Yoga is neutral term for the practices, free of any cultural or intellectual bias. Of yoga it is the physical side of yoga, called Hatha Yoga, the science of postures, that we are most familiar with. Yet this is only one aspect, the most visible rung of a great system of knowledge which includes all aspects of life and links all of life with the evolution of consciousness. Previous to the journeys of these great teachers Vedic and Yogic knowledge was largely kept in secret in India, preserved mainly for the worthy or select few.

For these modern teachers to make the trip to the West was a break from tradition. It is not that the Yogic teaching was always kept hidden. Previous teachers from India, not only Buddhists but also Hindus, traveled from Rome in the West to Indonesia and China in the East. Hinduism itself prevailed as far east as Indonesia until the sixteenth century. The Yogic teaching was made secret largely as a defensive measure from repeated foreign invasions, largely from the west of India. The Persians, Greeks, Huns, Scythes, Muslims and finally the British and Portuguese made India their target. Invasion followed invasion for over two thousand years. And whenever a culture is attacked it tends to try become contracted. Hence the closed nature the teaching assumed in the Middle Ages and up into recent times is not characteristic of its true nature which is open to all humanity but does not seek to impose itself on anyone. It was an understandable overreaction that has created some misconceptions.

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