Branding-gimmicks and Yoga

Let's plunge to the heart of the matter- Yoga is yoga. Period.

This has been a-brewing a long while in my being. 

It is a return to our essential simplicity.

Of what use is it to take one element out of it, blow it out of proportion and add a new prefix making it, Cold-yoga, Still-yoga, Hanging off something-yoga, Balancing on a surfboard-yoga, Sweaty-yoga, Less clothed-yoga, Cotton baggy pants wearing-yoga, Dance-yoga, Arty-yoga, Twist your limbs into a knot-yoga and so on....I'm sure you get the drift by now dear reader :) 

The only thing served by this gimmicky-ness to my simplistic mind is the ego of the person who started off the new name and of course material greed.

Advertising and promoting each new name as having been 'Discovered' by so and so, the new-age wellness businesses take advantage of the human mind's propensity for seemingly 'New' twists on anything.

Perfected thousands of years ago by sages such as one cannot even imagine existed, yoga is Unity. Unity of the body with the mind, the energies housed in the mind-body complex, the spirit, in such a way that just Be-ing becomes possible. That is all it is. That is all it needs to be. This one thing achieved everything else naturally falls in place.

In the meantime the world sitting atop the giant-wheel of materialism will swing round and round and round until who knows when.

Moving on to sweeter things, this is a pic clicked on my tab while biking from Bengaluru to Hessargatta. The route is pastoral, rustic and an absolute heart-healer. The cow was a bit surprised when she was given undivided attention for a few minutes :)