A Crusader For Yoga - (A Tribute Paid To Shri Yogendraji In 1970)

“Acrobatics,” he said testily, “that is the main trouble.

- Bikram Vohra

We are confusing yoga with acrobatics. A lot of deception is practiced in the name of yoga. No one cares to know what it really means, or what it can accomplish. Confidence tricksters have preyed upon the gullible and thoroughly distorted the image of the science.”

At 70, he should have been tired and spent, resigned to living out his time, and having long ago stopped his crusade to prove the genuine strength of yoga. But Shri Yogendraji, one of the oldest exponents, is still at war. At present he conducts his battle from a Yoga Ashram at Bombay and he is determined to expose the false and remould the tarnished image.

“Yogis today,” he said unhappily, “are no longer a unanimously scrupulous band. Some of them are exploiters. I want them out. They know a few gimmicks and they fool people. They can contort their bodies and twist their legs across their necks. That isn’t yoga. They can wear a loin cloth and beads and ashes on their heads and preach. That is not yoga. They can promise to perform fantastic feats of endurance at a fee. That is not yoga. That is exhibitionism. They can display their spartan way of living, travel abroad and return with foreign followers and hold public conferences. None of this is yoga!”

Yoga, or the success of it, depends on the individual. It is an activity by which a man purifies himself from within. It is a spiritual communication possible only through one’s own zeal and sincerity. Perhaps, it does catalyse the actions of the ‘acrobat’ Yogi or the ‘one who walks on fire’, since yoga essentially means control. That is the key word - control.