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Modern yoga gurus

January 01, 1970

Modern yoga gurus are people widely acknowledged to be gurus of modern yoga in any of its forms, whether religious or not. The role implies being well-known and having a large following; in contrast to the old guru-shishya tradition, the modern guru-follower relationship is not secretive, not exclusive, and does not necessarily involve a tradition. Many such gurus, but not all, teach a form of yoga as exercise; others teach forms which are more devotional or meditational; many teach a combination. Some have been affected by scandals of various kinds.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced The Beatles, and the West, to gurus, mantras, and meditation in the late 1960s.[1][2]

Guru-shishya tradition edit

Further information: Guru–shishya tradition
 
The guru–shishya tradition involved a long-term, one-to-one relationship between master and pupil.[3] Watercolour, Punjab Hills, India, 1740

Before the creation of modern yoga, hatha yoga was practised in secret by solitary, ascetic yogins, learning the tradition as a long-term pupil or shishya apprenticed to their master or guru.[4][5][6][7] The ancient relationship was the primary means by which spirituality was expressed in India.[8] Traditional yoga was often exclusive and secretive: the shishya submitted to and obeyed the guru, understanding that lengthy initiation and training under the guru was essential for progress.[3] So strong was the guru-shishya relationship that Vivekananda stated that "The guru must be worshipped as God. He is God, he is nothing less than that".[8]

Transformed role edit

The role of the guru in the modern world is radically transformed. Globalisation has extended the guru's reach into environments where they may be a stranger, and where the religion, purpose, and status of the guru is poorly understood. Modern yoga practices are often open to everyone, without any sort of initiation into any organisation or doctrine. The modern guru Jaggi Vasudev explicitly rejected "all that traditional whatever";[3] all the same, some yoga traditions still emphasise and respect a teacher's lineage (parampara).[3] For example, Gurumayi's Siddha Yoga pays careful attention to her predecessors, Muktananda and Bhagawan Nityananda.[9] Another major change was introduced by Vivekananda; his Ramakrishna Mission set the example of public service in education and medicine, something now practised by many other Indian religious movements. These religions thus shifted from a focus on personal salvation to public altruism.[8]

 
Yogendra, an acknowledged pioneer of modern yoga,[10] rejected the traditional guru role in favour of something more modern.[11]

A further radical shift was from spiritual to physical in yoga as exercise, as pioneered by Yogendra, Kuvalayananda, and Krishnamacharya.[12] The transformed role of the guru can be seen in the case of one of these pioneers,[10] Yogendra, who explicitly rejected the role of traditional guru for a single pupil or shishya.[11] The physical context, too, is transformed along with the nature of the teacher's authority; yoga as exercise is often taught in an urban yoga studio, where the instructor's yoga teacher training stands in for the old guru-shishya relationship.[3] The trend away from authority is continued in post-lineage yoga, which is practised outside any major school or guru's lineage.[13][14]

The concept of the guru, along with mantra and meditation, reached the West in the 1960s with The Beatles' trip to India, for a Transcendental Meditation training course at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh.[1][2] Modern gurus since then have used the divine status of the traditional guru to claim that they were gods or goddesses. Some asserted they were avatars, earthly incarnations of a god, fulfilling the prophecy in the Bhagavad Gita that Vishnu would take on earthly form when the world was threatened by evil.[8]

Abuse edit

Further information: Sexual abuse by yoga gurus

The potential for abuse in the transformed guru-follower relationship is large, and there have been multiple instances of apparent or proven sexual, mental, and emotional abuse by gurus.[15][16][17][18][19] Anthony Storr has documented, for example, the excesses of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh;[20] Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad have examined the betrayal of trust that is involved.[21] Swami Vivekananda said early in the modern era that there are many incompetent gurus, and that a true guru should understand the spirit of the scriptures, have a pure character and be free from sin, and should be selfless, without desire for money and fame.[22] Following the downfalls of several gurus accused of misconduct, practitioners have publicly debated whether gurus are still necessary.[23] As for how gurus can get away with abuse for so long, there is evidence both from research in psychology and from the recollections of former devotees like Daniel Shaw, once a senior member of staff in Gurumayi's Siddha Yoga organisation, that even if a guru is seen to be lying, devotees will ignore the matter and "keep on believing".[24]

