Yoga as a way to make a living

Meditationtime Forum Post

Date:  Posted 5 years before Mar 08, 2018

MiBeloved 5 years ago

Nadine on LinkedIn:

My question is, how do I trust myself to be a good judge of character and to continue to believe in fundamental yoga philosophy? Can you still remain true to yourself and make a living in the yoga business?

MiBeloved's Response:

You are speaking about being true to yourself, as if you or I is yoga. Being true to yourself is being who or what you are and being honest about it, even if it your lifestyle is taboo.

Now if you are asking about yoga, then we should first agree on a definition of what that is, and then our discussion can be coherent.

I wrote several books concerning yoga. I have translated from Sanskrit some books. I have done a practice for over 40 years now. I have never seen any definition of yoga in any of the Sanskrit literature that has to do with money.

If there is no such definition, then the question is not a practical one.

The idea of charging money for yoga teaching is not from the original setting in India. It is mostly a Western development, as Westerners have adopted yoga and have changed the design of it to fit into the Western capitalistic society.

To be clear about this, there is story after story in the Sanskrit texts from India about disciples giving what is termed as guru-dakshna (an appreciation gift) to the yoga master. But this was given after the student was completely trained and not as a fee or as a cost but as an act of appreciation from the student to the teacher.

In some examples of this, the student asked the guru to state what was the correct donation or act which was to be performed.

Thus to answer your question, we would have to first scrap the definition of yoga from books like the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and adapt the definitions we are being given in the West. And then of course, the authority who gives that definition may also answer your question.

Alfredo 5 years ago

Thank you Acharya Ji!

Very well said. I just read the thread on LinkedIn, very interesting.