ABSTRACT
Discipline and authority lie at the heart of the Indian yoga tradition, but their relevance to contemporary transnational yoga is less clear. In most cases, the forms of control and asceticism central to that tradition, in particular the guruśisya1 (“teacher-disciple”) relationship, are clearly absent. However, Pattabhi Jois’s Ashtanga Yoga,2 a form of contemporary or modern yoga practice, is marked by an orientation toward both discipline and authority. This chapter examines this orientation, simultaneously exploring the manner in which the contemporary practice of Ashtanga Yoga is constituted within a late-modern transnational field rather than marking a simple continuation of earlier forms of yoga practice.
