While we in India while away our time debating if yoga is Hindu or not, the west has turned it into a billion dollar industry. We might want to keep this ancient practice of breathing and exercise on a metaphysical level, but cannot afford to ignore the west's penchant for monetising it. In the US alone the yoga industry is worth around 27 billion dollars. The west has gone from 'twist and shout', a song made famous by The Beatles in the 1960s to 'twist and bend'.
The Fab Four's interest in transcendental meditation brought them to India where they spend six weeks at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh. The trip certainly influenced their music, and increased world-wide interest in Indian mysticism. ÚS interest in things Indian however, did not start with The Beatles. That credit goes to Swami Vivekananda, who alighted in Chicago in 1893 in a yellow-orange robe and turban to mesmerise a nation. For a long time since then, the connection between the two nations remained at a philosophical and religious level, until yoga books began to flow in followed by gurus. Eventually the baby boom generation took hold of this ancient Indian form of exercise and meditation and turned it into a big bucks industry. Religion, apparently is not a bar for business.
