May-June 2011 - The Journey

Their biggest impact spanned
about 15-20 years, starting in 1967
with the counterculture and lasting
at least to the mid 1980s. During
that period, the teachings went
main stream. The gurus might not
have had a large number of direct
followers, but their teachings made
meditation and yoga widely available
to casual practitioners and devotees
alike. The main source of information
at first was the guru; as time
went on, more and more books were
published, lectures and teachings
were circulated, and Americans were
trained as teachers.
One of the things
India gave us was a
way to be genuinely
spiritual without
having to be conventionally
religious.
Some of the most important
books that influenced American
thinking and receptivity to yogic
philosophy were Autobiography of
a Yogi, Be Here Now, and various
translations of the Gita and Yoga
Sutras. The Vedanta Society Press
published translations and commentaries
that famous authors like
Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood
contributed to.
If you wanted a breathing technique,
a diet, a morning exercise
program, did you need to find a living
guru and join an organization in
order to fulfill your search?
In the early 60s, it wasn’t easy
to find yoga, even in places like
New York. But by the late 60s if you
were living in a major city or a college
town, you could get started in
a practice. SRF, Vishnudevananda,
Satchidananda and others had centers
and had started to train teachers,
and TM centers were opening
up everywhere. If you were a casual
seeker you could find a yoga class
or a meditation teacher. Plus, Lilias
Folan and Richard Hittleman had
T h e Jo u r n e y
TV shows. But if you were a serious
seeker, yes, you probably joined or
affiliated with a group.
And can you
explain why the
search was done
with such fervor?
There have always
been serious
spiritual seekers
who were not satisfied
by conventional
religion, or
have even been
hostile toward it.
T h e s e p e o p l e ,
spiritual but without
religious affiliation,
had no place
to go to connect
with the divine, to
uncover the nature of the Self. With
the arrival of gurus and mass communication,
all that changed. In the
mid-to-late 60s, young people felt
discontented with life as it was presented,
and many turned to psychedelics
to explore the inner realms. At
the same time, Ravi Shankar popped
into the scene with the sound of
Indian music, and there were brand
new opportunities for travel, along
with more leisure time.
All these factors played a part.
It was a perfect storm of social influence.
But the same key component
remains today – an individual who
wants more out of life, who knows
there is some higher level of connection
to the cosmos, who feels there
is something inside that needs to be
explored and is searching for a way
to do it. I think one of the things India
gave us was a way to be genuinely
spiritual without having to be conventionally
religious. And you can do
it in your own independent way because
India tradition acknowledges
many paths to the divine.
In the present time, how has the
Internet changed the way people
seek and the way people find community?
The initial gurus and teachers
died off at around the same time
the Internet was born. Ashrams
and guru-centered organizations
were replaced by
hundreds of yoga
centers as the focal
point for seekers.
The explosion
of interest in yoga
and yoga-related
activities is unprecedented
in history.
Today’s seeker
is more eclectic,
more open to different
teachers and
paths. Communities
are less exclusive,
less gurucentered
and more
community-centered.
People find
each other through
social networking and the Internet.
Modern seekers
of spirituality take
more responsibility
for their own journeys,
and are less
likely to turn over
their power to a
spiritual authority
figure.
Many of the teachings are available
online, but it doesn’t eliminate
the need for community. It seems
that yoga and meditation are made
to be practiced in a group. The teachings
come alive when you practice
them with others.
Today’s yoga centers tend to
be non-religious, not loyal to any
one particular teacher or yoga
style; and they embody an underlying
universality which translates
to the students. Modern seekers of
spirituality take more responsibility
for their own journeys, and are less
likely to turn over their power to a
spiritual authority figure.
Ma y • Ju n e 2011 Pa g e 27
Ma y • Ju n e 2011