ABSTRACT

Mind, Body, and the Spectacular: Yoga Shivir Though the precise history is difficult to reconstruct, the now common practice of organizing yoga camps (shivir) for the general public and for specific institutions-prisons, the police, government workers in various departments, school groups and the like-most likely dates back to the early twentieth century when the yoga teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo were being integrated into the practice of postural, embodied yoga. At the turn of the century, advocates of postural yoga sought to consciously dissociate embodied forms of practice from the magical, mystical, and sexual alchemy of haṭha yoga, as haṭha yoga was coming to public awareness as a consequence of the translation of medieval texts (Ayangar 1893; Brahmananda 1889; Vasaka 1877; Vasu 1996) and the publication of works on tantra in general (see Urban 2003). In tandem with this, however, there was a concern on the part of postural yoga practitioners that embodied yoga not simply be practised as a form of physical fitness training and that mental self-discipline, in conjunction with what they viewed as the metaphysical cum “spiritual” aspects of training, also be highlighted. Though one can argue that yoga in general and postural yoga in particular exhibits a distinct mind-body synthesis, it is important to point out that as a consequence of the way in which the practice of yoga has evolved over the past century-becoming ever more a kind of fitness regimen-advocacy for yoga as an embodied philosophy in fact exhibits a degree of anxiety and ambivalence about the inherent unity of mind, body, and spirit. In many respects, yoga shivir reflect this anxiety and ambivalence by seeking to synthesize yoga and construct a seamless, coherent body of practice.