikram threatened to sue the yoga teachers for copyright infringement. His standardised Hot Yoga routines feature
26 poses performed in 30-plus degrees celsius heat.

Philp is not surprised by yoga's commercialisation. In the l960s, he said, yoga fit in with counterculture values, but today most people in the West view yoga as a form of fitness.

"Instead of learning yoga for its meditative and spiritual effects, most people want to look good naked and touch their toes," he said.

The film also follows yoga entrepreneurs Rob Wrubel and George Lichter, who founded and sold the search engine Ask Jeeves and are now opening studios called Yoga Works.

"We bristle at the word chain; we are a family of yoga schools," insists Wrubel. Yet, small independent yoga studios are closing, crushed by competition from franchises and gyms.

Most of these small-studio owners are women, remarked Philp, while the successful entrepreneurs and high-profile teachers like Bikram are men.

"It's a male-dominated field, even though women are 75 per cent of the people who take yoga classes."

As a senior yoga teacher, Alan Finger says in the film: "The universe is behind this, not us, and yoga will go exactly where it needs to go."

That direction, however, is still not clearly revealed.

In 2005, a California judge ruled that Bikram's system was copyright protected, and he then reached a confidential agreement with the group of yoga teachers involved in the case.

However, Philp notes that "there is still no law on the books that says you can or cannot copyright a yoga routine."

And now, the Indian government has stepped up to the mat.

Last year it developed a National Knowledge Digital Library, an online data base that includes traditional Indian healing and spiritual practices to try to protect these practices against patents and copyright laws.

AFP