Modern yoga gurus

Modern yoga gurus are people widely acknowledged to be gurus of modern yoga in any of its forms, whether religious or not. The role implies being well-known and having a large following; in contrast to the old guru-shishya tradition, the modern guru-follower relationship is not secretive, not exclusive, and does not necessarily involve a tradition. Many such gurus, but not all, teach a form of yoga as exercise; others teach forms which are more devotional or meditational; many teach a combination. Some have been affected by scandals of various kinds.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced The Beatles, and the West, to gurus, mantras, and meditation in the late 1960s.^[1][2]

Guru-shishya tradition

Further information: Guru–shishya tradition

The guru–shishya tradition involved a long-term, one-to-one relationship between master and pupil.^[3] Watercolour, Punjab Hills, India, 1740

Before the creation of modern yoga, hatha yoga was practised in secret by solitary, ascetic yogins, learning the tradition as a long-term pupil or shishya apprenticed to their master or guru.^[4][5][6][7] The ancient relationship was the primary means by which spirituality was expressed in India.^[8] Traditional yoga was often exclusive and secretive: the shishya submitted to and obeyed the guru, understanding that lengthy initiation and training under the guru was essential for progress.^[3] So strong was the guru-shishya relationship that Vivekananda stated that "The guru must be worshipped as God. He is God, he is nothing less than that".^[8]

Transformed role

The role of the guru in the modern world is radically transformed. Globalisation has extended the guru's reach into environments where they may be a stranger, and where the religion, purpose, and status of the guru is poorly understood. Modern yoga practices are often open to everyone, without any sort of initiation into any organisation or doctrine. The modern guru Jaggi Vasudev explicitly rejected "all that traditional whatever";^[3] all the same, some yoga traditions still emphasise and respect a teacher's lineage (parampara).^[3] For example, Gurumayi's Siddha Yoga pays careful attention to her predecessors, Muktananda and Bhagawan Nityananda.^[9] Another major change was introduced by Vivekananda; his Ramakrishna Mission set the example of public service in education and medicine, something now practised by many other Indian religious movements. These religions thus shifted from a focus on personal salvation to public altruism.^[8]

Yogendra, an acknowledged pioneer of modern yoga,^[10] rejected the traditional guru role in favour of something more modern.^[11]

A further radical shift was from spiritual to physical in yoga as exercise, as pioneered by Yogendra, Kuvalayananda, and Krishnamacharya.^[12] The transformed role of the guru can be seen in the case of one of these pioneers,^[10] Yogendra, who explicitly rejected the role of traditional guru for a single pupil or shishya.^[11] The physical context, too, is transformed along with the nature of the teacher's authority; yoga as exercise is often taught in an urban yoga studio, where the instructor's yoga teacher training stands in for the old guru-shishya relationship.^[3] The trend away from authority is continued in post-lineage yoga, which is practised outside any major school or guru's lineage.^[13][14]

The concept of the guru, along with mantra and meditation, reached the West in the 1960s with The Beatles' trip to India, for a Transcendental Meditation training course at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh.^[1][2] Modern gurus since then have used the divine status of the traditional guru to claim that they were gods or goddesses. Some asserted they were avatars, earthly incarnations of a god, fulfilling the prophecy in the Bhagavad Gita that Vishnu would take on earthly form when the world was threatened by evil.^[8]

Abuse

Further information: Sexual abuse by yoga gurus

The potential for abuse in the transformed guru-follower relationship is large, and there have been multiple instances of apparent or proven sexual, mental, and emotional abuse by gurus.^{[15][16][17][18][19]} Anthony Storr has documented, for example, the excesses of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh;^[20] Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad have examined the betrayal of trust that is involved.^[21] Swami Vivekananda said early in the modern era that there are many incompetent gurus, and that a true guru should understand the spirit of the scriptures, have a pure character and be free from sin, and should be selfless, without desire for money and fame.^[22] Following the downfalls of several gurus accused of misconduct, practitioners have publicly debated whether gurus are still necessary.^[23] As for how gurus can get away with abuse for so long, there is evidence both from research in psychology and from the recollections of former devotees like Daniel Shaw, once a senior member of staff in Gurumayi's Siddha Yoga organisation, that even if a guru is seen to be lying, devotees will ignore the matter and "keep on believing".^[24]

