(Discovered by the west during the hippie era as a way to transcendence, yoga has in recent years become part of the search for the perfect physique. Thanks to new teachers, gadgets and practices, it could again become an entry point for deeper spiritual practice)

The first time I tried yogaI wont say when, but Carlos Santana was still calling himself Devadipit was in someones basement in the suburbs, with plastic mats on the floor. Some guy in sweatpants led us through the Sun Salutations and the obligatory guided relaxation in the Corpse pose. Afterward we all hung around drinking soy coffee.

A couple of months later, I was struggling to stay in the lotus posture in front of an intense, scary-looking Indian guy in orange robes. The scent of sandalwood incense hung in the air, blending with the sampaguita garlands draped around a framed portrait of the guru. After a couple of minutes he told me my mind wasnt pure enough, and that I should chant babanam kevalam some more before coming back.

I had flunked the initiation.

The first wave of interest in yoga came in the aftermath of the hippie era, but the focus was on transcendence. Their minds having been expanded with psychedelic drugs, people looking for enlightenment turned east. In the 70s, ex-hippies chanted Hare Krishna, tried Transcendental Meditation, joined Ananda Marga or devoted themselves to Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh or Satya Sai Baba.

Few people actually practiced the asanas-the yoga poses. Those who did did so perfunctorily, mainly to prepare themselves for meditation and-they hoped-eventual enlightenment.

Then toward the end of the decade, yoga took a turn for the weird. Chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi enlisted two monks from Ananda Marga to psych out Anatoli Karpov in their 1978 world championship match in Baguio City. Later that same year, a nun from the same sect set herself on fire in Luneta to protest the continued imprisonment of their guru in India.

Things went quiet in the 80s, but something interesting happened during the 90s. Somehow the practice of yoga merged with the cult of the perfect physique that had emerged during the Yuppie era. Western disciples had taken the teachings of their Indian gurus and democratized it, adding more than a bit of marketing spin. What in India were seen as age-old traditions emerged in the new global marketplace as brands: Iyengar, Ashtanga, Bikram, Jivamukti. The asanas became the focal point of yoga practice.

Today, yoga is a growth industry. Ten years ago, you could count the yoga teachers in Manila on the fingers of one hand (and still have a finger or two left over). Today there are literally dozens of yoga studios offering a plethora of classes in Metro Manila alone, and other metropolitan areas arent far behind.

Beyond Yoga, a studio that opened last October in the Tomas Morato area of Quezon City, exemplifies the modern, Westernized approach to yoga.

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