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My sense of it: instead of being a book about yoga, as if ‘yoga’ is a thing out there that can be defined and understood, Yoga Body is a history and exploration of how humans have thought about, and constructed stories about, whatever it is they have called ‘yoga,’ specifically during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Yoga being a human creation, this makes a lot of sense. Backed up by thirty pages of notes and bibliographies, Singleton describes the trajectory of hatha yoga, from the semi-scary, no-caste, wondering, naked, holy-man thing, soundly rejected by educated Hindus and Western scholars of the time, to the medicalized, secularized, physical culture (as in body building and cultivation) that yoga has become, familiar to us in the yoga classes of today.

Yoga is so prevalent in the modern world–practiced by pop stars, taught in schools, and offered in yoga centers, health clubs, and even shopping malls–that we take its presence, and its meaning, for granted. But how did the current yoga boom happen? And is it really rooted in ancient Indian practices, as many of its adherents claim?

In this groundbreaking book, Mark Singleton calls into question many commonly held beliefs about the nature and origins of postural yoga (?sana) and suggests a radically new way of understanding the meaning of yoga as it is practiced by millions of people across the world today. Singleton shows that, contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence in the Indian tradition for the kind of health and fitness-oriented ?sana practice that dominates the global yoga scene of the twenty-first century. Singleton’s surprising–and surely controversial–thesis is that yoga as it is popularly practiced today owes a greater debt to modern Indian nationalism and, even more surprisingly, to the spiritual aspirations of European bodybuilding and early 20th-century women’s gymnastic movements of Europe and America, than it does to any ancient Indian yoga tradition. This discovery enables Singleton to explain, as no one has done before, how the most prevalent forms of postural yoga, like Ashtanga, Bikram and “Hatha” yoga, came to be the hugely popular phenomena they are today.

A sparkling new series introducing five unforgettable women who flock to yoga at turning points in their lives and find the gift of lasting friendship.

The yoga studio is where daily cares are set aside, mats are unfurled, and physical exertion leads to well-being, renewal, and friendship. An aggressively expanding chain of Los Angeles yoga “experience centers,” has Lee and her extraordinary teaching abilities in its sights. They woo her with a lucrative contract, a trademarked name for her classes, and a place for her handsome musician husband. But accepting the contract means abandoning the students at the homey studio Lee runs in L.A.’s Silver Lake district- and leaving behind four women whose friendships are suddenly more important to her than retirement benefits and a salary increase.

Kimberly Fowler is a well-known Los Angeles-based yoga teacher. She is the founder of the Yoga and Spinning (YAS) Fitness Centers in LA and has made several yoga workout DVDs, including Yoga for Athletes. Her mission, as the book’s subtitle makes plain, is to make yoga accessible to those who are uncomfortable with chanting, granola, and Sanskrit.

Famed yoga rebel-with-a-cause, Kimberly Fowler’s practical guide to the ancient art has hit the bookstands. The No OM Zone: No Chanting, No Granola, No Sanskrit and companion workout DVD furthers her mission to take the mystery and intimidation out of yoga for those still leery of the practice and to welcome newcomers, introducing them to a fun and fulfilling practice.

An easy-to-follow guide that shows how those of us with normal flexibility limitations can experience the benefits of yoga, using everyday objects like walls, chairs and blankets. Alternative yoga routines that help you reap the greatest rewards fromyour yoga practice. As your body becomes more flexible, your mind and attitude will too.

MIRIAM AUSTIN has been a student of yoga since 1985 and has taught for many years. Instructing people with normal physical limitations as well as those with serious injuries and illness, through yoga, Miriam has helped people heal themselves of lupus, arthritis, asthma, and high blood pressure and has helped many find relief from back and neck pain. She is the bestselling author of Yoga for Wimps: Poses for the Flexibly Impaired and Meditation for Wimps: Finding your Balance in an Imperfect World.From the Trade Paperback edition.

The practice of ‘Yoga” which originated in India more than two thousand years ago was little known to the Western world until recent times. In the past few years there has been a renewal of interest in Yoga in the land of its origin and the reported and much publicised benefits of Yoga for physical health and mental peace have attracted many in the present day stressed out world. Numerous yoga practitioners have been seen spreading their wings in advanced countries like U.S.A. and trying to teach different versions of yoga – needless to say that commercialisation of any skill has become part of today’s money-centered world and there is no dearth of gullible public ready to hang on to any magical mantras which they believe will give them health and peace. There are, however, a few who sincerely try to pass on to the general public the knowledge and wisdom of the sages of the past in the matter of physical fitness, mental well-being and spiritual advancement through the medium of ‘Yoga’.
Among the few purists in the field of yoga as enunciated by the sage ‘Patanjali’ in India 2200 years ago, B.K.S. Iyengar stands out as the real stalwart. In his book “Light on Life” (published in 2005) we can clearly see that he practiced, taught and wrote on the principles, philosophy and physical practice of Patanjali’s original teachings with unalloyed purity, stressing the aliveness and relevance of this philosophy and practice to the modern world.
Iyenger has always practiced what he preached. The story of his own yogic journey from a weak and sickly child to a master of yoga and a yogi in a very real sense, is indeed impressive. Time and again he stresses the need for a wholesome yoga practice (as opposed to a mechanical physical exercise) where every part of our body, every cell is consciously involved in the ‘asanas’ performed; where the physical fitness is not the only purpose, and where our mind, body and soul are all in unison. Yoga has to be also a kind of meditation. This indeed was the underlying philosophy of ‘yoga’ (meaning ‘union’) as originally developed by the Indian sages.
Going into the basics of the meaning and philosophy of yoga, he has explained in his own inimitable style the external and internal components which combine to make a unique human being and how to go about achieving the goal of final union with the soul energy. Iyengar then very lucidly explains how to methodically translate this goal into practical action by learning to live in the natural world, strving at the same time to progress step by step towards the higher goal.
Iyengar not only emphasizes the benefits of yoga practices but also tells us how to find joy in their performance. The perfectionist that he is, he enjoyed teaching others too the aesthetics of yoga practices. No wonder, therefore, that the BBC Television once hailed him as “The Michelangelo of Yoga”.

This is a book of immense benefits for the beginners and serious practitioners of Yoga.