Ah, the West! It’s almost a cliché in itself to be writing about Western treatment of Yoga as a “Westerner” myself. But I can’t help but worry that if we don’t get our head out of our backsides and we don’t accept Yoga never has been ours to play with, that we might end up taking the route of ignorance permanently. Regardless of how many white teachers claim to be teaching Yoga, it can’t erase the South Asian roots of the philosophy. I myself have never really felt like a Westerner, even though I live in the epicentre of it. Growing up in a country considered for almost a millennium as the “East of”, my own agency has conflictingly revolved around convincing British people of my non-Easterness. But what I learned, with much difficulty and a few name changes, was that you can never really take the East out of the Girl, the European East that is. But that is exactly what the flourishing and ever-expanding Yoga industry has been doing to Yoga – mercilessly ripping it out of its birthplace and context and turning it into another exercising fad. What were We thinking?! But there lingers another inherent issue with the popularizing of Yoga in the cultural West – the unquestioned adoption of the Guru principle, which have been rampant since the very beginning of the Yoga Industry back in the 1960s.
I don’t want to give another lecture on the history of how “Gurus” in the West and in South Asia itself have abused their powers. Such stories are written and shared in abundance and they need to be. The abuse of power in a teaching relationship, in the capacity of a Yoga teacher or otherwise, is an unforgiveable behaviour. What I want to centre this piece on is rather the mechanisms under which the concept of the Guru-figure was transliterated onto Western Yoga and spirituality.
Anyone can be Guru these days. Fitness Gurus, Diet Gurus, Fashion Gurus – the term is being so overused in popular culture that I can’t help but feel the de-valuation of it. I myself am not of South Asian origin and never grew up with the idea of a figure serving as a spiritual and/or physical guide to higher truths. From what I have learned in my own Yoga training, a Guru is someone to show you your own Light. In a traditional Hindu sense, a Guru is someone to be followed and served without reservation, someone who helps shed a light on your own connection to whatever notion of Source you subscribe to; someone who genuinely connects and cares for your growth as a spiritual being. In return, you can devote time, effort, dedication, money if you can afford it. But the relationship, historically, has never depended on a simple monetary exchange. I am in no capacity well-versed on the topic and don’t wish my ramblings to come across as patronising or overly generalizing. That is simply what I have learned. Even without an in-depth understanding of what the experience of a Guru-Chela relationship might be, I am quite certain it has nothing to do with the mundane meaning the modern English language has attached to it.
I recently came over someone on social media, advertising themselves as a “Guru” and offering spiritual treatments, readings and events based on the premise they are somehow endowed with spiritual knowledge. Last time I checked, half an hour of any type of spiritual interaction shouldn’t cost you half a week of wages... Don’t get my meaning wrong, we all need a source of income and to somehow make a living. But I draw the line at accumulating wealth off the back of an ancient and respected tradition. People! Open your eyes and see, anyone who claims to be a Guru and request an unaffordable monetary and personal contribution is nothing but a narcissistic egomaniac. The people in your life, who will want to genuinely shed Light on your own Self won’t want your bank details first. Spiritual knowledge doesn’t come freely, but it can never come at a price too high, monetary or otherwise. An exchange of energy is needed for balance to exist between a giver and recipient of any knowledge. But don’t let yourselves be fooled; the capitalist monster of the West doesn’t have to completely devour the Yoga tradition.
I am angry at this state of things, I didn’t intend to be when I started writing this. It’s difficult to see how people all around are so readily willing to prop up their desire for spiritual evolution on someone else. Sure, Yoga Gurus still exist, and they do appear when you are ready, but these are not the ones who claim the title for themselves. And frankly, the overreliance on the concept, which can’t be traditionally fulfilled in a Western context, is dampening our own connection with the Guru inside. Don’t call it a Guru if you don’t want to – call if your Wild Woman/Man, your Higher Knowing or Self. What I’m saying is there is no one better equipped to help you become your best self, other than yourself. But that’s not an easy journey either, you need clarity and objectivity, and tons of forgiveness and self-love.
And in the event, you are reading this and have found your own Guru yourself, don’t be offended by it – not all of us are as lucky. My sincere hope is, however, that we can as a collective of Western societies, learn how not to rely on shady “Guru” figures to validate our experiences. The time to prop up our own spiritual experiences with other people’s presumed authority is past. It’s now high time we step into our potential and navigate the darkness of ignorance, to come out the other side as awakened as we can be. No self-proclaiming, money-demanding “Guru” can do that for you.