Acknowledged gurus edit

Well-known gurus of modern yoga
Guru Dates Gender Country Lineage (guru) School
or order		 Postures
(Asana)		 Meditation
(Dhyana)		 Devotion
(Bhakti)		 Other
practices		 Scandal
(alleged abuses)
Anandamayi Ma[25][26][27] 1896–1982 Female India Self-realization No Yes
Sri Aurobindo[28][29] 1872–1950 Male India Sri Aurobindo Ashram No Yes
Beryl Bender Birch[30] 1942– Female US K. Pattabhi Jois Power Yoga Yes No No
Yogi Bhajan[31][32] 1929–2004 Male India Kundalini Yoga Yes Yes Guru Nanak Sexual[33][34]
Bikram Choudhury[35][25][36][18] 1944– Male India Bikram Yoga Yes No No Fixed sequence of postures, in heated room Sexual, assault, racism, homophobia[37][38]
Amrit Desai[39][40][41][42] 1932– Male India Kripalvananda Kripalu Yoga[43] Yes Kundalini yoga, Hatha yoga[39] Sexual[44][45][40]
John Friend[36][18][46] 1959– Male US Anusara Yoga Yes Yes No Sexual[47][48]
Gurmukh[49][50] 1943– Female US Yogi Bhajan Kundalini Yoga No Yes Yoga in pregnancy
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda[51][52] 1955– Female India Muktananda Siddha Yoga No Yes Yes Shaktipat, japa
B. K. S. Iyengar[35][36][53][54][55][56] 1918–2014 Male India Krishnamacharya Iyengar Yoga Yes No No Yoga props
Jaggi Vasudev[35][54][57] 1957– Male India Malladihalli Raghavendra Isha Foundation Yes Yes "Inner Engineering", japa, pranayama
K. Pattabhi Jois[35][53][54][58][1][59] 1915–2009 Male India Krishnamacharya Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Yes No No Vinyasas Sexual[60]
Krishnamacharya[35][53][54][61] 1888–1989 Male India Vinyasa Krama Yoga Yes No No Vinyasas
Kriyananda[62][63] 1926–2013 Male US Yogananda Ananda yoga No Yes Yes Copyright disputes[64] Sexual[65][66]
Kuvalayananda[54] 1883–1966 Male India Paramahamsa Madhavdas Kaivalyadhama Yes Ayurveda
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi[35][53][54][59] 1918–2008 Male India Brahmananda Saraswati Transcendental Meditation No Yes
Meher Baba[25] 1894–1969 Male India Avatar Meher Baba Trust No Sufism
Dharma Mittra[67] 1939– Male Brazil Kailashananda Dharma Yoga Center Yes
Muktananda[68][69][70] 1908–1982 Male India Bhagawan Nityananda Siddha Yoga No Yes Shaktipat Sexual[71][72]
Nirmala Srivastava
(Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi)[73]		 1923–2011 Female India Sahaja Yoga No Yes Kundalini awakening
Swami Rama[54] 1925–1996 Male India Himalayan Institute No Yes Sexual[74]
Ram Dass[75][76] 1931–2019 Male US Neem Karoli Baba No Yes Pranayama
Baba Ramdev[35][67][53][77] 1965– Male India Patanjali Yogpeeth Yes Yes Ayurveda, pranayama
Sivananda[35][78][53][54] 1887–1963 Male India Divine Life Society No Yes
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar[35][57] 1956– Male India Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Art of Living Foundation Yes Yes Sudarshan Kriya, pranayama
Satchidananda Saraswati[79][80] 1914–2002 Male India Sivananda Integral Yoga Yes Yes Yes Pranayama, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Japa Sexual[79][81]
Sathya Sai Baba[82][83] 1926–2011 Male India Sathya Sai Organization No
Shankarananda[84][85] 1942– Male US Shiva Yoga No Yes Sexual[84][85]
Vishnudevananda Saraswati[86][56] 1927–1993 Male India Sivananda Sivananda Yoga Yes Yes Pranayama, Sattvic diet Sexual[86]
Vivekananda[87][88] 1863–1902 Male India Ramakrishna Vedanta No Yes
Paramahansa Yogananda[35][25][53][54] 1893–1952 Male India Sri Yukteswar Giri Self-Realization Fellowship Yes Yes Yes Kriya Yoga
Yogendra[10][59] 1897–1989 Male India The Yoga Institute Yes Yes

