Yoga Snob

Yoga Snob: thinks the yoga they do or learned is the best and only way to do yoga: either thinks yoga is 'just' for spirituality, or 'just' for exercise, or some other 'just' that they 'just' happen to know that others are doing wrong.

The "yogier than you" may do only spiritual yoga with a mala or only exercise yoga with expensive yoga pants, but they are the same if they feel they are better than someone else because of yoga.

Do people that pronounce Sanskrit with a southern twang disturb you? Do overweight people who are coming to yoga to lose weight disturb you… or the advertisements to get them to do yoga? Is a practice dedicated to Asana not as good as a practice dedicated to pranayama or meditation? Is your god better than mine? The list of why my yoga is better than yours goes on…

Yoga is more than you think it is…whatever you think it is, I promise its bigger. Yoga is bigger than you. It actually can fit all those crazy people in it, and you.

Maybe you do know a better yoga than that guy over there, hmmmm. You have found the yoga that attains the greatest equanimity (sattva) of all. If you complain to others, that is rajas and you just failed anything being better. If you attack them for being not as yoga as you, that is tamas and again you just proved you don't get it. The Bhagavad Gītā (III.26) says we should not disturb others about the way they live but help them enjoy their life while living our own life in a disciplined way. That means no holy war for the Yoga-buttocks workout, no matter what you think about it. You are welcome to write an article on traditional yoga and its benefits, or from the other side, all the new improvements that non-guru yoga has created. But "I-know-the-real-yoga" complaining and attacking are not Yogic.

The above verse, that says to not disturb others, is followed by a teaching that we are all exactly where we are for reasons way beyond our control. The white-washed yoga of the Christian bible belt, the exercise yoga of the city, the meditative yoga of an alternative community are all happening because they fit the need of those people at this moment in time and place for them. The Gita (III.27) gives a concept of avoiding the egotistic thought that you made yourself and instead realize we are a product of our environment, our family, our time and place and anything else that has created our mental dispositions. And understanding this, we practice what we hope is the correct and best path. And if it is, we will shine and others will join us.  

When we are ready to get that every person is exactly where they are, and its perfect for them right now, then we stop judging them. We get that any contact of yoga is a forward walk. It may take ten years of practicing the yoga-buttocks workout to find a teacher who takes the person to the next level, but the yoga doorway is open. We have to trust the yoga and the innate wisdom it awakens.  

"In the practice of Yoga no effort is lost,

Nor is a lack of progress known,

Even a little of this path,

Saves one from anxiety." II.40

In the balanced view that a successful yoga practice gives rise to, we see all people as trying from where they are at the moment. Complaining or attacking them is not caring for them. It is not acknowledging the need that soul has to experience what it needs to progress, nor the varied benefits that yoga has to give all people. At no time should we stand for any abuse of one person to another, or anything that is hurtful to one’s health in the realm of yoga (XVII.18), but we need to be aware of our overzealous behavior and how we treat others. Yoga doesn’t need a prophet, it just needs practice.

"The nature of the one tied to yoga,

At all times perceives with equanimity,

The essential nature (atman) is in all beings,

And all being are in the essential nature. VI.29