Current Letter | John's Letter Archives
Winter 2003
NAMASTE,
For the past several years the media has given increased coverage to the rising popularity of yoga in America. This, of course, has only served to fan the flames of interest in what continues to be the hottest health trend in the country. Seventy-five per cent of fitness clubs and gyms now offer yoga classes, and they are usually the most popular offerings. The number of yoga studios is increasingly exponentially. A May article in U.S. News & World Report states that about 18 million Americans now practice yoga.
With financial success and cultural prominence, however, comes heightened scrutiny. The glare of the spotlight can be illuminating, but it can also bring attention to previously unnoticed pockets of darkness.
Recently, several stories have appeared, claiming to expose what is portrayed as the less lofty side of the yoga world. One, an article in a relatively obscure business magazine named Business 2.0, appeared under the eye-catching title, "Yogis Behaving Badly". It purports to reveal indiscretions and unethical behavior by prominent persons in the yoga world, including both teachers and people in the business of yoga. (These are often, but not always, the same thing.) I have no intention of describing or going into the merits or demerits of the allegations the article presents. If you’re really interested, you can read the magazine for yourself. My point is that, at least as far as the mainstream media is concerned, although the majority of articles is still overwhelmingly favorable, the bloom is – at least somewhat and for the moment- off the rose.
Return to top
The media giveth and the media taketh away. It is commonplace for them to latch onto the latest trend or craze, crank it up to a fever pitch, and then shortly thereafter, to start looking for ways to tear down the very image they have worked so hard to build up. Of course, this build-‘em-up/bash-‘em-down approach sells - magazines, newspapers, books, and, perhaps most important, products.
The proliferation of yoga related merchandise may be growing at an even more exponential rate than the number of practitioners at this point. Not only are the various yoga related magazines full of ads for everything from yoga mats to toe stretchers; you can now find yoga mats, blocks, straps, and tapes at the super market, and fashion magazines are selling the latest in yoga shoes(?!)
Gucci recently ran an ad portraying an attractive woman in a leotard sitting on a black yoga mat that was floating in the air high over New York City. The mat was a Gucci yoga mat retailing for $850! Another ad showed a beautiful female model leaning forward in a cross-legged pose, eyes serenely closed. The caption read: "It’s a day to clear your mind. A day to free your soul. And a day for Hormel Always Tender honey mustard pork loin filets."
An article titled "Yoga, Inc.: The Debate Over Whether the Commercialization of Yoga is Good Karma" appeared in the November 2002 issue of Yoga Journal. It discussed whether the amount of money sloshing around in the yoga world, which they estimated at $27 billion, would undermine the essential nature of yoga. Opinions varied, although the final word seemed to be that yoga would survive.
Return to top
Here at Unity Woods we have had our own adventures along the path of yoga as a business. From a small operation with very modest monetary considerations in the ‘80’s, we have grown into a large center with substantial financial activity. I don’t think that financial success has had any negative impact on the quality of the teaching at Unity Woods. In fact, I think that because teachers can make a decent living teaching yoga these days, they have the means to devote themselves even more fully to pursuing their practice and study without having to run themselves ragged to make a buck. At least that’s the way it has worked here.
Where I think we may have gone astray, though, is at the Beyondananda Boutique. As the size of our student body grew, and as more and more people came from the mainstream, the interest in buying stuff at our store increased, and the requests for a greater variety of products grew. Revenues went up. And as they did, the opportunity to increase our product line and nudge revenues higher grew.
Initially, the Boutique grew out of my desire to be able to provide students with tools to aid them in developing their practice. Some folks feel that you don’t need "tools" to practice. You just get down on the floor or the ground and do it. This was, in fact, how I started. There were no yoga mats in those days. I did, however, use a book to learn, which is a tool. Indeed, some of the early texts, tools themselves, suggest sitting on a tiger or deer skin placed upon a particular kind of grass. It seems that from the beginning, equipment of some kind or another has been employed. In any case, my students used to ask me where they could get the books I recommended, and a little later on, a mat or blanket like the one I used. The books, mats, and even basic wool blankets were not that easy to come by back then, so I used to carry a few extras in a big cardboard box around to the various locations at which I taught. That was one of the reasons I eventually decided to open a center. I got tired of hauling that damned box around!
Return to top
Once I opened my first center, it became much easier to provide my students with the things I thought would be helpful to them in their practice. And when we moved to a larger space, it became possible to set aside a specific area to display and sell these items. At some point, I decided to put the Unity Woods logo on a T-shirt and sell those. Folks had to wear something and besides, it was good advertising as well.
Time passed. One style of T-shirt became two, then three, then colorful tops, then sets of tops and sweaters. Plain cotton tights, which were also hard to find in the old days, became colorful leggings and fancy unitards and fashionable capris. And the prices of these products grew as well until we were selling draw string yoga pants for $84.
Now on one level, there is nothing wrong in and of itself with selling - or buying - fancy, high-end stuff. I don’t drive a Ford Escort. I drive an Oldsmobile Aurora. True, it’s not a top of the line Mercedes, but it certainly goes beyond basic necessity. But as a yoga center, when folks come out of class, do we want to be encouraging them to think about the latest in fashionable yoga wear or to the quiet aliveness they feel after class? Of course, it’s not necessarily an either/or situation. You can be peaceful and cosmic and still have fun buying a $45 top with a colorful picture of Shiva on it. But where do we, as teachers and practitioners of yoga, want to be directing our students’ attention?
Return to top
This issue really came to a head for me when the Beyondananda Boutique had a sale last summer to help move some of the inventory we had built up. When we opened the doors, I was later told, the rush to get in and get first shot at the goods was like a sale day before Christmas at Filene’s. People argued about who got what first, jockeyed with each other for a good place in the check out line, and behaved like, well, greedy, aggressive customers. Maybe we need an article on "Students Behaving Badly" (foreshadowing).
But it is also true that we at Unity Woods set them and ourselves up by creating a situation where the focus became acquiring stuff and getting a deal. When my staff reported this at one of the regular staff meetings, they told me that they felt that by confronting students as they came out of class with a wall of splashy goods and a gaggle of materialistic consumers, we were diminishing the benefits of the classes and losing some of the clarity of our purpose. I thought about what they said. And I think they were right. I don’t think it’s wrong to sell (or wear, for that matter) an $85 pair of leggings. We just don’t want to be the ones to do it. Besides, from the looks of things, plenty of other people will.
P.S. I’ll be returning to India to see Mr. Iyengar this December. It’s been nearly three years since I’ve gone, and I’m more than ready. It is always a very special occasion for me to be with my teacher. Unfortunately, that means I will miss the holiday party, which is, for me, always one of the most enjoyable events of the year at Unity Woods. So I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all the happiest of holidays and a New Year of Peace and Love.
Return to top