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Shearer 2020, p. 211.
  2. ^ a b Goldberg 2010, p. 152.
  3. ^ a b c d e Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 4–8.
  4. ^ Bühnemann, Gudrun (2007). Eighty-Four Asanas in Yoga: A Survey of Traditions. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-8124604175.
  5. ^ Mallinson, James (2011). Knut A. Jacobsen; et al. (eds.). Haṭha Yoga in the Brill Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Vol. 3. Brill Academic. pp. 770–781. ISBN 978-90-04-27128-9.
  6. ^ Singleton 2010, p. 173.
  7. ^ Neehan, Jack (21 March 2017). "Yoga: James Mallinson uncovers the ancient traditions of the great yogis". SOAS. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  8. ^ a b c d Dubey, Rajeev (2015). "New Hindu Religious Movements in Contemporary India: A Review of Literature". Sociological Bulletin. 64 (2): 152–170. doi:10.1177/0038022920150202. JSTOR 26290776. S2CID 157640220.
  9. ^ Pechilis, Karen (2004). "Gurumayi, the Play of Shakti and Guru". The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States. Oxford University Press. pp. 219–243. ISBN 0-19-514538-0.
  10. ^ a b c Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 60–79.
  11. ^ a b Goldberg 2016, pp. 7–15.
  12. ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 1–4.
  13. ^ Lucia, Amanda J. (2020). White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals. University of California Press. pp. 75 ff, 136 ff. ISBN 978-0-520-37695-3.
  14. ^ Wildcroft 2020, pp. 5–22.
  15. ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 7–8.
  16. ^ Horton, Adrian (20 November 2019). "'He got away with it': how the founder of Bikram yoga built an empire on abuse". The Guardian.
  17. ^ "International Yoga Day: 5 yoga gurus who were accused of sexual assault". Indian Express. 21 June 2018.
  18. ^ a b c Park, Tosca (11 February 2015). "Modern Yoga: Turning a Blind Eye on Sexual Abuse Allegations?". Yoga Basics. Other yoga masters have also been involved in sexual abuse scandals with their students, notably, Kausthub Desikachar, Sai Baba, Swami Shyam, Swami Satchidananda, Swami Rama, Swami Muktananada, and Amrit Desai.
  19. ^ Stuart, Gwynedd (15 July 2020). "Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse". Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  20. ^ Storr 1996, pp. 45–64.
  21. ^ Kramer & Alstad 1993, Gurus & Sexual Manipulation: The Betrayal of Trust.
  22. ^ Sheldrake, Philip (25 September 2014). Spirituality: A Guide for the Perplexed. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 142. ISBN 978-1441187215.
  23. ^ Yoga Unify (27 April 2021). "Do Modern Yoga Students Need a Guru?". Yoga Journal. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
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  26. ^ Wagner, Paul (30 May 2019). "Sri Anandamayi Ma: The Perfect, Profound and Mysterious Flower". Gaia. Retrieved 16 August 2021. The Non-organized, Non-Proclaimed Guru
  27. ^ "Anandamayi Ma". Om-Guru. Retrieved 16 August 2021. Though she was never formally initiated by a guru, one evening she spontaneously performed her own initiation, visualizing both the ritual scene and movements. Simultaneously, she heard the chanting of initiatory sacred words (mantras) inwardly.
  28. ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, pp. 38–59.
  29. ^ Chaama, Sridhar (16 August 2012). "Remembering a guru". The Hindu. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  30. ^ Hatfield, Julie (23 April 1996). "Yoga on steroids, or feel the yearn Health: Practitioners say they get sweat and a sense of calm out of Ashtanga, a vigorous series of postures that looks conventional, but a lot faster". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 3 September 2021. Beryl Bender Birch, author of the book "Power Yoga" and generally regarded as the ultimate power yoga guru.
  31. ^ Shearer 2020, p. 210.
  32. ^ Syman 2010, p. 260.
  33. ^ Stukin, Stacie (15 July 2020). "Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse". Los Angeles Magazine.
  34. ^ "A New Report Details Decades of Abuse at the Hands of Yogi Bhajan". Yoga Journal. 15 August 2020.
  35. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Suar, Swati Snigdha (18 June 2015). "Meet India's 10 most renowned yoga gurus". Rediff.com.
  36. ^ a b c Jain 2015, p. 66.
  37. ^ Godwin, Richard (18 February 2017). "'He said he could do what he wanted': the Scandal that Rocked Bikram Yoga". The Guardian.
  38. ^ Griswold, Eliza (23 July 2019). "Yoga Reconsiders the Role of the Guru in the Age of #MeToo". The New Yorker.
  39. ^ a b Leviton 1990, pp. 123–124.
  40. ^ a b Jones & Ryan 2007, pp. 124–125, Desai, Guru Amrit.
  41. ^ Beck, Phillipa (4 December 2019). "Power and Prana: When Yoga Leads to Abuse". Retrieved 17 August 2021. Amrit Desai was the spiritual head of Kripalu from the 1970s until his abrupt departure in 1994. The charismatic, kundalini-raising guru was a master at creating a powerful, direct experience of prana, or life-force energy
  42. ^ Goldberg, Ellen. "Amrit Desai and the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health" in Gleig & Williamson 2013, pp. 63–86
  43. ^ Jones & Ryan 2007, p. 237, Kripalu Yoga.
  44. ^ Cushman, Anne; Montgomery, Lizette (February 1995). "Yogi Desai Resigns From Kripalu". Yoga Journal (January/February 1995): 40, 42.
  45. ^ Schneider 2003, p. 116.
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  47. ^ Roig-Franzia, Manuel (29 March 2012). "Scandal contorts future of John Friend, Anusara yoga". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  48. ^ Singleton & Goldberg 2014, p. 210.
  49. ^ Gilbert, Sophie (19 September 2000). "At last: a guru for the impatient". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  50. ^ Sloane, Carly (24 May 2019). "Celebrity Yoga Guru Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa Explains Why Cindy Crawford, Demi Moore, Miranda Kerr and More Stars Love Her Style of Teaching". US Magazine. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  51. ^ Pechilis, Karen (2004). "Gurumayi, the Play of Shakti and Guru". The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States. Oxford University Press. pp. 219–243. ISBN 0-19-514538-0.
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  73. ^ Lewis, James R.; Tollefsen, Inga B. (2016). The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements: Volume II. Oxford University Press. p. 293. ISBN 9780190466190. A few female gurus have gained international recognition... Sahaja Yoga's guru, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.
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  79. ^ a b Landau, Meryl Davids (February 2012). "In Times of Scandal". Elephant Journal. Retrieved 17 August 2021. Here I was, eager to learn yogic principles like nonharming and truthfulness, while Swami Satchidananda, the guru at the head of this teaching center, was being accused of harming and lying aplenty. I don't know if the accusations were ever proven, but the disciple who claimed she'd had a longstanding, not-really-welcome sexual relationship with the supposedly celibate swami was pretty convincing
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Sources edit

