Is this even yoga?

Ok… so where is the soft music, props, mirrors and a skinny, super fit yoga instructor? Is this even a yoga class? Maybe I’m in the wrong room?

Instead there is an oil lamp, Sadhguru’s photo and a teacher in baggy uniform, buttoned up to the neck, playing instruction videos and sitting all the time! I’m not sure this is a place for me. But I have nowhere else to be so let’s just stick around.

Two hours later I am still not sure what just happened but my body feels amazing and there is this spring to my step. Like my lungs are filled with helium and I barely touch the ground. I guess I will come for the next session.

Couple of decades ago yoga exploded in the west and now it’s a multi million dollar industry. But like everything taken to the ‘west’ from the original source it became terribly distorted and it is treated as a sort of exercise.

Yoga is not about stretching and bending into impossible postures. For sure it looks impressive and beautiful on the pictures and will give you a ton of likes on social media, but please … do not call it yoga.

The word yoga means union. It is not an art form, exercise or philosophy.

‘It is a complete path by itself’ - Sadhguru. The essence of yoga is to move to experiential reality where one knows the ultimate nature of the existence.

That sounds wonderful and very promising, but what does that even mean?

In the yoga classes I used to attend there was always soft music to entertain me, teacher constantly guiding and even physically adjusting my posture, mirrors where I could check the right angle… There is none of that in the Isha Hatha Yoga class.

All this sensory overload and distractions will successfully prevent you from having any sort of deeper, inner experience. Sure your back will feel better and maybe you will lose some weight, but you will completely miss the whole point of doing yoga.

This process is so subtle that it requires a 100% of your attention. Only then you will experience the true union. And Yoga is simply Yoga.