Part 3 of our series. It stands on its own, but if you want the story behind it, start with Part 1 and Part 2.
So, yoga might be going to the Olympics.
I'm serious. India is turning yoga into a competitive sport called yogasana, and pushing for it as part of its bid for the 2036 Games. In June 2026 we hosted the first World Yogasana Championship. 522 athletes from 79 countries, holding extreme postures for as long as they can while judges score them. India won 102 of the 114 medals.
The Guardian ran the story under a headline that said it all: “This is horrifying, this is madness.”
My first reaction was to laugh. Then it stopped being funny.
Because here's the thing. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the most quoted text on yoga there is, has around 196 short lines. Guess how many of them are about posture?
Three.
Three out of 196. And now we're handing out gold medals for it.
Yoga has a PR problem. Let's talk about it.
What most people think yoga is
Ask ten people what yoga is and you'll get some version of the same picture. A flexible woman, a sunrise, a mat, and a pose you'd need a chiropractor to get out of.
Ask ten men and half of them will say, “Yoga is for women,” or, “I'm not flexible enough for yoga.” Which is like saying, “I'm too tired to sleep.”
Then there's the other picture. The guru. White clothes, incense, a throne, and a voice so slow it sounds like a meditation app on low battery. So you're either a rubber band or a saint. Nothing in between.
And the market has run with it. Goat yoga. Beer yoga. Hot yoga in rooms heated to around 40°C. Yoga with puppies. Nothing against goats, lovely animals. But somewhere between the goat and the beer, we lost the plot.
Honestly, nobody's ever made a face at Aarti and me when we say we teach yoga. People are happy about it. But you can see the cliché land. Oh, another yoga teacher. Anyone can be one after a one-month TTC, right?
That's the PR problem in one sentence. What the monks and sanyasis keep showing us is a lifelong journey. A month is barely the first step.
Even the name got lost
Here's my favourite example.
Ashtanga literally means “eight limbs”. Ashta is eight, anga is limb. It's Patanjali's name for the whole path of yoga, from how you treat people all the way to complete stillness of the mind.
Now search “Ashtanga”. What comes up is a flowing sequence of postures, popularised in Mysore by K. Pattabhi Jois, who set up his institute there in 1948. It's a serious, demanding practice, and plenty of people love it. But the name for the entire eight-limbed path now mostly means a sweaty sequence of poses. Even Wikipedia has to add a little note telling you not to confuse the two.
I'm living in Gokulam, Mysore, right now. I see it every morning.
The time someone tried to own yoga
It gets better. Or worse.
In the US, the founder of a famous hot-yoga chain claimed copyright over his sequence of 26 postures and two breathing exercises. Basically, he tried to own a yoga routine. In 2012 the US Copyright Office said you can't copyright yoga poses that way, and in 2015 a federal appeals court agreed. A sequence of poses is an idea, and you can't own an idea.
Meanwhile, back home, India got worried enough about yoga patents in the West that it started filming and documenting asanas in its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. By 2010 nearly 900 poses had been recorded, with a goal of 1,500, all sent to patent offices around the world. Just so nobody could claim them.
Think about that. A practice built to dissolve the ego, and people were fighting over who owns it.
What yoga actually says about the body
Here's Patanjali's full instruction on posture (2.46): sthiram sukham asanam. A posture should be steady and comfortable.
That's it. Steady. Comfortable. Nothing about getting your foot behind your head for the gram.
The next two lines (2.47–2.48) say you master a posture by relaxing the effort and letting the mind rest on something bigger, and that once you do, you stop being thrown around by opposites like heat and cold.
So the point of the posture was never the posture. The point was to sit still long enough, without your body complaining, to work on the thing that actually matters. The mind.
Judging yoga by the poses is like judging a car by its cup holder.
The eight limbs, in plain words
Patanjali opens with a definition (1.2). Yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind. Then he gives eight steps to get there (2.29):
Yama: how you treat others. No violence, honesty, not stealing, moderation, not hoarding.
Niyama: how you treat yourself. Cleanliness, contentment, discipline, self-study, surrender.
Asana: a steady, comfortable body.
Pranayama: working with the breath.
Pratyahara: bringing the senses back inward.
Dharana: holding the mind on one point.
Dhyana: meditation.
Samadhi: complete absorption.
Postures are number three. Meditation is number seven. Most of the world starts at three and stops there, or jumps straight to seven with an app.