January 01, 1970
modern, yoga, gurus, people, widely, acknowledged, gurus, modern, yoga, forms, whether, religious, role, implies, being, well, known, having, large, following, contrast, guru, shishya, tradition, modern, guru, follower, relationship, secretive, exclusive, does. Modern yoga gurus are people widely acknowledged to be gurus of modern yoga in any of its forms whether religious or not The role implies being well known and having a large following in contrast to the old guru shishya tradition the modern guru follower relationship is not secretive not exclusive and does not necessarily involve a tradition Many such gurus but not all teach a form of yoga as exercise others teach forms which are more devotional or meditational many teach a combination Some have been affected by scandals of various kinds Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced The Beatles and the West to gurus mantras and meditation in the late 1960s 1 2 Contents 1 Guru shishya tradition 2 Transformed role 3 Abuse 4 Acknowledged gurus 5 References 6 SourcesGuru shishya tradition editFurther information Guru shishya tradition nbsp The guru shishya tradition involved a long term one to one relationship between master and pupil 3 Watercolour Punjab Hills India 1740 Before the creation of modern yoga hatha yoga was practised in secret by solitary ascetic yogins learning the tradition as a long term pupil or shishya apprenticed to their master or guru 4 5 6 7 The ancient relationship was the primary means by which spirituality was expressed in India 8 Traditional yoga was often exclusive and secretive the shishya submitted to and obeyed the guru understanding that lengthy initiation and training under the guru was essential for progress 3 So strong was the guru shishya relationship that Vivekananda stated that The guru must be worshipped as God He is God he is nothing less than that 8 Transformed role editThe role of the guru in the modern world is radically transformed Globalisation has extended the guru s reach into environments where they may be a stranger and where the religion purpose and status of the guru is poorly understood Modern yoga practices are often open to everyone without any sort of initiation into any organisation or doctrine The modern guru Jaggi Vasudev explicitly rejected all that traditional whatever 3 all the same some yoga traditions still emphasise and respect a teacher s lineage parampara 3 For example Gurumayi s Siddha Yoga pays careful attention to her predecessors Muktananda and Bhagawan Nityananda 9 Another major change was introduced by Vivekananda his Ramakrishna Mission set the example of public service in education and medicine something now practised by many other Indian religious movements These religions thus shifted from a focus on personal salvation to public altruism 8 nbsp Yogendra an acknowledged pioneer of modern yoga 10 rejected the traditional guru role in favour of something more modern 11 A further radical shift was from spiritual to physical in yoga as exercise as pioneered by Yogendra Kuvalayananda and Krishnamacharya 12 The transformed role of the guru can be seen in the case of one of these pioneers 10 Yogendra who explicitly rejected the role of traditional guru for a single pupil or shishya 11 The physical context too is transformed along with the nature of the teacher s authority yoga as exercise is often taught in an urban yoga studio where the instructor s yoga teacher training stands in for the old guru shishya relationship 3 The trend away from authority is continued in post lineage yoga which is practised outside any major school or guru s lineage 13 14 The concept of the guru along with mantra and meditation reached the West in the 1960s with The Beatles trip to India for a Transcendental Meditation training course at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi s ashram in Rishikesh 1 2 Modern gurus since then have used the divine status of the traditional guru to claim that they were gods or goddesses Some asserted they were avatars earthly incarnations of a god fulfilling the prophecy in the Bhagavad Gita that Vishnu would take on earthly form