Vaṃśam - Lineage

In 2019, Netflix released a documentary on Bikram Choudhury, founder and guru of Bikram Yoga (in the wake of the scandal, this style is now known primarily as 26-2 or simply "hot yoga.")

Beginning in 2013, former students of Bikram -- all women -- began coming forward to file lawsuits against him for everything from sexual assault to rape. Ultimately, the only case to go to trial was the one by his former legal adviser. When she insisted on investigating the rape and assault allegations, he forced her to resign. 

Despite being ordered to pay $7.4 million in damages (reports vary), Bikram declared bankruptcy, fled the country, and still continues to teach his enormously popular style of yoga to those students who are willing to pay $10,000 each. 

Bikram was famous for wearing only his Speedo
 and a Rolex during classes.

For many women, the most astounding piece of the Bikram scandal was the complicity of his ex-wife, Rajashree. Although she refused to publicly comment, Rajashree was the vice president of Bikram's empire at the time of the allegations... and as his wife, stood to gain significantly from perks like the 43 luxury automobiles and $75 million fortune the company amassed. While Bikram yoga can be truly life-changing (I've experienced the draw myself), "Professional advancement hinged on his approval. Exposing his...abuse... meant social ostracism and the end of one’s Bikram teaching career." Meanwhile, in another yoga lineage...

In 2012, John Friend's popular Anusara yoga brand imploded. Friend had tried to bully his employees and yoga teachers into submission, accusing them of being disloyal if they questioned him... despite the fact that he was engaging in sexual relationships with students, asking employees to hand-deliver drugs, and using the company graphics team to design a logo for his personal Wiccan coven (he was the only male member). 

Two of the teacher-students who triggered the blowup of Friend and Anusara are the now-hugely-influential Christina Sell and Darren Rhodes, who went on to found their own yoga dynasties. Thankfully, both have a reputation for being great humans, as well as instructors.

In more recent times, massively popular Yoga to the People announced its closure a mere 5 days after allegations from employees started pouring in. (You can check out the Instagram accusations here.)

Yoga to the People was well-known for its battle cries of inclusivity and accessibility. Yet behind the scenes, employees claimed they experienced rampant racism and misogyny, as well as a culture of policing employee behavior. Such employees say, "...they’re still fearful of retaliation from YttP leadership who remain influential in the yoga community." 

When I left fundamentalist Christianity several years ago, it seemed to me that yoga was a sort of savior. Many Christians practice yoga, but yoga itself is not a religion. Rather, it is a collection of ethical principles and philosophies, and as such, can be practiced by members of any religion. Its main requirement is that you show up and be present.

I was fortunate enough to have received significant training in the spiritual and ethical practices of yoga, which has helped me to recognize when those teachings are compromised.

I think the biggest thing for me in seeing gurus and lineages like Choudhury and Friend and YttP fall is the recognition that yoga, in many ways, is vulnerable to the same corruptions as the conservative Christianity in which I was raised...and I was naive enough not to have foreseen this.

One almost expects Christian leaders to fall in this age.

Jerry Falwell, Jr, chancellor of one of the most famous Christian colleges in America, was ousted fairly recently on charges of sexual indiscretion (Liberty University is famously uber-conservative in both religion AND politics -- which it often combines -- and fines students for violating its morality clause). If you are up to watching all the salacious tidbits, perhaps you've checked out "God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty" on Hulu.

Around the same time, iconic televangelist Ravi Zacharias, a paragon of virtue and internationally-known Christian apologist, was discovered to have been manipulating massage therapists throughout the world into providing sex -- right up until his death at age 74. In at least one case, the sex was in exchange for spiritual guidance and the victim was forced to pray with him and thank God for the opportunity [of being raped]. While it's true that more women are desperate to come forward, Margie Zacharias, Ravi's widow, refuses to lift any NDA. 

Again, unspeakable complicity.

The irony in Ravi's case is that his company -- the largest Christian apologetics camp in the world -- refused to believe the victims who initially came forward. It was an atheist who started amalgamating evidence against him since his own people refused to see what was right in front of them.

Then there's Mark Driscoll of Acts 29. Darrin Patrick, also Acts 29. Carl Lentz of Hillsong. Pete Newman of Kanakuk. 

If you aren't, or have never been, a Christian conservative, these names likely mean nothing to you. If you are, though, you know the scandals were earth-shattering... enough to make you say, "I want nothing to do with these people. Ever. Again."

In the absence of one framework for understanding the world, though, I needed another.

My yoga journey began when I decided I would "try new things" with a group of girlfriends. My buy-in to the philosophy was not immediate. The idea of presence, as opposed to good and evil, was not intuitive.

In the last few years, though, I've seen and researched the corruption and hypocrisy of leaders in the yoga community, and that has been startling for me.

How can someone who embraces ahimsa, or non-harming, actively hurt another person -- whether through physical assault, racial bias, or policies meant to demean, belittle, and intimidate?

How can someone who embraces asteya, or non-stealing, actively try to steal from another person -- whether in the form of reputation, professional regard, or physical safety?

How can someone who embraces aparigraha, or non-possessiveness, make their living off of the lives and dollars of others -- whether by claiming they are the one, true yogi, or insisting that they are entitled to more of the lineage and tradition than others?

When I came to yoga, I thought I was finding the answer to conservative Christianity. Instead, I was left with yet more examples of corruption. I was forced to admit that yoga, like Christianity, is ultimately a system; and all systems are corruptible.

The difference, I have found, is that yoga allows for the dissonance. 

Whereas fundamentalism is by its very nature black and white, good and evil, yoga is, by its nature, a balance. Dark and light; strength and ease; give and take; forgiveness and distance.

Although I have been disappointed both by the ruptures I've been exposed to in the yoga community, and by the complicity of those perpetuating the violence, what I ultimately return to time and again is the true fundamental of this practice: presence.

In her memoir Pastrix: The Cranky Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint, pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber writes, "...the greatest spiritual practice isn't yoga or praying the hours or living in intentional poverty, although these are all beautiful in their own way. The greatest spiritual practice is just showing up."

For me, the beauty of yoga is that it has allowed me an entry-point into the unknowable and sacred -- a place of both/and.