A very short history of yoga
| When | What happened | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Around 1500 BCE onwards | The Vedas, India's oldest texts, describe chanting, breath and focused attention | The roots. Yoga starts as an inner practice |
| Around 800–200 BCE | The Upanishads. The Katha Upanishad calls yoga the steady holding of the senses | The first clear definition, and it's about the mind |
| Around 200 BCE–200 CE | The Bhagavad Gita. Krishna teaches yoga through action, devotion and knowledge, and describes offering the in-breath into the out-breath (4.29) | Yoga for people with jobs and families. In the tradition we follow, this verse is understood as Kriya Yoga |
| Around 400 CE | Patanjali's Yoga Sutras lay out the eight limbs | The manual. Three lines on posture |
| 1400s | The Hatha Yoga Pradipika | Postures and breath, written as preparation for meditation |
| 1893 | Swami Vivekananda speaks in Chicago | Yoga reaches the West as philosophy |
| 1920 | Paramahansa Yogananda arrives in the US | Kriya Yoga and meditation reach the West |
| 1930s–1940s | T. Krishnamacharya teaches at the Mysore palace; his students go on to shape modern posture yoga | The posture side takes off |
| 1966 | B.K.S. Iyengar publishes Light on Yoga | Asana gets its textbook |
| 1970s–2000s | Yoga studios boom across the West | Yoga becomes a class you buy |
| 2015 | The first International Day of Yoga, 21 June | Celebrated mostly with mass posture sessions |
| 2026 | The first World Yogasana Championship | Yoga gets a world championship, with judges and medals |
How did it end up like this?
No villains. Just a few very understandable things.
A pose photographs well. A calm mind doesn't. You can't post a picture of pratyahara.
A pose fits into a 60-minute class. Changing how you eat, sleep and react doesn't.
And a pose can be sold. A mat, a pair of pants, a studio membership, an app. Steadiness of mind is a lot harder to put a price tag on.
So the part that sells became the whole thing. And honestly, we in India didn't exactly fight it. We sent yoga out as wisdom and happily bought it back as a workout.
The other PR problem: too holy to touch
Then there's the opposite crowd. For them, yoga isn't too cheap. It's too holy.
A woman called me from Dubai once. “I want to do yoga,” she said, “but I hope it's not religious.”
I understood her completely. And it still made me sad. Somewhere along the way, people started thinking real yoga is a religion you convert to, or a secret club for monks, or something only for people who've given up meat, alcohol and their partners. So they don't even try.
Every serious teacher we've learned from says the same thing. Your age, your diet, your social position, your religion, none of it stops you. All it asks for is genuine interest, and the effort to actually change.
So yoga's PR is broken from both sides. To one crowd it's a workout with goats. To the other it's a secret club on a mountain. It's neither.
The good schools went quiet
Here's the part nobody talks about.
Some of the most serious yoga schools in India never chased anyone. One of the most respected asks you to write them a letter before you can even study there. Another has you come to their group meditations, meet one of their monks, and then study lessons at home, for a long time, before any deeper practice is taught. No pay-and-join. No 30-day challenge. They ask for seriousness, not money.
I respect that massively. But it came at a cost. While they stayed quiet, the loudest voices became the face of yoga. These schools don't have a million followers on Instagram. They never wanted them.
Sanskrit isn't a password
Somehow Sanskrit got a reputation as some kind of portal language, like you need the right words to get God on the line.
You don't. Sanskrit is beautiful, and the old chants carry something real. But what actually matters is bhav, the feeling you generate inside.
If someone hates you, and you can still wish them well, maybe even pray for them? That's yoga. Done on a random Tuesday, no mat required.
The paths, and where they lead
Yoga was never one thing. There are many doors in, and most of us need a bit of each:
Hatha yoga: the body and the breath
Raja yoga: the mind, through Patanjali's eight limbs
Jnana yoga: knowledge and self-enquiry
Karma yoga: selfless action, doing your work without clinging to the result
Bhakti yoga: devotion, love, chanting
Nada yoga: sound and deep listening
Yuktahaar: balance in eating and living, from the Bhagavad Gita
So where does it all go?
Asana steadies the body. Pranayama steadies the breath. Meditation steadies the mind. And if you keep at your sadhana, day after day, things genuinely change. You sleep better. You react less. You need a lot less from outside to feel okay. That's real, and a lot of people stop there, which is completely fine.
But all of that is preparation. In the tradition we follow, the deeper road is Kriya Yoga, and it leads towards samadhi, the eighth limb. That part has always been passed from a guru to a student, in a living lineage. No app can do it. No course can. Nobody can do it for you except the one who teaches you the art of it.
