Yoga is being vigorously commercialized in America

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

 

i came across this interesting article that highlights the rapid

pace yoga schools have sprouted in America, the Land of the

Vishuddhi. It also underscores the mounting difficulties N.

American SYs will have to face, unless it has been realized already,

of competing with publicity-seeking, profit-grazing, yoga cash cows.

 

i was just wondering if there is any way to make Sahaja Yoga unique

and different from others yogas? Is there a silver lining of hope

and confidence that we will eventually triumph because we too have a

monopoly that can be trademarked? Is it possible for Americans to

apply trademarks to the Divine Message the way they did to Basmati

rice, and now to Yoga? Can we still afford to twiddle our thumbs or

is it time to tell the following Truth?

 

" The Adi Shakti (Hinduism), Comforter/Holy Spirit (Christianity),

Shekinah (Judaism), Ma Adi/Ruh (Islam), Mai Treya (Buddhism), Great

Mother (Taoism) and Aykaa Mayee (Sikhism) are the one and same

primordial Divine Feminine. Mahdi is the Sanskrit contraction of Ma

(Mother) Adi (Primordial) just as Maitreya is contraction of Mai

(Mother) Treya (Threefold). The function of the Islamic Mahdi is

similar to that of the Buddhist Maitreya and Christian Comforter.

 

As the Comforter promised by Lord Jesus She completes His teachings

and commences the Last Judgment. " The coming eschatological

salvation is envisaged in transcendent and universal terms. ... in

the form of both bodily resurrection and of spiritual immortality. "

(Aaron-Golan, The Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

 

As Mahdi (Guided One) She announces the Great News of the

Resurrection (surah 75 Al-Qiyamah). " Great News: usually understood

to mean the News or Message of the Resurrection. " (Abdullah Yusuf

Ali, The Holy Quran)

 

As Maitreya She fulfils the prophecy to complete Buddha's work

before this auspicious age of Kali Yuga, in which he appeared, runs

its course.

 

As Adi Shakti of the Sanatana Dharma She embraces all religions and

synthesizes them into a single shared path.

 

For three decades Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has declared and

explained in detail the Great Event ordained for all humanity - the

Last Judgment and Resurrection - which promises both bodily

resurrection (kundalini awakening) and spiritual immortality

(moksa).

 

Truth alone triumphs and opens the way to the Divine. "

 

Or am i crying " Wolf! " too often?,

 

jagbir

 

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Bikram Choudhury, founder of the popular Bikram's Yoga College of

India, has copyrighted his sequence of poses and threatened to sue

any teacher who doesn't abide by his terms. But yoga is thousands of

years old. Can he really do that?

 

By James Greenberg

 

The headquarters of Bikram's Yoga College of India is much like the

office of any celebrity in Los Angeles. The walls are plastered with

pictures of Bikram Choudhury with his star students: There's one

with a beaming Brooke Shields, another with Ricardo Montalban. He's

even posed (not the asana kind of posing) with Teddy Kennedy and

Bill Clinton.

 

One famous student you won't find on the wall is Raquel Welch. That

story didn't have a happy ending. An avid yoga practitioner, Welch

published a health and fitness book in 1986 based on her studies

with Bikram (who is known universally by his first name). Bikram was

devastated. He felt she had ripped off his yoga, and worse, she

didn't pay him anything for it. So he sued her. (The suit was

settled out of court.)

 

Now, 18 years later, Bikram has again taken up the legal cudgel

against students and instructors who, he feels, are stealing his

teachings. Claiming ownership of a 26-pose sequence and other

identifying features of his practice, Bikram has copyrighted and

trademarked everything from his name to the verbatim dialogue that

accompanies the teaching of his classes. To enforce what he sees as

his proprietary rights, he initiated one lawsuit and has sent out at

least 25 cease-and-desist letters. But all that legal action was in

preparation for an even bigger move that startled the yoga community

when it was announced on his Web site (www.bikramyoga.com) in May

2002: Bikram was going to franchise his yoga.

 

http://www.yogajournal.com/views/1143_1.cfm