I read an article of the New York Times online today. The title is ‘Yoga and Sex Scandals: No Surprise Here’ by William J. Broad. In this article, the author describes present and past sex scandals of yoga teachers and gurus and basically says that yoga itself is the logical reason for those scandals as yoga is all about sex. Apart from this main argument, there are many points in this article that I don’t agree with and I thought to share my views with you.
The author starts off saying that people are surprised about their yoga teachers’ sexual relations, as it is the case in the recent revelation of John Friend’s sexual relations. Students are shocked about the founder of Anusara Yoga having cheated on various girlfriends. According to Broad however, they should not have been surprised, because he believes yoga began as a sex cult.
Yes, that is right. He states that Hatha Yoga, the physical postures, were a part of Tantra practice. In his opinion Tantra was used for reaching sexual bliss and Hatha Yoga used for speeding that up a bit.
The picture that is presented here is very, very wrong! I know that Tantra has this bad name in the west for being just all about sex but I cannot say enough times that this is absolutely not the truth about Tantra. Tantra is about life. Sex is obviously a part of it but Tantra is not all about sex! In the west, Indian philosophers presented Tantra as a sexual practice because in this way they could attract people and money. Everybody is fascinated about sex, so when they took an old philosophy like tantra and told about it as sex parties, people liked the idea and that is how its bad name spread. Stories about white, red and black Tantra were added but Tantra is not all about sex.
And Yoga was never a part of Tantra! Now you mixed Hatha Yoga into Tantra although they are in no way connected! And your conclusion is that because of that, there have been so many yoga teachers and gurus with sex scandals – because yoga stimulates the sexual organs! I have a big objection to the line ‘Why does yoga produce so many philanderers?’
There is obviously a great number of famous yoga gurus who have been accused of sexual impropriety and he mentions several of them: Swami Muktananda, Swami Satchidananda and Swami Rama. The list does not end there though. I have written about TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose students tell about having sex with him, Nithyananda, whose sexual activities were exposed through a video secretly filmed in his bedroom and we read about Swami Maheshwarananda, the founder of Yoga in Daily Life and ex-followers report of his sexual activities, too. There are many more to be added to this list.
All those people he mentioned as gurus in his text and those whom I added are sanyasis according to Hindu religion. A sanyasi is celibate, just like monks and priests in Catholic Church. They are not supposed to have sex and that is why it is such a shock when their followers find out in the end that they actually have lots of sex. Many of them preach celibacy themselves while enjoying sexual pleasures with many.
This is where the problem starts. Celibacy, not Hatha Yoga, brings the problem. They stop the natural flow of human emotions. They teach yoga and tell people to resist sexual pleasures but in the end surrender themselves – of course secretly. And now people come and blame yoga instead of blaming celibacy and the wrong teaching that a person of high consciousness or religiousness has to be celibate. What would you say about the sexual offenders in Catholic Church? They were not doing yoga! They had the same problem – celibacy.
The author of that article however is convinced that yoga is the reason for people having lots of sex. He says ‘the arousal, sweating, heavy breathing and states of undress that characterize yoga classes have led to predictable results’. How are those the characteristics of yoga? When does yoga tell you to undress? When we were in America, we were once invited to a nude yoga class – we refused – but that is not usual and definitely not required in yoga classes! About every sport includes ‘sweating, heavy breathing’ and, if you prefer doing that sport with less clothes, a ‘state of undress’! You can play football at the beach just in your bathing clothes or even naked but that is not how you normally play it! This does not mean that it is a characteristic for football!
Now I come to the most important point which is the essence of this complete article. The author says that yoga is so arousing that those gurus could obviously not control themselves. He gives scientific proof that yoga stimulates your sexual organs and increases testosterone in the body. Well, any sport that moves the body gives you energy and it is proven that physically active people have more sex. It is obvious, as yoga is for the complete body, that it also has an effect on your sexual organs and even some sexual problems can be healed through yoga. It does not mean however that everybody who practices yoga likes to have orgies!
Wouldn’t this mean that all Hatha Yoga teachers are dreaming of having sex with their students all the time and they cannot help it? Does this mean that every yoga student is aroused after a yoga class? Does that mean that after an hour of yoga practice you have so much sexual power that you have to cheat on your partner? I don’t think so!
That article is actually very disrespectful for many great yogis, people who have devoted their lives to yoga and every single person in this world today who loves yoga. There are millions of people on this earth who enjoy yoga as a part of their lives and who know what Hatha Yoga does not teach them to sleep with hundreds of different people! Yoga teachers and yoga students, raise your voice against such ideas and such nonsense! That is insulting you directly! You are not in a cult and you are not practicing the rituals of any cult! Have you experienced that yoga gave your sex life a boost? Great, but it does not make you a nymphomaniac or philanderer, does it?
If you are a yoga teacher or a yoga lover, please tell me whether this is the result of yoga in your life! Is that what yoga gave you? I don’t think so! Ask your yoga teachers and your yoga students, too. I believe you will rather get answers about how much richer, peaceful and balanced yoga has made their lives, how much joy and power it brought to them. Maybe also to their love lives – but in a loving and healthy way.
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Swami ji, I wouldn’t pay too much attention to anything you read in American newspapers. They don’t care what nonsense they write as long as it boosts circulation. The comments of this “reporter” about yoga are so asinine as to disqualify any serious consideration.
