Perform real yoga please!

Over commercialization of yoga. That’s my predicament. It appears "commercialized yoga" in many urban neighborhoods has lost its fundamental meaning and pure intention. I have witnessed many undesirable elements of "commercial yoga", which results in yoga not achieving its real purpose - unity of body, mind and soul.

- Yoga students who don’t know or refuse to understand what yoga is really about. They don’t comprehend yoga as a harmony of the eight limbs. They only know asanas (body postures). Whatever happened to Yama (universal morality), for instance?

- Students who treat yoga as just another aerobic workout. The more they sweat like proverbial pigs, the better the class and instructor is

- Students who, after many years of so-called yoga practice, are not pleasant. I’ve seen disrespectful students arriving to class 10 minutes late and rudely banging the studio’s door wanting to be let in, and disrupting the class in session. Don’t these people know the door is locked for their own good, to prevent them from injuries potentially caused by jumping right into the middle of an already-begun yoga session without first warming up?

- Students who demand instant gratification. They want fast results. They want to "master yoga" in six months. All without realizing holistic yoga is about lifetime practice and experience

- Students who treat the other limbs of yoga, like pranayama, as nonsense. Because they don’t receive the satisfaction of a good workout. Sigh!

- Yoga studios, for profitability sake, yield to students’ demands for tough, sweat-generating classes. Excellent Indian yoga instructors have been hired and unfortunately sent back simply because they don’t make their students here perspire much. Thus their classes are unpopular. Near-empty classes equal loss making and this means these Indian instructors are "commercially not viable". Very, very sad indeed.

To all yoga practitioners, please practice real yoga. That includes fully comprehending its eight limbs and living in peace and harmony with everything, and having good health. If you’re just interested in asanas and sweating and losing weight, you would probably do better in a gym. Don’t do yoga just because it’s currently in vogue.