Inside Yoga 134 (12/5/15)

A recent yoga magazine article has been heavily criticised for publishing an article that describes an ancient yogic technique which involves throwing up to empty the stomach of all contents.

Yoga Magazine’s Dr Malik was responding to a reader’s question about Vyaghra Kriya, a purification technique called Tiger exercise in English. It is not the description of the technique which caused criticism but that this could be seen as yoga endorsing bulimia and other eating disorders.
“If you practice this at least once a week, you will notice a difference in the shape of your abdomen and hips,” Yoga Magazine wrote. “Push the fingers down the throat and vomit. Repeat this process until you are only vomiting water with no traces of leftover food.”
This is a cleansing technique used to improve the quality of meditation in preparation for Samadhi, it is not a technique designed to improve our figure, which is why it has been criticized. As journalist and yoga teacher, Genny Wilkinson-Priest writes: “Yoga Magazine was attempting to explain the finer points of a centuries old yoga purification technique – The Tiger exercise – but failed to provide any historical context, or caution (except to pregnant women and children.) Originally a technique used in India to purify the body as a means of preparing it for a state of Samadhi (enlightenment), vomiting up excess food in the West in the 21st Century has no spiritual connotations whatsoever.”
She adds: “Vyaghra kriyā, as the 15th Century technique is known in Sanskrit, has absolutely no relevance in contemporary Western yoga practice.”
The technique is found in the text called Hatha Yoga Pradipika and as this text advises, this Tiger exercise should be taught by a teacher and not a magazine, because it is something that might be beneficial for one person and not the next, and this is where the teacher can advise. A magazine cannot control or monitor who does what is describes.
“The way the practice is framed (in Yoga Magazine) makes it seem as if it would be good for everyone whereas in a traditional situation a guru would instruct just one student at a time and advocate practices suitable for each individual,” said Dr Jim Mallinson, a lecturer of Classical Indian Studies at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies).
The practice, meant to purify the body and bring about its smooth functioning, would have been kept secret to protect against potentially dangerous side effects if taught improperly and not according to individual need.
As the Hatha Yoga Pradipika itself says: “(These) are powerful practices that can never be learned from books or taught by inexperienced people.”
Genny Wilkinson-Priest explains why she finds the article so reckless: “Why does it even matter, you may ask, if a magazine publishes a piece on a centuries old yoga technique? It’s not as if bulimics don’t already know the ins and outs of vomiting up their food. Here’s why: Because now they’ll be able to rationalise their self-harming, thinking they have found in yoga a safe place that accepts, or worse, encourages it.”
She adds: “Yoga Magazine does us no favors here, but yoga when practiced correctly with an emphasis on the breath and the quest to discover the essence of the Self is in actual fact a tool for recovery as it promotes self-acceptance.”
To read the article, go to http://www.healthista.com/does-yoga-encourage-eating-disorders/
Or the Daily Mail, who picked up on the story but somehow managed to avoid blaming immigrants for this problem! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3073616/Does-YOGA-encourage-eating-disorders-Leading-magazine-slammed-advising-readers-throw-flatter-stomach.html
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