when the world was threatened by evil 8 Abuse editFurther information Sexual abuse by yoga gurus The potential for abuse in the transformed guru follower relationship is large and there have been multiple instances of apparent or proven sexual mental and emotional abuse by gurus 15 16 17 18 19 Anthony Storr has documented for example the excesses of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh 20 Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad have examined the betrayal of trust that is involved 21 Swami Vivekananda said early in the modern era that there are many incompetent gurus and that a true guru should understand the spirit of the scriptures have a pure character and be free from sin and should be selfless without desire for money and fame 22 Following the downfalls of several gurus accused of misconduct practitioners have publicly debated whether gurus are still necessary 23 As for how gurus can get away with abuse for so long there is evidence both from research in psychology and from the recollections of former devotees like Daniel Shaw once a senior member of staff in Gurumayi s Siddha Yoga organisation that even if a guru is seen to be lying devotees will ignore the matter and keep on believing 24 Acknowledged gurus editWell known gurus of modern yoga Guru Dates Gender Country Lineage guru Schoolor order Postures Asana Meditation Dhyana Devotion Bhakti Other practices Scandal alleged abuses Anandamayi Ma 25 26 27 1896 1982 Female India Self realization No Yes Sri Aurobindo 28 29 1872 1950 Male India Sri Aurobindo Ashram No Yes Beryl Bender Birch 30 1942 Female US K Pattabhi Jois Power Yoga Yes No No Yogi Bhajan 31 32 1929 2004 Male India Kundalini Yoga Yes Yes Guru Nanak Sexual 33 34 Bikram Choudhury 35 25 36 18 1944 Male India Bikram Yoga Yes No No Fixed sequence of postures in heated room Sexual assault racism homophobia 37 38 Amrit Desai 39 40 41 42 1932 Male India Kripalvananda Kripalu Yoga 43 Yes Kundalini yoga Hatha yoga 39 Sexual 44 45 40 John Friend 36 18 46 1959 Male US Anusara Yoga Yes Yes No Sexual 47 48 Gurmukh 49 50 1943 Female US Yogi Bhajan Kundalini Yoga No Yes Yoga in pregnancy Gurumayi Chidvilasananda 51 52 1955 Female India Muktananda Siddha Yoga No Yes Yes Shaktipat japa B K S Iyengar 35 36 53 54 55 56 1918 2014 Male India Krishnamacharya Iyengar Yoga Yes No No Yoga props Jaggi Vasudev 35 54 57 1957 Male India Malladihalli Raghavendra Isha Foundation Yes Yes Inner Engineering japa pranayama K Pattabhi Jois 35 53 54 58 1 59 1915 2009 Male India Krishnamacharya Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Yes No No Vinyasas Sexual 60 Krishnamacharya 35 53 54 61 1888 1989 Male India Vinyasa Krama Yoga Yes No No Vinyasas Kriyananda 62 63 1926 2013 Male US Yogananda Ananda yoga No Yes Yes Copyright disputes 64 Sexual 65 66 Kuvalayananda 54 1883 1966 Male India Paramahamsa Madhavdas Kaivalyadhama Yes Ayurveda Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 35 53 54 59 1918 2008 Male India Brahmananda Saraswati Transcendental Meditation No Yes Meher Baba 25 1894 1969 Male India Avatar Meher Baba Trust No Sufism Dharma Mittra 67 1939 Male Brazil Kailashananda Dharma Yoga Center Yes Muktananda 68 69 70 1908 1982 Male India Bhagawan Nityananda Siddha Yoga No Yes Shaktipat Sexual 71 72 Nirmala Srivastava Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi 73 1923 2011 Female India Sahaja Yoga No Yes Kundalini awakening Swami Rama 54 1925 1996 Male India Himalayan Institute No Yes Sexual 74 Ram Dass 75 76 1931 2019 Male US Neem Karoli Baba No Yes Pranayama Baba Ramdev 35 67 53 77 1965 Male India Patanjali Yogpeeth Yes Yes Ayurveda pranayama Sivananda 35 78 53 54 1887 1963 Male India Divine Life Society No Yes Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 35 57 1956 Male India Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Art of Living Foundation Yes Yes Sudarshan Kriya pranayama Satchidananda Saraswati 79 80 1914 2002 Male India Sivananda Integral Yoga Yes Yes Yes Pranayama Karma Yoga Jnana Yoga Japa Sexual 79 81 Sathya Sai Baba 82 83 1926 2011 Male India Sathya Sai Organization No Shankarananda 84 85 1942 Male US Shiva Yoga No Yes Sexual 