Acknowledged gurus

Well-known gurus of modern yoga

Guru	Dates	Gender	Country	Lineage (guru)	School or order	Postures (Asana)	Meditation (Dhyana)	Devotion (Bhakti)	Other practices	Scandal (alleged abuses)
Anandamayi Ma[25][26][27]	1896–1982	Female	India		Self-realization	No	Yes
Sri Aurobindo[28][29]	1872–1950	Male	India		Sri Aurobindo Ashram	No	Yes
Beryl Bender Birch[30]	1942–	Female	US	K. Pattabhi Jois	Power Yoga	Yes	No	No
Yogi Bhajan[31][32]	1929–2004	Male	India		Kundalini Yoga	Yes	Yes	Guru Nanak		Sexual[33][34]
Gregorian Bivolaru[35][36][37]	1952–	Male	Romania		Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute	Yes	Yes	No	Tantra	Sex with minors,[38] human trafficking,[39] financial[40]
Bikram Choudhury[41][25][42][18]	1944–	Male	India		Bikram Yoga	Yes	No	No	Fixed sequence of postures, in heated room	Sexual, assault, racism, homophobia[43][44]
Amrit Desai[45][46][47][48]	1932–	Male	India	Kripalvananda	Kripalu Yoga[49]	Yes			Kundalini yoga, Hatha yoga[45]	Sexual[50][51][46]
John Friend[42][18][52]	1959–	Male	US		Anusara Yoga	Yes	Yes	No		Sexual[53][54]
Gurmukh[55][56]	1943–	Female	US	Yogi Bhajan	Kundalini Yoga	No	Yes		Yoga in pregnancy
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda[57][58]	1955–	Female	India	Muktananda	Siddha Yoga	No	Yes	Yes	Shaktipat, japa
B. K. S. Iyengar[41][42][59][60][61][62]	1918–2014	Male	India	Krishnamacharya	Iyengar Yoga	Yes	No	No	Yoga props
Jaggi Vasudev[41][60][63]	1957–	Male	India	Malladihalli Raghavendra	Isha Foundation	Yes	Yes		"Inner Engineering", japa, pranayama
K. Pattabhi Jois[41][59][60][64][1][65]	1915–2009	Male	India	Krishnamacharya	Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga	Yes	No	No	Vinyasas	Sexual[66]
Krishnamacharya[41][59][60][67]	1888–1989	Male	India		Vinyasa Krama Yoga	Yes	No	No	Vinyasas
Kriyananda[68][69]	1926–2013	Male	US	Yogananda	Ananda yoga	No	Yes	Yes		Copyright disputes[70] Sexual[71][72]
Kuvalayananda[60]	1883–1966	Male	India	Paramahamsa Madhavdas	Kaivalyadhama	Yes			Ayurveda
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi[41][59][60][65]	1918–2008	Male	India	Brahmananda Saraswati	Transcendental Meditation	No	Yes
Meher Baba[25]	1894–1969	Male	India		Avatar Meher Baba Trust	No			Sufism
Dharma Mittra[73]	1939–	Male	Brazil	Kailashananda	Dharma Yoga Center	Yes
Muktananda[74][75][76]	1908–1982	Male	India	Bhagawan Nityananda	Siddha Yoga	No	Yes		Shaktipat	Sexual[77][78]
Nirmala Srivastava (Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi)[79]	1923–2011	Female	India		Sahaja Yoga	No	Yes		Kundalini awakening
Swami Rama[60]	1925–1996	Male	India		Himalayan Institute	No	Yes			Sexual[80]
Ram Dass[81][82]	1931–2019	Male	US	Neem Karoli Baba		No	Yes		Pranayama
Baba Ramdev[41][73][59][83]	1965–	Male	India		Patanjali Yogpeeth	Yes	Yes		Ayurveda, pranayama
Sivananda[41][84][59][60]	1887–1963	Male	India		Divine Life Society	No	Yes
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar[41][63]	1956–	Male	India	Maharishi Mahesh Yogi	Art of Living Foundation	Yes	Yes		Sudarshan Kriya, pranayama
Satchidananda Saraswati[85][86]	1914–2002	Male	India	Sivananda	Integral Yoga	Yes	Yes	Yes	Pranayama, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Japa	Sexual[85][87]
Sathya Sai Baba[88][89]	1926–2011	Male	India		Sathya Sai Organization	No
Shankarananda[90][91]	1942–	Male	US		Shiva Yoga	No	Yes			Sexual[90][91]
Vishnudevananda Saraswati[92][62]	1927–1993	Male	India	Sivananda	Sivananda Yoga	Yes	Yes		Pranayama, Sattvic diet	Sexual[92]
Vivekananda[93][94]	1863–1902	Male	India	Ramakrishna	Vedanta	No	Yes
Paramahansa Yogananda[41][25][59][60]	1893–1952	Male	India	Sri Yukteswar Giri	Self-Realization Fellowship	Yes	Yes	Yes	Kriya Yoga
Yogendra[10][65]	1897–1989	Male	India		The Yoga Institute	Yes	Yes