When I first started teaching yoga, I was adamant about speaking Sanskrit in my classes. I memorized tons of Sanskrit terms and scoffed at teachers who only used the English pose names.
Then, as I learned more about South Asian history, all those foreign words in yoga class just started sounding…off.
Now, I know that there are two (or three, or a hundred) sides to every story. Written history only preserves the practices of the privileged, and yoga is no exception.
That’s why I’m launching Sounding Off, a 7-part critical series on Sanskrit in modern yoga. This series is intended as a practical guide for yoga teachers and casual practitioners, hobby linguists and aspiring Sanskritists, philosophers, skeptics, and long-time lovers of Indic spirituality. If you’re ready to think critically about the spiritual + socio-political dimensions of Sanskrit in modern yoga settings, stay tuned — for the next seven weeks, I’ll be sounding off right here on The Woke Yogi.
The series archive is live NOW. I’ll be updating that page weekly as I release new content on my blog. Each part of the series will include:
- Research essays that translate rigorous, world-class yoga scholarship into accessible information for the general yoga community.
- Poetic essays & other short creative pieces that ground these critical ideas in my personal experiences and embodied yoga practice.
- Practical guide for yogis, including actionable tips, self-reflection questions, further readings, and other resources to help you integrate your learnings.
All this content is FREE & completely OPEN ACCESS! This is part of my mission to democratize yoga through jñāna (knowledge). Our objectives are as follows:
1. Contextualize Sanskrit within broader systems of power in South Asia.
2. Assess the pros and cons of speaking Sanskrit for yoga.
3. Critically analyze the role of Sanskrit in modern yoga settings.
Go explore the archive, find out what to expect, and come let me know in the comments which week you’re most excited for. Part 1 of the series, titled “Aurality,” will be available next Wednesday, June 26. Don’t forget to subscribe (sign-up in the sidebar to the right) and follow The Woke Yogi on social media (links below) to be sure that you don’t miss any new content!
Reflection Questions to Prime Your Thinking:
- Do I speak Sanskrit in my yoga classes? Why or why not?
- Do I know WHY Sanskrit is so often spoken in modern yoga classes?
- How do I/ how can I honor the roots of yoga in my personal practice?