84 85 Vishnudevananda Saraswati 86 56 1927 1993 Male India Sivananda Sivananda Yoga Yes Yes Pranayama Sattvic diet Sexual 86 Vivekananda 87 88 1863 1902 Male India Ramakrishna Vedanta No Yes Paramahansa Yogananda 35 25 53 54 1893 1952 Male India Sri Yukteswar Giri Self Realization Fellowship Yes Yes Yes Kriya Yoga Yogendra 10 59 1897 1989 Male India The Yoga Institute Yes YesReferences edit a b c Shearer 2020 p 211 a b Goldberg 2010 p 152 a b c d e Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 4 8 Buhnemann Gudrun 2007 Eighty Four Asanas in Yoga A Survey of Traditions New Delhi D K Printworld pp 20 21 ISBN 978 8124604175 Mallinson James 2011 Knut A Jacobsen et al eds Haṭha Yoga in the Brill Encyclopedia of Hinduism Vol 3 Brill Academic pp 770 781 ISBN 978 90 04 27128 9 Singleton 2010 p 173 Neehan Jack 21 March 2017 Yoga James Mallinson uncovers the ancient traditions of the great yogis SOAS Retrieved 5 March 2019 a b c d Dubey Rajeev 2015 New Hindu Religious Movements in Contemporary India A Review of Literature Sociological Bulletin 64 2 152 170 doi 10 1177 0038022920150202 JSTOR 26290776 S2CID 157640220 Pechilis Karen 2004 Gurumayi the Play of Shakti and Guru The Graceful Guru Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States Oxford University Press pp 219 243 ISBN 0 19 514538 0 a b c Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 60 79 a b Goldberg 2016 pp 7 15 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 1 4 Lucia Amanda J 2020 White Utopias The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals University of California Press pp 75 ff 136 ff ISBN 978 0 520 37695 3 Wildcroft 2020 pp 5 22 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 7 8 Horton Adrian 20 November 2019 He got away with it how the founder of Bikram yoga built an empire on abuse The Guardian International Yoga Day 5 yoga gurus who were accused of sexual assault Indian Express 21 June 2018 a b c Park Tosca 11 February 2015 Modern Yoga Turning a Blind Eye on Sexual Abuse Allegations Yoga Basics Other yoga masters have also been involved in sexual abuse scandals with their students notably Kausthub Desikachar Sai Baba Swami Shyam Swami Satchidananda Swami Rama Swami Muktananada and Amrit Desai Stuart Gwynedd 15 July 2020 Yogi Bhajan Turned an L A Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse Los Angeles Magazine Retrieved 26 February 2021 Storr 1996 pp 45 64 Kramer amp Alstad 1993 Gurus amp Sexual Manipulation The Betrayal of Trust Sheldrake Philip 25 September 2014 Spirituality A Guide for the Perplexed Bloomsbury Publishing p 142 ISBN 978 1441187215 Yoga Unify 27 April 2021 Do Modern Yoga Students Need a Guru Yoga Journal Retrieved 16 August 2021 Beck Julie 13 March 2017 This Article Won t Change Your Mind PDF The Atlantic Retrieved 22 August 2021 a b c d Newcombe Suzanne 2017 The Revival of Yoga in Contemporary India PDF Religion 1 Oxford Research Encyclopedias doi 10 1093 acrefore 9780199340378 013 253 ISBN 9780199340378 Wagner Paul 30 May 2019 Sri Anandamayi Ma The Perfect Profound and Mysterious Flower Gaia Retrieved 16 August 2021 The Non organized Non Proclaimed Guru Anandamayi Ma Om Guru Retrieved 16 August 2021 Though she was never formally initiated by a guru one evening she spontaneously performed her own initiation visualizing both the ritual scene and movements Simultaneously she heard the chanting of initiatory sacred words mantras inwardly Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 38 59 Chaama Sridhar 16 August 2012 Remembering a guru The Hindu Retrieved 16 August 2021 Hatfield Julie 23 April 1996 Yoga on steroids or feel the yearn Health Practitioners say they get sweat and a sense of calm out of Ashtanga a vigorous series of postures that looks conventional but a lot faster The Baltimore Sun Retrieved 3 September 2021 Beryl Bender Birch author of the book Power Yoga and generally regarded as the ultimate power yoga guru Shearer 2020 p 210 Syman 2010 p 260 Stukin Stacie 15 July 2020 Yogi Bhajan Turned an L A Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse Los Angeles Magazine A New Report Details Decades of Abuse at the Hands of Yogi Bhajan Yoga