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Yoga is being vigorously commercialized in America
From:
"jagbir singh" <adishakti_org@yahoo.com>
Date:
Mon May 23, 2005 7:12 am
Subject: Yoga is
being vigorously commercialized in America
Dear all,
i came across this interesting article that highlights the
rapid
pace yoga schools have sprouted in America, the Land of the
Vishuddhi. It also underscores the mounting difficulties N.
American SYs will have to face, unless it has been realized
already,
of competing with publicity-seeking, profit-grazing, yoga
cash cows.
i was just wondering if there is any way to make Sahaja Yoga
unique
and different from others yogas? Is there a silver lining of
hope
and confidence that we will eventually triumph because we
too have a
monopoly that can be trademarked? Is it possible for
Americans to
apply trademarks to the Divine Message the way they did to
Basmati
rice, and now to Yoga? Can we still afford to twiddle our
thumbs or
is it time to tell the following Truth?
"The Adi Shakti (Hinduism), Comforter/Holy Spirit
(Christianity),
Shekinah (Judaism), Ma Adi/Ruh (Islam), Mai Treya
(Buddhism), Great
Mother (Taoism) and Aykaa Mayee (Sikhism) are the one and
same
primordial Divine Feminine. Mahdi is the Sanskrit
contraction of Ma
(Mother) Adi (Primordial) just as Maitreya is contraction of
Mai
(Mother) Treya (Threefold). The function of the Islamic
Mahdi is
similar to that of the Buddhist Maitreya and Christian
Comforter.
As the Comforter promised by Lord Jesus She completes His
teachings
and commences the Last Judgment. "The coming eschatological
salvation is envisaged in transcendent and universal terms.
... in
the form of both bodily resurrection and of spiritual
immortality."
(Aaron-Golan, The Illustrated Bible Dictionary)
As Mahdi (Guided One) She announces the Great News of the
Resurrection (surah 75 Al-Qiyamah). "Great News: usually
understood
to mean the News or Message of the Resurrection." (Abdullah
Yusuf
Ali, The Holy Quran)
As Maitreya She fulfils the prophecy to complete Buddha's
work
before this auspicious age of Kali Yuga, in which he
appeared, runs
its course.
As Adi Shakti of the Sanatana Dharma She embraces all
religions and
synthesizes them into a single shared path.
For three decades Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has declared and
explained in detail the Great Event ordained for all
humanity - the
Last Judgment and Resurrection - which promises both bodily
resurrection (kundalini awakening) and spiritual immortality
(moksa).
Truth alone triumphs and opens the way to the Divine."
Or am i crying "Wolf!" too often?,
jagbir
————————————
Bikram Choudhury, founder of the popular Bikram's Yoga
College of
India, has copyrighted his sequence of poses and threatened
to sue
any teacher who doesn't abide by his terms. But yoga is
thousands of
years old. Can he really do that?
By James Greenberg
The headquarters of Bikram's Yoga College of India is much
like the
office of any celebrity in Los Angeles. The walls are
plastered with
pictures of Bikram Choudhury with his star students: There's
one
with a beaming Brooke Shields, another with Ricardo
Montalban. He's
even posed (not the asana kind of posing) with Teddy Kennedy
and
Bill Clinton.
One famous student you won't find on the wall is Raquel
Welch. That
story didn't have a happy ending. An avid yoga practitioner,
Welch
published a health and fitness book in 1986 based on her
studies
with Bikram (who is known universally by his first name).
Bikram was
devastated. He felt she had ripped off his yoga, and worse,
she
didn't pay him anything for it. So he sued her. (The suit
was
settled out of court.)
Now, 18 years later, Bikram has again taken up the legal
cudgel
against students and instructors who, he feels, are stealing
his
teachings. Claiming ownership of a 26-pose sequence and
other
identifying features of his practice, Bikram has copyrighted
and
trademarked everything from his name to the verbatim
dialogue that
accompanies the teaching of his classes. To enforce what he
sees as
his proprietary rights, he initiated one lawsuit and has
sent out at
least 25 cease-and-desist letters. But all that legal action
was in
preparation for an even bigger move that startled the yoga
community
when it was announced on his Web site (www.bikramyoga.com)
in May
2002: Bikram was going to franchise his yoga.
http://www.yogajournal.com/views/1143_1.cfm
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