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YOGI - BHOGI - ROGI - DROGI
FACE OFF
I am Facebook friends with a yoga teacher in the U.S. I was connected to her through a student and asked if I could facilitate a session for her group a few years ago. I enjoy her posts and have commented on a few in the past. But I felt particularly compelled to say something on this post due to some comments that other people were making. They were judgements and accusations with absolutely no basis. These projections made me contemplate what many who stand up for what they believe in have to face on Facebook and otherwise. She made a post about how she was annoyed to see yet another whitewashing and commercialisation of yoga through “Yogi Skeletons” that are sold at Trader Joe’s before halloween.
My first response was laughing my head off at those horribly tacky skeletons. I could have gotten angry but I have used humor from a young age to not let the poison get in. It is not that I am immune to anger. If someone has that power over me then I know I have let them into my emotional space or that they deserve to be held accountable and heal the unconscious. However, as much as possible, if I can laugh it off as a drama Leela (play) and then do my bit to better what I can, I have more energy to correct the right, rather than let the anger consume me.
Wit and humour have been a useful mechanism for me to subvert the flood of chemicals that put me in fight, flight, freeze or fawn mode and have fun with even some of the crazy situations in my life. It has been tremendously useful and a natural practice of pratipaksha bhavana.
Prathi = opposite
Paksha= side
Bhavana = emotion
A practice in yoga to reframe as well as reorient the mind and emotions.
Though my mood was light, my discernment could not ignore the many insensitive remarks people were making about her post. More than the appropriation, I was surprised at the number of attacks this diligent teacher received. I was feeling more and more protective and wanted to call out every single person by tagging them. Instead I chose to call out just one who was “Mr. Non-stop Nonsense” and who also taught yoga.
He said he did not like yoga communities because of dogma and he was a wall of “know it all.” Nothing could get through because he was above everything and everyone when in actuality he was an instigator. I sent this teacher some love in my thoughts and prayers for what she is doing in the world and all that she needed to face.
Why am I sharing this with you? If you are part of the Arkaya community please learn correct usage of Sanskrit words. Please listen when you are on someone else's page or someone else’s space. Just because you have known something to be right all your life, does not mean it is. Please LISTEN.
I could tell that this teacher had a full life and when she got the time, she posted about the appropriation of a pagan festival - Halloween - and mixing it with yoga. As she rightly and beautifully stated, this was off in many ways.
For those who don't know about the origins of Halloween you can read my blog here HALLOWEEN: PROTECTION FROM PSYCHIC ATTACKS — ARKAYA YOGA
I also could not stand back and had to stand with her because in my mind I was applauding her for creating awareness about these things. When we ignore wrongs, we create more ignorance in and around us.
My Comment on Her Page
The following is what I wrote on her page, as a response to the attacking comments from others. At the request of the person who’s page I wrote this on, I have not included her name. For her name, I have substituted “xxxxx”. For the man who was instigating and making disrespectful remarks, I have substituted “yyyyyy”.
I read the comments and was appalled at quite a few attacks on …xxxxx….. emotions, gurudom, dogma etc and "all is self" platitudes.
Wow...just wow some of you. I am way more surprised by that than those silly skeletons
An indigenous/ first nation's elder told me recently, it was sad that some of the first nation's art was mass produced in Indonesia, China etc and palmed off as first nations. No one was informed that the first nation's carvers or commerce was not involved. One can only listen with empathy and respect. Not add my 2 cents on how I want an affordable showpiece or whatever.
YOGI is a word that has been appropriated in the west to mean anyone with a yoga mat who knows some yoga postures. No one in India where I was born and raised worth their salt will even remotely use it that way or refer to themselves even after decades of practice.
Here every rookie is a yogi or yogini. A gross misuse and abuse of a sanskrit word. It is like referring to anyone who knows the Lord's prayer as a priest. That is not dogma. Just the right application of the word.
And…..yyyyy…. I was laughing my head off seeing your many comments. Incessant infantile badgering. Let's presume it is just dogma as you suggested and not denigration. If not empathy at least have a love for deepening your knowledge of correct use of terms, if you teach it. This adds to more misinformation being spread and then the misinformed usage of the word becomes the norm and my teachers are "what just happened here "
Please remember you are on someone else's page. So make an effort to listen
P.S And as one other presumptuous person commented I am not one Shivani's followers who she commanded to answer on her behalf
An appreciative comment from the teacher who I stood up for read as follows:
Maitreyi Yogacharini thank you, spot on! I appreciate you sharing this!
YOGI
As mentioned in my post above, Yogi is someone who is a self-realized master, a very evolved and integrated person who does not get dragged into attachments.
Even after decades of practice many of my teachers will not call themselves yogis. I, after 25 years of teaching, will not dare call myself a yogi. I have enough self-awareness to know where my evolutionary status is :). This does not mean I am not worthy or less than. It simply allows me the space to own things without having to pretend to be where I am not. It helps cultivate more sathva and I do not have to fight myself. There is no fight between who I am and my self image. I can still retain a healthy self esteem as I am willing to embrace my unconscious and gently guide it into more consciousness.
Using “yogi” is a gross misuse of the word if you are a yoga practitioner who uses this to describe yourself just because you know some postures, chanting, some philosophy and own a yoga mat. So please stop. Stop spreading misinformation. Stop wrong usage. The West has clearly appropriated this word to mean what it is not. Please use it correctly. If you are a sincere practitioner and want a sanskrit word to describe it, you can refer to yourself as Yoga sadhaka.