Journal 15 August 2020 a b c d e f g h i j Suar Swati Snigdha 18 June 2015 Meet India s 10 most renowned yoga gurus Rediff com a b c Jain 2015 p 66 Godwin Richard 18 February 2017 He said he could do what he wanted the Scandal that Rocked Bikram Yoga The Guardian Griswold Eliza 23 July 2019 Yoga Reconsiders the Role of the Guru in the Age of MeToo The New Yorker a b Leviton 1990 pp 123 124 a b Jones amp Ryan 2007 pp 124 125 Desai Guru Amrit Beck Phillipa 4 December 2019 Power and Prana When Yoga Leads to Abuse Retrieved 17 August 2021 Amrit Desai was the spiritual head of Kripalu from the 1970s until his abrupt departure in 1994 The charismatic kundalini raising guru was a master at creating a powerful direct experience of prana or life force energy Goldberg Ellen Amrit Desai and the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Gleig amp Williamson 2013 pp 63 86 Jones amp Ryan 2007 p 237 Kripalu Yoga Cushman Anne Montgomery Lizette February 1995 Yogi Desai Resigns From Kripalu Yoga Journal January February 1995 40 42 Schneider 2003 p 116 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 210 233 Roig Franzia Manuel 29 March 2012 Scandal contorts future of John Friend Anusara yoga The Washington Post Retrieved 29 March 2012 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 p 210 Gilbert Sophie 19 September 2000 At last a guru for the impatient The Daily Telegraph Retrieved 26 February 2021 Sloane Carly 24 May 2019 Celebrity Yoga Guru Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa Explains Why Cindy Crawford Demi Moore Miranda Kerr and More Stars Love Her Style of Teaching US Magazine Retrieved 2 September 2022 Pechilis Karen 2004 Gurumayi the Play of Shakti and Guru The Graceful Guru Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States Oxford University Press pp 219 243 ISBN 0 19 514538 0 Williamson Lola Swamis Scholars and Gurus Siddha Yoga s American Legacy in Gleig amp Williamson 2013 pp 87 114 a b c d e f g Yoga Day Special India s 7 most renowned Yoga Gurus who redefined Yoga internationally India TV News 21 June 2017 Retrieved 16 August 2021 a b c d e f g h i Chetan Mahesh 5 March 2017 10 Most Inspiring Yoga Gurus of India Indian Yoga Association Retrieved 16 August 2021 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 122 146 a b Syman 2010 p 278 a b Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 283 307 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 107 121 a b c De Michelis 2004 pp 187 189 Rosman Katherine 8 November 2019 Yoga Is Finally Facing Consent and Unwanted Touch The New York Times Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 83 106 Jones amp Ryan 2007 pp 33 34 247 Kriyananda An American yoga guru who loved India Tribute Business Standard 22 April 2013 Retrieved 13 January 2022 Mattson Doug 30 October 2002 Jury Copyrights violated by church The Union Grass Valley California 1 million judgment against swami Palo Alto Weekly Palo Alto California 27 February 1998 Goa Helen 10 March 1999 Sex and the Singular Swami San Francisco Weekly a b 15 Yoga Gurus That Are Empowering The World Through Social Media Influence Digest 5 June 2017 Retrieved 16 August 2021 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 190 211 Safransky Sy July 1976 An Interview With Swami Muktananda The Sun Magazine Retrieved 16 August 2021 Muktananda was said to be a living saint a perfectly realized human being a sadguru the highest of gurus Syman 2010 pp 242 260 278 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 190 209 Harris Lis 14 November 1994 O Guru Guru Guru The New Yorker pp 92 93 Retrieved 17 August 2021 Lewis James R Tollefsen Inga B 2016 The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements Volume II Oxford University Press p 293 ISBN 9780190466190 A few female gurus have gained international recognition Sahaja Yoga s guru Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi Webster K December 1990 The case against Swami Rama of the Himalayas Yoga Journal Charet F X Ram Dass The Vicissitudes of Devotion and Ferocity of Grace in Gleig amp Williamson 2013 pp 15 40 Vaucher Andrea R 2013 America s Guru Ram Dass at 82 Tricycle Magazine