Now after WW2 and the economic boom the cultural dynamic – and with that yoga – left these upper class strata and moved down into female circles in the emerging middle classes. Yoga was entering strata of economic independent and strong women living in metropolitan areas seeking new identities and interests. It was such female amateurs who now mainly opted for the postural yoga styles, a body exercise style, which as described in the chapter on Colonial modernist yoga was configured in India between 1920 and 1940 . It was not the modernist meditative yoga of Vivekananda that attracted them. Instead it was the so-called hatha-yoga. As described in the Colonial Modernist Yoga chapter this hybrid postural yoga culture was highly influenced by Western gymnastics, calisthenics and body building practices. Many of the stretches and movements were probably downright copies. It all came out of a turn-of-century modernist Western discourse of physical culture’. Today we call it the fitness culture’.
In addition to written texts, we often seek the guidance of a companion or skillful teacher to stimulate and encourage us.Halasana Pose Yoga For Christians, that teacher is Jesus Christ. For Muslims, it is Muhammad. In Hinduism, and in yoga, the path of knowledge jnana-marga and the path of devotion bhakti-marga are embarked upon with the guidance of a guru, a personal spiritual guide. Some bhakti, or devotional, traditions pursue the surrendering of the ego under the consideration of a teacher’s wisdom that is integral to a student’s fulfillment.Halasana Pose Yoga Being in close proximity to a guide a realized being sheds light onto you, which can ignite your own realization and help you along on your own path. For Buddhists, and even for many other believers, the Buddha is an exemplar of gurus. In Buddhism, all great teachers, and the personified ideal to which a student aspires, emulate the Buddha and his own personal life.