Is your yoga actually yoga?
A quick test.
Do you feel steadier after, or just stretchier?
Has your breath changed, or only your hamstrings?
A year in, do you eat, sleep or react even a little differently?
Could you keep going without the teacher, the class or the app?
If you said yes to the last one, congratulations. You don't need us. That's the plan.
So yes, yoga has a PR problem. The product's fine, though. It's been fine for a few thousand years. We just keep selling the cup holder.
Next, I want to untangle something that confuses almost everyone. What's the difference between a priest, a yoga teacher with a one-month certificate, a guru and a monk? They're very different people.
And if you're feeling a bit lost on your own yoga journey, we're happy to talk. No sales pitch, just a conversation. Message us on WhatsApp.
Aadi
FAQs
Is yoga just stretching? No. Physical posture, asana, is one of the eight limbs of yoga in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and only three of the text's roughly 196 sutras are about it. The rest deal with ethics, breath, the senses, concentration and meditation.
What is yoga philosophy? Yoga philosophy is the inner science behind yoga: how to steady the mind, live ethically and reach lasting peace. Its core texts include the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, which define yoga as the stilling of the movements of the mind (1.2).
What are the eight limbs of yoga? Yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi (Yoga Sutras 2.29). In simple words: how you treat others, how you treat yourself, a steady body, the breath, the senses turned inward, concentration, meditation and complete absorption.
What does “sthiram sukham asanam” mean? It's Yoga Sutra 2.46, and it means a posture should be steady and comfortable. It's Patanjali's main instruction on posture.
Is Ashtanga yoga the same as the eight limbs of yoga? No. Ashtanga literally means “eight limbs”, Patanjali's full path. Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is a modern sequence of flowing postures popularised by K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, which shares the name.
Is yoga religious? Yoga comes from India's philosophical traditions and is practised by people of every faith and none. Its practices, ethics, posture, breath, concentration and meditation, don't require you to adopt any religion. What matters is sincere practice and the feeling, or bhav, you bring to it.
Will yoga be in the Olympics? India is promoting a competitive form called yogasana and pushing for it as part of its bid for the 2036 Olympic Games. The first World Yogasana Championship was held in 2026. Many teachers argue that judging yoga on posture misses its purpose.
Can yoga poses be copyrighted? No. In 2015 a US federal appeals court ruled that a sequence of yoga poses can't be copyrighted, after the US Copyright Office said the same in 2012. India has also documented hundreds of traditional asanas in its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library to stop them being patented.
What is the goal of yoga? The goal of yoga is a still, free mind, which Patanjali calls samadhi, the eighth limb. Asana, pranayama and meditation prepare you for it. In the tradition Yukah follows, the deeper practice is Kriya Yoga, taught by a guru.
Do you need a guru to practise yoga? You can start yoga on your own or with a good teacher, and the early limbs bring real benefits. In traditional lineages, the deepest practices, such as Kriya Yoga, are passed directly from a guru to a prepared student.
What are the main paths of yoga? The classical paths include Hatha yoga (body and breath), Raja yoga (the mind, through Patanjali's eight limbs), Jnana yoga (knowledge and self-enquiry), Karma yoga (selfless action), Bhakti yoga (devotion) and Nada yoga (sound). Yukah also teaches Yuktahaar, balance in eating and living, from the Bhagavad Gita.
Is yoga only for women or flexible people? No. Yoga doesn't require flexibility, and its breath, mind and lifestyle practices suit anyone. Patanjali's only instruction on posture is that it be steady and comfortable.
Should beginners start with meditation? In the classical order, meditation is the seventh step, after ethics, posture, breath and work with the senses. Building that foundation first, ideally with a teacher, matters most for anyone going through a difficult time.
Sources
Patanjali, Yoga Sutras, 1.2, 2.29 and 2.46–2.48.
Katha Upanishad, 2.3.11.
Bhagavad Gita, 4.29 and 5.27–28.
The Guardian (18 October 2026), “This is horrifying, this is madness”: the row over competitive yoga. theguardian.com
NBC (23 October 2026), India's push to make yoga an Olympic sport. nbcwashington.com
K. Pattabhi Jois, Wikipedia. wikipedia.org
Copyright claims on Bikram Yoga, Wikipedia (US Copyright Office 2012; Ninth Circuit 2015). wikipedia.org
Voice of America (10 June 2010), India documents 900 yoga poses to block yoga-related patents. voanews.com
United Nations, launch of the International Day of Yoga (11 December 2014). un.org