Winter 2013 Retrieved 7 September 2021 Narain Priyanka Pathak 31 July 2017 How Baba Ramdev became the Guru of Yoga Programming on Indian TV Firstpost Retrieved 30 May 2021 Jain 2015 p 67 a b Landau Meryl Davids February 2012 In Times of Scandal Elephant Journal Retrieved 17 August 2021 Here I was eager to learn yogic principles like nonharming and truthfulness while Swami Satchidananda the guru at the head of this teaching center was being accused of harming and lying aplenty I don t know if the accusations were ever proven but the disciple who claimed she d had a longstanding not really welcome sexual relationship with the supposedly celibate swami was pretty convincing Syman 2010 p 261 Hammond Holly Cushman Anne January 1992 Satchidadanda Controversy Heats Up Yoga Journal 102 18 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 261 279 Sathya Sai Baba Guru and philanthropist who was revered by millions but whose career was dogged by controversy The Independent 23 October 2011 Archived from the original on 15 May 2022 Retrieved 16 August 2021 With 1 200 ashrams in more than 100 countries the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba was seen as a reincarnation of god by his devotees who included prime ministers and presidents of India business magnates film stars artists and world class sportsmen and sportswomen who all gave generously to his social welfare projects a b Secret sex shakes yoga school Keith Platt Mornington Peninsula News 20 January 2015 Retrieved 23 June 2015 a b Guru sex scandal at Mt Eliza yoga retreat Miki Perkins The Age 20 January 2015 Retrieved 23 June 2015 a b Kaur Ishleen 15 June 2021 Guru Living a lie Podcast Guru Yoga Power Abuse BBC Retrieved 21 June 2021 Singleton amp Goldberg 2014 pp 17 37 Syman 2010 p 59 Sources editDe Michelis Elizabeth 2004 A History of Modern Yoga Patanjali and Western Esotericism Continuum Publishing ISBN 978 0 8264 8772 8 OCLC 51942410 Gleig Ann Williamson Lola eds 2013 Homegrown Gurus from Hinduism in America to American Hinduism Albany New York State University of New York Press ISBN 978 1 4384 4792 6 OCLC 862746284 Goldberg Philip 2010 American Veda From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation How Indian Spirituality Changed the West New York Harmony Books ISBN 978 0 385 52134 5 Goldberg Elliott 2016 The Path of Modern Yoga the History of an Embodied Spiritual Practice Rochester Vermont Inner Traditions ISBN 978 1 62055 567 5 OCLC 926062252 Jain Andrea 2015 Selling Yoga from Counterculture to Pop Culture Oxford England Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 939024 3 OCLC 878953765 Jones Constance A Ryan James D 2007 Encyclopedia of Hinduism Encyclopedia of World Religions J Gordon Melton Series Editor New York Facts On File ISBN 978 0 8160 5458 9 Archived from the original on 20 December 2016 Kramer Joel Alstad Diana 1993 The Guru Papers Masks of Authoritarian Power Berkeley California North Atlantic Books Frog ISBN 978 1 883319 00 7 OCLC 27684736 Leviton Richard March April 1990 Yoga in America The First 100 Years Yoga Journal 91 40 Schneider Carrie 2003 American Yoga The Paths and Practices of America s Greatest Yoga Masters Barnes amp Noble ISBN 978 0 7607 4558 8 Shearer Alistair 2020 The Story of Yoga From Ancient India to the Modern West London Hurst Publishers ISBN 978 1 78738 192 6 Singleton Mark 2010 Yoga Body the origins of modern posture practice Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 539534 1 OCLC 318191988 Singleton Mark Goldberg Ellen 2014 Gurus of Modern Yoga Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0199938728 Storr Anthony 1996 Feet of Clay a Study of Gurus London HarperCollins ISBN 978 0 00 638423 6 OCLC 35395042 Syman Stefanie 2010 The Subtle Body The Story of Yoga in America New York Farrar Straus and Giroux ISBN 978 0 374 23676 2 Wildcroft Theodora 2020 Post Lineage Yoga from Guru to metoo Sheffield Equinox Publishing ISBN 978 1 78179 940 6 OCLC 1152054676 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Modern yoga gurus amp oldid 1224584340 List, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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