Yoga Meditation: A Forgotten Aspect of Yoga?

Yoga meditation is the practice of mediation in relation to the practice of yoga and its techniques. The concept of yoga meditation is quite a controversial one as many tend to see yoga as a physical exercise with a spiritual component where in fact, it was once intended to be the exact opposite- a spiritual exercise with a physical component.

The vast majority of practitioners of yoga outside India practice yoga purely for the physical benefits. As a result, the practice of yoga meditation has become secondary to the practice of performing the yoga asanas or poses.

In India, the birthplace of yoga and a place where the spiritual tradition of yoga is very much alive. Yoga mediation and exercises for building spiritual strength and mental will are given much more focus than the performance of the asanas.

There has been a complete reversal in the way yoga meditation is treated when yoga spread outside of India. The idea of yoga meditation is inseparable from traditional forms of yoga. Even the non-traditional forms of yoga have some emphasis on yoga meditation.

Yoga Outside India

Yoga, and its integral component, yoga meditation have been seen by many people inside and outside of India as something that has been co-opted without a proper degree of cultural sensitivity. In fact, in the west, many students of yoga asanas completely think irrelevant the concept of yoga meditation and focus completely on yoga as an exercise.

This has been commented on by Swami Jnaneshvara, a Hindu scholar, as being akin to considering the rite of Christian communion to being reduced to the mere eating of bread and drinking of wine. Others have pointed out that the treatment of yoga meditation in most western yoga schools is almost an insult, if not already an insult to the Hindu religion.

Yoga as an exercise has become wildly popular in the United States and elsewhere in the Western World. Yoga meditation has not become nearly as popular. For many people, even practitioners of asanas, or the poses of yoga, yoga is but these poses, just another form of exercise. Yoga mediation has been left by the wayside and has little significance for many people who just want to practice yoga for the health benefits that they believe they can get.

Still, others see no problem in yoga being co-opted and being a part of the process of cultural appropriation that is sweeping the world. The main justification is, if the exercises or asansas can help people even with out the meditative aspect, why bother complaining?

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