Word: yoga
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...beautiful city, in this instance, is not San Francisco or Berlin; it's Mysore, in southern India, which each year draw several thousand yoga pilgrims from around the world. Mysore began its journey towards yoga mecca-dom in 1931, when a 40-something, five-foot-two-inch Brahmin was summoned by the ailing monarch of what was then a princely state under British tutelage. Numerous doctors had failed to cure the king's affliction, but the yogi succeeded within a few months, and the king rewarded him by building him a yogashala (yoga school) in his grand palace...
...shares a compound with the Mysore Mandala Yogashala. Just before sundown, a batch of eight students - all foreigners - are beginning their evening session with a Sanskrit mantra invoking Patanjali, the sage who compiled the Yoga Sutras, expounding ashtanga, or eight-limbed, yoga philosophy. The room is dimly lit and already slightly clammy when the students begin huffing and puffing their way through ten repetitions of surya namaskara, or sun salutation, the opening asana. Within a few minutes, their bodies are glistening with sweat as they flex themselves into scary positions, sometimes tugged and pushed by the teacher, all apparently impervious...
...schools have emerged in the wealthier neighborhoods of this prosperous city in recent years. Jayakumar Swamyshree runs Pranava Yogadham, where he offers courses of varying durations, but usually with up to four sessions in a day. Like many teachers and students, he is critical of Jois's brand of yoga, which many teachers in Mysore have adopted - largely to attract foreign students and their dollars. "Yoga's about liberation, emancipation, inner peace, harmony... That's the ultimate aim of yoga - kaivalya. It's not just about a perfectly sculpted body," he says. He also says Jois's fees...
...town centre, near the imposing Mysore Palace, is the older Sri Patanjala Yogashala. Up its ancient, carved staircase is the room where B.N.S. Iyengar sees students twice a day. On this day, a young Canadian woman is taking notes on kundalini yoga, another of Iyengar's specializations. "Without philosophy, yoga is just gymnastics," he says, adding that it's a shame that so few of his students are Indian...
...influx of foreigners has created a small yoga economy in Mysore. "Whatever they want, we give," says N. Harish Bheemaiah, managing director of Mysore Mandala Yogashala - lessons in classical Indian dance, music and painting, sattvik (vegetarian) food, accommodation, ayurvedic massage, and so on. In between coconut groves and rice paddies, cafes and eateries catering to foreigners have sprung up. An Austrian Caf? loudly announces itself with an orange-and-blue sign; not very far away is a Subway sandwich shop. But the locals are largely unaware of their city's status among the international yoga jet-set. Many...