BHOGI
Bhogi is a pleasure seeker. Someone who over indulges, misuses and abuses the senses.
This bhoga, many ancient teachers say, will be the norm of kaliyuga (the current epoch that we are living in). Grasping for power, material and sensory gratification. Grasping to be right all the time. Bhoga has inherent rajas. This is the quality of “I want more” and “never satisfied”. Grasping for goodness will only make it slip through. Subtlety cannot be beaten into submission. Indulgence and addiction are usually mistaken for Tantra.
To know more on Tantra (pronounced thun-thra) go to:
ROGI
A rogi is a person who is physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually imbalanced.
A person who is diseased is a rogi. As prana or life force lessens and leaves him, he becomes deceased. Thus we do not want Roga or illness and aim to build a healthy immune and energetic system. Roga is created when one is not stable in self. We often allow others or society to dictate norms, or our pace, to us.
I remember in my twenties I was very burnt out due to overwork and poor boundaries. I had lots of energy and looked bright so people would never think I needed rest. I did not have the awareness or training, despite my yogic training, to say “no”. A certain work ethic was instilled in me plus I was enthusiastic. It is still a work in progress as to what things I need to say “no” to which deplete and create imbalance.
It can also be seemingly good things that drain us when not kept in check. For example, we think we are helping someone and over extend ourselves, to find that we have only enabled their dependency or entitlement. So discernment is needed here as it is a lot more nuanced how we bring on roga. We learn to cultivate interdependency which is healthy.
For some the roga is a holding pattern, which means they do too little, they do not put back or are arrogant. Even those who support them are constantly faced with resistance and they are the poster children of “No”. Such people will benefit from saying ”Yes” more often, to the right things, by humbling themselves and listening to sathva.
There are many other lifestyle and mental causes of roga but the above gives an idea of the many causes and layers that allow roga to creep in. It can be caused by too little or too much of something, be it food, sleep, speaking or indulgence.
DROGI
A drogi is a traitor or betrayer. It is a natural progression if someone is sick in spirit, mentally ill or unhappy with their life. They will say and do things that not only harm themselves but others.
Many in the yoga world don't even realize they are drogis to yoga and to yogis. One prevalent droga is people calling themselves “yogis” or “enlightened”. These are just two examples apart from many other transgressions. They are oblivious to the misunderstanding and misrepresentations that have been passed on to them. The arrogance of ignorance is very pronounced when minimum engagement is required to be certified as a yoga teacher. This has rendered many people as “authorities” on yoga when in actuality they have missed the mark. These are the worst kind as their self righteousness makes them gaslight others who may not be yogis but are knowledgeable and annoyed or angry at the appropriation. This can happen in day to day life too and not just pertaining to yoga or yogic concepts.
So take a moment and check in to see if what you have been taught in your teacher training or in life is what it seems to be. Also see the patterns in your family. Did you need to “ fawn” to survive or fight, flee or freeze?
Fawning is also a stress response and less identifiable than fighting or fleeing. Yet a person in fawning mode will not stand with a truth teller and takes the side of narcissism and/or playing victim (can be one's own or another's) as survival is key. As those on the yoga path we need to reflect and see what or who we are fawning about and where we are not standing up for what is right. We also look at the other responses of fight, flight and freeze. Do we go from zero to a hundred and fight when something is shared? Or can we self reflect.
This fighting and gaslighting response was very apparent from some of the commenters on the teacher’s Facebook page. This is a very important part of self awareness, to stave off becoming a drogi. What I saw on the page was more drogis disguised as self professed yogis verbally throwing yogic concepts of universal love around. They twisted what this teacher had said to somehow get their unmet needs satiatiated. Needs of being seen morphed into feeling “better than” were especially apparent. We can look at ourselves and see if we are wanting to “one up” in conversations even if we do not understand, or can we truly LISTEN.
About the Author
Yogacharini Maitreyi has been teaching classical Yoga and traditional Tantra for over 25 years, worldwide. In her home country of India, she has received a number of formal titles, including: Yoga Chemmal (Expert), Yoga Shiromani (Gem), and Yoga Acharini (Life Guide).
Maitreyi wants more teachers trained in the Traditional healing arts/ sciences to spread this goodness and love to themselves and others. Healing physical, emotional, energetic and mental imbalances is a big component of the Arkaya teacher training. The Arkaya Online 500-Hour Self-Awareness Teacher Training is back after two years off due to COVID-19. We are excited to be offering this as an online program, available to students worldwide. To get detailed information about the training or to learn how to join the weekly Saturday Arkaya Community Class & Satsangh with Yogacharini Maitreyi, please visit the Arkaya website: https://www.arkaya.net/teacher-training
This is a unique program which provides students with an embodied understanding of the depth and breadth of the traditional Indian life sciences of Yoga & Tantra. Led by Arkaya founder, Yogacharini Maitreyi, this program is for students who are interested in taking their spiritual-human development seriously and who want to approach Yoga & Tantra from a place of respect and humility. The transformational power of this life path is very real and proven over thousands of years, the wisdom passed down from teacher to student.
Everyone is welcome to join the online Arkaya Community Class & Satsangh with Yogacharini Maitreyi and the Arkaya Community. A space for healing, belonging and evolution.
To register and get your first session for FREE, visit: http://www.arkaya.net/couponcode