Sacred knowledge in the hands of the irresponsible ego…..
Yes. The “Yoga began as a sexual cult” is utterly ridiculous. I thought about gathering a large group of yoga teachers together and making a legal case against the author, but then I realized I have far better things to do…
It is amazing how many stupidities a so called elite journalist who won so many so called important prizes manages to concentrate in one article. Poor research work, non scientist, no idea of what yoga is. And he has a new book out now which will most probably sell like hell – i will definitely boycott t his book. NYT – you came down to the intellectual level of the Sun or whatever equivalent there is in the USA…and now i also have better things to do!Thank you dear Swami BalenduJi for posting this!
Love is not selective, desire is selective. In love there are no strangers, love is to give, desire is to take… ‘couse the power of yoga, sadakas always will learn from their own mistakesWe are under the Empire’s attack. Don’t be surprise, they are using lots of money to deprecate the Science of Yoga. We all know why
It’s no conspiracy Rama-Ji. It’s only the folly of mankinds.‎… collective ego. In the end we will all be free.
wanna be free right now 🙂 who wants to wait until the end???
The inner knowing of the eternal freedom that awaits, fills the NOW with freedom…. 🙂
good article Swami-ji…all fully functioning, but balanced 🙂
we r supposed to get out of our animal instincts all time, so we can put wings on our serpent of fire, use it as a vehicle to meet our divine self but it s not easy to master ourselves as fallen humans so we keep on trying through the ages!†Ten Thousand Idiotsâ€
By Hafiz
It is always a danger to aspirants on the path
When they begin to believe and to act
As if the ten thousand idiots
Who so long ruled and lived inside
Have all packed their bags and
Slipped town or died
Thank you for sharing this Swami Ji Balendu! Through yoga and pranayama, I have got another need of sex. I have learned to suplimate my energy, and use Hatha yoga as meditation. That means that I actually enjoy sex more because I can use my knowledge about the breating and the energies in the body when I finally find someone I wants to be with. I have become more choosy, because I only wants to be with someone who has the knowledge and where the feelings between us are the same. It’s not like shopping and being with any students. Tantra is so much misunderstood, and that is a shame, because the world could change so much with bigger awareness in that field. It is a big part of life!!
When the kundalini rises to the 2nd chakra, sexual desire can be greatly heightened. The practicing of certain types of yoga without the traditional yogic prerequisites, of the yamas and niyamas, tratak, etc to strengthen one’s character and reduce craving, and aversion can lead one deeper into desire.
Thank you Swami for such a thoughtful essay. In paragraph 3 where you start by saying “Yes, that is right,” I thought you were saying that the author of the NY Times article is correct and it took me some time to understand what you meant. I agree generally with what you say in the essay. I have impressions that in the many centuries of the history of yoga, yoga has become a kind of Tower of Babel where there may be almost as many explanations of yoga as there are people who practice it. Obviously in my view the NY Times writer creates distortions by implying that there are uniform bases of yoga in any one understanding of it. Naturally, I think any health regimen that actually improves health may also improve sex vitality, so if a yoga regimen improves health, maybe sex feelings will also also become stronger. But to extend this to say it would produce promiscuity and philandering is a distortion that I suspect might be based in efforts on the part of the author to discredit yoga traditions. And in these corrupted yoga groups, it appears frequently that it is mainly the guru leaders who engage in the promiscuity and sex indiscretions, so are we to conclude from that the the increase of sex vitality has only worked for the gurus and not for their followers? The NY Times article in my view does not make sense in regard to what it contends about the relation of yoga itself to sex behavior.
Tom raises what I consider a crucial point, that yoga to be practiced usefully and in its best sense should incorporate its many “limbs” as indicated in the Yoga Sutras, and very many of these popular yoga groups appear oblivious to the multi- facets that yoga should incorporate.
Hatha yoga is the third step or limb, it is a preliminary practice designed to prepare one’s body for the next three steps leading up to the practice of dhyana/meditation and samadhi. It was not intended to be one’s main practice. These many Westernized adaptations of the science and practice of yoga, although entertaining and often helpful, are incomplete and can be a serious diversion from the true goal of yoga or union with the Divine. Hatha Yoga is a tool, the only power it has over you is the power that you give away. Sorry if this redundent, I can’t open the link to the article, it just won’t load.
That’s what the author of the NY Times article doesn’t get. He doesn’t seen to be aware of the many other limbs of the practice. He seems to be answering a problem of current distortions of yoga practice with more distortions. Maybe next Yoga will be promoted as a substitute for Viagra, as a possible next level up on the ladder of distortion.a follow up story on this and about the various yoga fads popping up now, in Yahoo news today: http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/yoga-8217-steamier-side-doesn-8217-t-mean-214300080.html
There is a common misconception that Tantra is all about sex. But as a Yoga instructor I know that tantra is not about Sex, it’s about source energy. And I believe we all who practice yoga should try to eliminate the wrong conceptions regarding Tantra and Yoga. Thank for your initiatives to eliminate these misconceptions.
I think that the view this author has presented misconstrues what many people think of yoga…perhaps he is only presenting what a few people think but many people that I know think of yoga as a healthy way to keep you body healthy, and also it is true that those who are healthy and take care of their bodies are healthier sexually also…but that is for all physical exertion…