12. Yoga in the West in the twentieth century: various schools

The influence of Svami Vivekananda

The influence of Krishnamacharya

B. K. S. Iyengar and Hatha Yoga

Patabhi Jois and Ashtanga Yoga

Desikachar and Viniyoga

Indra Devi

Sivananda Yoga

Satyananda Yoga (Bihar School of Yoga)

Other schools of yoga

The influence of Svami Vivekananda

Apart from academic specialists, few people outside Asia knew about yoga until the 1950s. Probably the most influential person initially to draw attention in the West to yoga was Svami Vivekananda (1863–1902), the main disciple of Paramahamsa Ramakrishna (1836–1886), a Bengali Tantric and mystic.

As a representative of the Hindu religion, Vivekananda travelled from India to the USA to attend the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893, where he delivered lectures on Hinduism. He subsequently lectured in other cities in the USA, in England and in Europe, attracting worldwide press-coverage.

Vivekananda’s book Raja Yoga was published in 1896, introducing readers to his interpretation of yoga, which in some respects differed from how yoga had been traditionally understood in India.

Vivekananda emphasised spiritual experience as the most important component of religion, maintaining that the ‘universal truth’ of Hinduism was grounded in experience and not in dogma. He has been credited with the coining of the idea of the ‘materialistic West’ and the ‘spiritual East’.

Vivekanadanda also lectured in Europe and initiated the establishment of what was to become a worldwide network of ashrams, the Ramakrishna Mission in India, and the Vedanta Society in the West.

back                                                                                                   next