2024
Asian studies in general, and Indian in particular, comprise a very rich body of knowledge. They summon a host of scholars from diverse disciplines who are constantly expanding our understanding of the Asian pasts and the complex ways in which these interact with the present both inside and outside of India. Consequently, there is a number of fora where the specialists discuss issues regarding the state of the art, as well as present significant academic achievements.
Now, since relatively few time, yoga has found a special and separate place within the field of Indology. This is partly a result of yoga becoming a thrilling field of inquiry that gradually has been encompassing newer texts, traditions, temporalities, and spaces that were usually unexplored. The most important academic event for the exchange of discoveries, research advancements, and new perspectives throughout time is the Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana, an international conference that takes place periodically. There have been three editions of the conference up to now. The magical city of Krakow, Poland had the privilege of inaugurating this adventure in 2016. The second edition was held in The second edition was held in 2022.
(just coming out of the worst period of the COVID pandemic), also in Krakow. In may 2024, the green and beautiful city of Hamburg, Germany was the location for the third edition.
Thus, between May 22nd thru 25th, the campus of the University of Hamburg became the honored venue of the International Conference Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana “Introspection, Inspiration, Institutionalisation” 2024. It hosted around thirty panels and eighty papers approximately. Besides, there were two keynotes plus the projection cum discussion of a documentary film on the origins of modern yoga. The triple axis of the conference was that of Introspection, Inspiration, and Institutionalization. The conference thus gave space to the presentation of significant philological discoveries, but also promoted reflection on the interaction between different practices and on the dynamics of global expansion in the contemporary world. All of the panels and papers were grouped according to said axis.
The first day, the 22nd, started off in the afternoon. The welcome was by Harunaga Isaacson, one the most renowned Indologists and philologists, with an established trajectory in studying Tantric traditions, codicology, and manuscript editing. After the opening event, the first keynote came.
As in the YDYS 2016, here James Mallinson (now the Boden Professor of Sanskrit, Oxford University) also had the privilege of giving one of the conference’s keynotes. His address dealt with the radical change within ascetic culture that took place around 1000 C.E. in India. This yogic revolution entailed a huge expansion of body practices within yoga, especially inverted postures directed at retaining vitality and expanding life without limits. Mallinson stressed that upside-down poses were alchemically meant to preserve the life force. Thus, tantra and hathayoga merged.
The second keynote closed the conference’s first day. Sonal Kullar (South Asian Studies lecturer, University of Pennsylvania) offered a penetrating insight into various artistic practices and the way they have combined with South Asian institutions in the modern period.
May 23rd and 24th were heavily packed. It will not be possible to offer a comprehensive review of all papers. On the 23rd, there were papers that, from rather sociological approaches, discussed the import of yoga on contemporary Indian nationalism (Ida Pajunen), the tensions around conspiracy ideas and contagion risks amid sanitary lockdowns (Theodora Wildcroft), specific cases where yoga teaching becomes the site of sexual abuse (Angela Gollath), the dynamics and tensions between institutionalized power and community (Amelia Wood), or a reflection on the disaffiliation within the Iyengar Yoga community (Matylda Ciołkosz).
There were also more classic participations, in an Indological sense, that dealt with medical metaphors and knowledge in tantric literature (Shaman Hatley), the presence of the yogic body in a Bengali Sufi text (Lubomir Ondračka), the terminology of awakening in an Advaita text (Zoë Slatoff), a very early form of yoga in the Katha Upanishad (Dominik Haas), or the discovery of a hitherto unknown short text where Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga are negotiated (Jason Birch). The serpent power known as “kundalini” was the main topic in two papers on modern yoga (Marleen Thaler, Anya Foxen). There also was a thorough analysis of the sacred syllable OM as used in a Shaiva text (Finnian Gerety), which somehow was in dialogue with another paper that scrutinized the role of the “unuttered” mantra in the hathayogic tradition (Seth Powell).
On the 24th, within a plethora of papers, some discussed the relationship between yoga, the martial arts, and dance (Lucy May Constantini), but also particular cases from Sri Lanka that contributed to the yogic culture in Britain (Karen O’Brien-Kop), the Brazilian participation within the transnational circuit of o (Mirian Santos Ribeiro de Oliveira), and even efforts for popularizing yoga in Pakistan (Diane Charmey). There were classical explorations of Pasupata Yoga (James Mallinson), other versions of the Shiva Samhita (Peter Pasedach), the influence of the Hathayoga Samhita on the more known Gheranda Samhita (Maximilian Hoth) or the Yoga Shatakam, an early jaina text (Samani Pratibha Pragya). There also were interesting reflections on menstruation as regarded in some yogic traditions (Ruth Westoby), the incorporation of psychedelics in yoga practice (Stuart R. Sarbacker), the quest of immortality and alchemical ideas (Patricia Sauthoff), or the various performative ways in which sadhus in contemporary India experience asceticism and yoga postures (Daniela Bevilacqua).
