(Written in response to Monday’s Yoga Journal Controversy, by Ramesh Bjonnes,
both the article itself and the resulting discussion.)

My Dear Friend Ramesh,

Why, why, why does everyone have to be the same? You do the Yoga you love. I’ll do the Gita Yoga I love. Anusara devotees will do the Yoga they love. Bikram, Asthanga, Kripalu, Ananda, Himalayan Institute, YMCA, etc.

My wife Jane will continue to do the daily 45 minutes of pre-dawn asana to her Yoga Journal Jason Crandell DVD. She will continue to love Yoga Journal just the way it is (including all the ads) and she’ll continue to be completely uninterested in what you consider to be real Yoga.

She and hundreds of thousands of other happy Yoga Journal lovers don’t merit your derision. They are fine just the way they are. Try to attract them to your Yoga, if you wish. But don’t do it by demeaning the Yoga they love.  Live and let live.

Subscribe to Yoga International.  Start a new traditionalist magazine.  Tell people how wonderful your Yoga stuff is.  Get Yoga Journal to publish more articles about your stuff.  Spread the word.

But stop looking down your nose as people like my wife who simply don’t care to follow your particular path. Sell the positive message of your type of practice without tearing down the type of Yoga most Yoga Journal readers like to practice.

There are plenty of other people to carry on what you consider to be the real Yoga.  Why do you feel you need to convert Yoga Journal readers, many of whom just aren’t interested?  Sell your stuff, but at the same time, embrace diversity and accept people who are different from you.

Bob Weisenberg
(who practices Gita Yoga, the oldest and most traditional Yoga of all, but doesn’t have anything against those who choose to practice modern innovations like those in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, 1500 AD)