Yoga overseas travel guide

In the pre-classical stage, yoga was an often contradictory mishmash of various ideas, beliefs and techniques, but its classical period is defined by Patanjali’s yoga-sûtras, the first systematic presentation of yoga written sometime in the 2nd century and describing the path of Raja yoga, often referred to as ‘classical yoga’. Patanjali organised the practice of yoga into an ‘eight limbed path’ containing the steps and stages towards obtaining Samadhi, or enlightenment. Patanjali is often considered the father of yoga and his Yoga-Sûtras still strongly influence most styles of modern yoga.

A few centuries after Patanjali, yoga masters created a system of practices designed to rejuvenate the body and prolong life. They rejected the teachings of the ancient Vedas and embraced the physical body as the means to achieve enlightenment developing the radical techniques of Tantra yoga to cleanse the body and mind and to break the knots that bind us to our physical existence. The exploration of physical-spiritual connections and body centered practices led to the creation of what we primarily think of yoga in the West: Hatha yoga.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, yoga masters began to travel to the West, attracting attention and followers; particularly significant is the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where Swami Vivekananda wowed the attendees with his lectures on yoga and the universality of the world’s religions. In the 1920s and 30s, Hatha yoga was strongly promoted in India with the work of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, Swami Sivananda and other yogis practicing Hatha yoga. Krishnamacharya opened the first Hatha yoga school in Mysore in 1924, and in 1936 Sivananda founded the Divine Life Society on the banks of the holy Ganges River. Krishnamacharya produced three students that would continue his legacy and increase the popularity of Hatha yoga: B.K.S. Iyengar, T.K.V. Desikachar and Pattabhi Jois. Sivananda was a prolific author, writing over 200 books on yoga, and he also established nine ashrams and numerous yoga centers located around the world.

The importation of yoga to the West still continued at a trickle until Indra Devi opened her yoga studio in Hollywood in 1947. Since then, many more Western and Indian teachers have become pioneers, popularising Hatha yoga and gaining millions of followers. Hatha yoga now has many different schools or styles, and each emphasises the many different aspects of the practice.