On May 25th, the panels expanded on regional cases where yoga has shown distinctive features. For example: the politics of yoga in Euro-American societies, with special emphasis on Milan, Italy (Matteo Di Placido) or the adoption of the Q methodology in Finland and Sweden (Janne Kontala y Måns Broo). Doubtless, an important addition to the discussion was the panel centered on Latin America, where various collaborators of the YoLA Project© participated. Borayin Larios and Adrián Muñoz opened the panel with a broad introduction into this region’s geopolitical and cultural outlook, and the importance of incorporating it in the scope of Modern Yoga studies.
Then, Adriana Maldonado and Borayin Larios separately presented interesting cases where yoga practice has combined with Christianity and some local pre-Hispanic traditions and beliefs, such as the cults of the goddesses Pacha Mama or Coatlicué. In such cases, yoga interacts with devotiona (sucha as towards god Hanuman) and with the Andean region, on the one hand, and the installation of Hindu divinities in Mexican soil, on the other.
Specialists are recognizing that the Theosophical Society was a crucial link in the chain of transmission and configuration of modern yoga, which in tima had to compete with other versions. In the previous days, the conference had already discussed this issue. In this panel, Macarena González-Carmona offered insight into the fascinating case of a former Chilean theosophist who eventually received yogic initiation by correspondence and later founded his own religious group, the Suddha Dharma Mandala. Then Adrián Muñoz scrutinized the role that C. Jinarajadasa, a prominent theosophist, may have had in early understandings of yoga during his Latin American tours in 1929 and 1938.
Gabriel Martino presented the case of a secular innovation: the Swasthya Yoga and the DeRose Method in Brazil, which became very successful in South America. Philip Deslippe’s paper was the perfect close for the panel on Latin America, but also for the whole conference. With both charism and insight, Deslippe showed that the circulation Yogi Ramacharaka’s books in Spanish and Portuguese exercised a remarkable influence on the early shaping of transnational modern yoga.
The conference’s last day took place only in the morning. After the last panels, it was lunchtime. Afterward, we all came back for a few closing words and the customary group photographs.
It is worth mentioning that many participants, apart from being academics, have been practicing yoga for a long time. It is important to point this out, for there still is a common prejudice against scholars, sometimes accused by practitioners of being estranged from direct experience.
This is far from the truth. But it should also be said that being a practitioner is not essential to fully appreciate the world of yoga, just as one can study the culture of any region without being a national of said place. At the same time, some of these scholars have been attempting to bridge the gap and make the recent discoveries on yoga accessible to yoga practitioners who are non-academic. Martha Henson touched upon this partially in the conference’s first day.
An unmatched academic enterprise, the international online conference
that, in a sense, forwarded the academic exchange of YDYS 2024. Also, The Luminiscent is a rich online forum that assembles talks, articles, news, and courses, usually focused on primary sources and laborious research. The site is managed by Jason Birch and Jacqueline Hargreaves. In her Enigmatic Yoga, Ruth Westoby offers audiovisual and textual materials related to the most recent investigations on yoga and tantric traditions. These are only but three examples of the happy marriage of academic and yoga practice; you can find the links to these and other valuable Internet tools and websites in our Related Sites
An unmatched academic enterprise, the YDYS 2024
left many images, words, and suggestive ideas imprinted in all participants. Thus, a real fraternity of people interested in yoga recognized one another as members of a wider body that seeks to better understand the fascinating world of yoga. Happily, papers and Q&As combined with expanded conversations over pleasant meals and walks. A family reunion of sorts, this exciting meeting further stretched our knowledge and bonded our hearts. Proyecto YoLA® was thrilled to have taken part of this magnificent event.
Adrián Muñoz is founder and head of Proyecto YoLA®.
yogadarsanayogasadhana estudiodelyoga modernyogastudies ydys2024hamburg proyectoyola yogastudies indología yogaenaméricalatina yoga historiaglobal historiadelyoga textosdeyoga adriánmuñoz
Alberto Allende
Pedro Urbano
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