A History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism
Author(s):
Elizabeth De Michelis
Label: Continuum
Publisher(s):
Continuum
Studio: Continuum
Manufacturer: Continuum
Binding: Paperback
List Price: $54.00
Our Price: $48.60
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Editorial Reviews
Product Description
A History of Modern Yoga traces the roots of Modern Yoga back to the spread of western esoteric ideas in 18th century Bengal's intellectual circles. In due course Raja Yoga, published by Vivekananda in 1896, became the seminal text of Modern Yoga largely because, the author shows, it reconfigured the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali along the lines of a then emerging New Age Occultistic style of secularised and individualistically oriented religiosity. With regard to 20th century developments, this book proposes a four-fold typology of Modern Yoga comprising Modern Psychosomatic, Modern Meditational, Modern Postural and Modern Denominational forms. Iyengar Yoga, one of the most influential schools of Modern Postural Yoga, is then analyzed in the light of this framework, while the conclusion shows how a typical Modern Postural Yoga session may be interpreted to reveal the forms and contents of a healing ritual of secular religion.
Customer Reviews
No longer walking on sand
My taking Iyengar yoga classes and reading books by yoga practitioners left me with a feeling like walking on shifting sand extending out to the horizon. Really! Glimpses of the influences that formed modern yoga would appear from time to time, but often raising issues (e.g., Ayurveda vs. modern, scientific medicine) that can be resolved only by way of historical context. I found it difficult to place yoga in my life without a frame of reference such as is, for example, provided by the many fine books about the history of Western religions.
De Michelis's book draws on years of meticulous research to offer the connected narrative I hungered for, with clearly-written descriptions of people, places, and systems of thought that led to yoga as it is practiced today. Now at last I can feel comfortable in attending yoga classes, because I am walking now through a populated landscape, no longer walking on sand: I now know what I want to take from a class and what to leave behind, and why. I recommend this book highly.
Yoga scholarship/Yoga history
Yoga history is often written by those with strong ties to a particular guru or yogic system. Only recently has truly scholarly attention been focused on this subject. Elizabeth De Michelis has done a meticulous job of presenting her thesis. She shows how a typical Modern Postural Yoga class, her terminology to differentiate modern yoga from classical yoga, is a type of healing ritual of modern secular religion. We gain historical insight in to the development of yoga in the West that explains why many are more interested in postural yoga as an end in itself. I recommend this book as essential to anyone interested in the history of modern yoga.
An Insightful Analysis of the East/West Dialogue in Yoga
I highly recommend this book. It is clearly written, the scholarship is in depth and any serious scholar of modern Indian religions should read it. She clearly demonstrates that eastern and western ideas were fusing in India (particularly in Bengal)during the British Raj, and she shows how this contributed to the development of modern yoga movements. Included are profiles of some of the most influential thinkers and religious leaders in yoga (Vivekananda, Keshab Chandra Sen, Ramakrishna etc.) and detailed analysis of their contributions and influences. This book is a veritable gold mine of information for the religious scholar. Unfortunately, even such a great book has a flaw and I would be remiss not to point it out. She oversetimated the influence that western esotericism had on the formation of the modern yoga traditions and underestimates the influence that already existing Indian philosophies had on the development of yoga. What I think she failed to see was that western esoteric ideas were not transposed onto exisiting Indian religions, but were points of articulation with almost identical strands of mystical thinking in the indigenouse yoga traditions and the philosophy of advaita vedanta. They contained many elements in common, as most mystical traditions do. The crossover of ideas was an act of translation of perspectives between cultures at a level that there were already almost identical metaphysical ideas, namely in the mystical traditions of both. Other than this overstimation, the work is brilliant and should be read by anyone attempting to understand the roots of not only modern yoga, but of new age spirituality and modern Hinduism.
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