Yoga
movement | | Traditional
yoga in India |
When you go to yoga class, you expect to tweak
a few muscles and work on that Madonna-like physique.
You don't expect
to end up devoting the next seven years of your life to an obscure religious movement.
This is what happened to Lyn Dale, a hairdresser and mother-of-two from
Hull.
It all started in the 1990s when Lyn was working as a fashion model
in London.
She was living the dream, earning lots of money, but started
to have panic attacks and so turned to meditation.
Lyn dabbled with
several classes, but was most drawn to one advertised as Sahaja Yoga.
She
loved the atmosphere and the meditation practice, and was so enamoured of her
teacher she fell in love with him, and married him three weeks later.
"I felt like I'd known him from somewhere before, it was really strange.
"If I'd have felt like I'd only known him for three weeks, I wouldn't
have married him so quickly but it just happened and it was part of the Sahaja
Yoga thing really I think."
Mediation and spirituality
Sahaja
Yoga classes are not exercise classes. They're part of an enormous growth
of new religious movements in 70s counter culture, when people discovered meditation
and spirituality.
Sahaja Yoga hasn't westernised as much as some of
the other ones.
It's interesting because the leader of the religion is
a woman.
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, is the founder of Sahaja Yoga. She's
a wealthy and well connected Indian woman, the childhood protégé
of Gandhi, and married to a respected Indian diplomat.
But to the Sahaja
Yoga followers, as Lyn discovered, she's a divine being. | YOGA CHECKLIST | |
If
you are looking for a yoga class, things to check are:
What type of yoga
is it? There are many different styles of yoga. Most classes in this country will
be in Hatha Yoga, which has elements of bending and stretching, with some breathing
and meditation. Iyengar Yoga is similar to Hatha Yoga, but performed according
to a method devised by a teacher called Mr BKS Iyengar. Power Yoga, or Astanga
Yoga is the form made popular by celebrities such as Madonna and Geri Halliwell.
This is a more dynamic and strenuous workout. Is it the right class for
you? It is a good idea to have a short discussion with the teacher before
you start to practise yoga. Some classes are suitable for beginners, whilst others
might suit more advanced students. Also, you should talk to your teacher about
your general health, and if there is any health or fitness issue the teacher should
be aware of. Always check the teacher's credentials. Most qualified yoga
teachers will be certified by the British Wheel of Yoga, the governing body for
yoga. Any qualified teacher would be happy to tell you their credentials. Whatever
form of yoga class you attend, you should make sure the teacher is fully trained
and certified to teach. Most yoga teachers will be certified by the British Wheel
of Yoga, by an organisation affiliated to the British Wheel. Any teacher would
be happy to tell you their credentials. |
Anti-material
girl Whatever Sahaja Yoga asked of Lyn, she went along with it. She
turned her back on the world of fashion, and severed ties with friends and family.
But she began to have misgivings when she witnessed Shri Mataji accepting
lavish gifts, and at the same time encouraging her followers to reject material
wealth. Lyn couldn't just walk away. By now she had two children,
and feared that rejecting the Sahaja Yoga movement would threaten her marriage
and break up her family.
"If you feel like Sahaja yoga is like a family
to you and if you've got doubts, you will get thrown out of Sahaja yoga. "So
it would be a case of leaving Sahaja yoga and also splitting with my husband and
my marriage would break down," says Lyn. Not every form of yoga is
like Sahaja Yoga, of course. Laura Bissell of the Yorkshire Yoga Centre
points out that, "if you go to a yoga class in the West it's 99% likely to
be Hatha yoga. "This is physical exercise with breathing techniques
and relaxation. "It's important to check out the qualifications of
any yoga teacher, so you know that the teacher's training has covered the precautions
necessary for individual problems." No pressure
The
Sahaja Yoga organisation know Lyn's history, and have made these comments: "There
are no rules forcing an individual to adopt any particular lifestyle. "We
function with unpaid volunteers. No money is ever taken from practitioners under
any form of duress. "Donations are only accepted to help fund communal
activities such as the hiring of halls. "No-one is under pressure
to attend meetings, contribute funds or to do anything that they are unhappy with.
"Ms Dale's account of her experiences does not correspond with those
of other people."
Regrets After seven years,
Lyn split from her husband and broke away from Sahaja Yoga, taking her children
back home to Hull. She regrets the time she spent in the Sahaja Yoga Movement: "You
wouldn't imagine anything like that could happen really to you, but it just shows
that it can affect anybody. "There's a lot of regret there and that's
why I want as many people to know about it so that they don't make the same mistakes." Links
relating to this story:The
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Inside
Out - Yorkshire & Lincolnshire: Monday February 6, 2006
