The Shotgun Blog
« We got to get paid: Africa wants $300 billion for climate change | Main | Anarchism & Education »
Friday, September 04, 2009
You can have my yoga mat when you pry it from my cold, dead hands: Yogis
The National Post reported this week that New York yoga instructors are uniting to fight the dead hand of statism:
U.S. yogis are being asked to regulate more than their breathing - and they are fighting back.
About 50 yogis gathered in New York recently to discuss hiring a lobbyist and raise funds to fight a state proposal to require certification of yoga teacher training programs - a move they say would unfairly cost them money.
Today, a prominent member of the Hindu community joined this fight to keep the state out of the yoga studios of the nation.
Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that yoga was one of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy with origins tracing back to around 2000 BCE and that “Yoga never had any formal organization and yoga practice had been handed down from one guru to the next.”
Zed also argues that yoga is part of ancient Hindu scriptures and central to religious observances:
“Mahabharata, also an ancient Hindu scripture, said that one unconversant with yoga could never have happiness while Yogabija Upanishad pointed out that one became liberated from bondage only through yoga. Why to regulate such a liberation powerhouse?”
Why, indeed? Yoga has seen thousands of years of successful spontaneous order – to use a term most associated with economist Frederick Hayek -- and is central to the religious beliefs of many of its 16 million American practitioners.
While the closest thing I own to a yoga mat is an Expo 86 souvenir placemat, I’m hoping to see a “You can have my yoga mat when you pry it from my cold, dead hands” bumper sticker on Volkswagen, Jettas everywhere.
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by westernstandard on September 4, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
I applaud the government regulating this quasi-religious stuff. Next, I want to see the government impose regulations for priests, rabbis, imams, witches, druids, satanists, hedonists, nudists, prudists, prune eaters and goat ropers. I want them to get so in their face that people will reject all forms of official organized human activity.
All collective or group endeavours will then be undertaken unofficially, coordinated over the net as a collective of independents and individuals in a completely cooperative but unaffiliated way.
This is the ultimate rejection of government and institutions and they can face into irrelevance.
Bring it on baby!
Beachgirl
Posted by: beachgirl | 2009-09-04 5:19:30 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.