Yoga Tourists- scandal!!!

[Guest guest]

A very delicate topic- Lets not brush it under

the carpet too hastily. This needs to be discussed !

<br>We love our guru, of course he gave us ashtanga yoga

but, hello people wake up !, he is only a human and

definately not a saint.<br>You see this is the problem with

guru worship people become blind to their gurus faults

and if someone points them out they get very

offended, use verbal violence and who knows may even be

prepared to go to war. This no joke- these things happen

all the time in the world. Wheres the yoga ( in the

real sense of the word) in this ?<br>Let me first of

all define a yoga tourist- " a westerner with a

steady, well/ averagely paid job and very little time to

spare who saves up all their holiday so that they can

get the opportunity to go to Mysore for a month". I

am not being critical here, yoga tourists have the

right to go to Mysore and good for them they do yoga.

What I want to say is YOGA TOURISTS HAVE MONEY

!<br>People like me on the other hand travellers, students,

yogapunks, free spirits don`t have steady jobs because we

can`t or won`t be tied down. We would love to spend 6

months of every year in Mysore but have absolutely no

chance because we will never have the money. <br>I

conclude that charging extortionate prices does nothing to

stop yoga tourists- it merely means that the majority

of the people that CAN afford to come ARE infact

yoga tourists. On the other hand people who have

dedicated their life to yoga ( who have no money unless

they have a big centre in the US) have not got the

money to stay in Mysore for any length of time. Where

is the logic in this ?<br>Mr Mohan bramachari you

very naive but don`t worry you are not the only one.

Guru worship makes us this way.<br>Not even the great

Mr BKS Iyengar charges this much. ( not even he is

perfect).<br>Think about this- when all the ashtanga yogis that have

certificates now first came to Mysore- how much did they pay

for a month? Do you think they would have stayed very

long if the price then was $400/500 a month? The ones

i know wouldn`t. You forget one thing too. That

putting the price up of something gives it SNOB VALUE.

This is even more attractive to yoga tourists.<br>On

the other hand if you were to ask me- is it WORTH the

money ? I would say yes, it is a cheap price to pay for

such valuable teachings and I would gladly clean

toilets for a year to have the opportunity to stay with

the guruji even just for a month .But it still

doesn`t make the situation satisfactory.<br> The stories

of the situation in Mysore are terrible. 200

students waiting for 2 hours just to get pushed out of the

door again . This is a disgrace . I know that it is

great that guruji gives the time to teach us but he

gets paid a fortune at the same time.Can he not make

some improvements ?<br>Would a better solution not be

to build a bigger yoga centre for 20-5 yogis ? Put

down the prices and then have a waiting list like BKS

Iyengar. The serious old students get a place straight

away others have to wait 1-2 years or so .This works

in Pune and is not so much of a rip off.So why not

here.<br>We should take this subject up with Guruji- What is

going on is certainly not yoga. How much does it cost

to stay on an ashram in Rishikesh ?<br>I don`t care

if people agree with me or not I just want people to

THINK. We can change things for the better.

[Guest guest]

Well said Mr YogaPunk. I agree with you 100%

[Guest guest]

Thank you Yogapunk for one of the best posts I

have read yet in this club. And isn't it not only the

'punks' who cannot afford to go to Mysore to study with

Pattabi Jois? Isn't it those of us who hold steady jobs

and who support families and who have not enough

income for savings? and those people who also would have

to quit a good job in order to take a month or more

off? For those of us who are "older," it would be very

difficult to try to find another job if we did decide to

quit in order to take the time to go to Mysore. What

do the self-righteous guru worshipers have to say

about that? That 'if these people really wanted they

could save," or "they just don't have the desire' or

"you do not respect the guru's ways"? Well say that

and I'll be the first to tell you where you can stick

your beliefs and judgements.<br><br>So it is not just

'punks' and toilet cleaners but people who work who

struggle with this. Thank you yogapunk for voicing what I

am afraid to voice. And I do think it would be

wonderful for some people who are close to the guru to

request these types of changes. I respect the guru and

even moreso repsect the tradition of yoga he teaches.

I really do because I am lucky to have teachers

that helped me heal some bad body pains that other

schools of yoga and teachers couldn't do.<br><br>Sliding

scale fee would be nice--the plane ticket there is over

$1000 per person already.<br><br>Thank you again

yogapunk.<br><br>Crowjuice

[Guest guest]

YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE AN EXCUSE NO TO SEE THE

GURU....I HAVE A FAMILY.. 3 GIRLS....I QUIT MY JOB TO GO

SEE HIM...<br>WHEN I CAME BACK I GOT A BETTER ONE (SO

IS THE WAY OF THE GURU).......<br><br>JAI GANESH

[Guest guest]

I'll second that Ganesh. I have a family, I'm a

mother with three kids and I've been going to Mysore for

years. I have quit jobs to go (big deal)! Taken out

loans whatever. It has been 100% worth it, and the

family also benefits. It's true that there are a lot of

trust funders over there but hey so what, step around

them. It's not their fault if they happen to have $$$

There are also regular people who support families It's

called steady practice.

[Guest guest]

There is a young man from Malaysia who studies

every year with Guruji. Until recently, he was working

in a Coca-cola distributorship for - I believe, the

ringgit equivalent of $300 a month. Yet he found and

finds the time and money to visit Mysore to study with

Guruji.<br><br>For westerners, it is undoubtably their level of

commitment, not money, which is preventing them from studying

in Mysore.<br><br>BTW, the money will all come back

to you. But that brings up the issue of faith and

trust and devotion, which, along with committment, are

other qualities you seem to lack.<br><br>Big

committment, big results. Small committment...you get the

idea.<br><br>You can always find a cheaper guru.<br><br>Yours,

Daniel McGuire<br>PS, the first record I bought, back in

82, was "Give em enough rope" by the clash.

[Guest guest]

There is a young man from Malaysia who studies

every year with Guruji. Until recently, he was working

in a Coca-cola distributorship for - I believe, the

ringgit equivalent of $300 a month. Yet he found and

finds the time and money to visit Mysore to study with

Guruji.<br><br>For westerners, it is undoubtably their level of

commitment, not money, which is preventing them from studying

in Mysore.<br><br>BTW, the money will all come back

to you. But that brings up the issue of faith and

trust and devotion, which, along with committment, are

other qualities you seem to

lack.<br>===============================================<br><br><br>Don't kid

yourself. This is a familiar line of

bullshit. I have heard it from other gurus and their

students.<br><br>Same old same old<br><br>Yogapunk is right and I'm

with him