:: May/June 2004 Volume 3/Number 3

Surfing for Yoga:

By Kenneth Miller

It began, like so many journeys into cyberspace, as an exercise in procrastination. I had many important things to do—pitching story ideas to editors, calculating my taxes, organizing my earthquake zone of an office. What I felt like doing, though, was a little yoga. I had meant to get serious about my practice since moving to L.A. from New York City six months earlier, but I seemed instead to be spending all my waking hours hunched over my laptop. That Monday morning, inspiration struck: I would put those dreary chores on hold and try to find enlightenment where I sat. I would stage my own yoga pilgrimage—online. I’d search the far corners of the Internet for the most useful, informative and diverting yoga sites I could find. And then, honoring my dharma as a journalist, I would report on the voyage.

My first discovery: Googling the word “Yoga” calls forth a staggering 7,920,000 entries. No. 1 on the search engine’s list is yogsite.com, and its position seems well deserved. Billing itself as “an eclectic collection of yogic connections,”this is one of the most comprehensive and best-organized sites on the Web. It offers instructions for postures, vinyasa, pranayama and meditation; an extensive teacher directory; a guide to yoga styles; listings of yoga retreats; even a mini-course in reciting the Sutras of Patanjali complete with audio coaching.
Yogasite’s biggest weakness is its stick-figure asana diagrams, which are annoyingly hard to follow. Fortunately, the Internet provides more sophisticated teaching devices. The interactive manuals at yoga.org.nz are particularly user-friendly: clicking on a button puts an animated yogi through his paces, one step at a time. The site also offers what is arguably the Internet’s most exotic streaming yoga video—a pair of hairy-chested New Zealand lads demonstrating meditation techniques on a rain-forest riverbank, with a volcano looming behind them. The slickest downloadable videos may be those at yogalearningcenter.com, where a modest monthly fee provides unlimited access to a whole library of well-produced clips. For those tethered to a desk, four-minute seated stretching routines can be viewed for free at holistic.com. And at newyorkyoga.com, actual classes, recorded live in Manhattan, are available on demand at $3.99 a pop; the production quality is hazy, but if you put your laptop on the floor and stand six feet away, you can almost smell the sweat of the studio.

To truly study yoga, of course, the pilgrim needs a human guide. Typing “yoga teacher” and “Los Angeles” into Google nets 28,400 entries. An easy way to narrow the search is to consult the chart under the heading “Which Yoga Is Right For You?” at beliefnet.com, and then to visit the websites representing the principal styles: bikramyoga.com, kundaliniyoga.org, sivananda.org, bksiyengar.com, AYRI.com (for Ashtanga) and so on. Traditionally, another factor in choosing a particular form of yoga should be your dosha, the mind-body type that dictates one’s ideal forms of diet and exercise. Coffeytalk.com, hosted by Ayurvedically oriented relationship counselor Lisa Marie Coffey, offers a well-designed test, along with a chart of recommended foods and physical activities. A combustible pitta person, for example, should avoid overheating—so Bikram yoga, with its sweat-lodge atmosphere, is probably out. A high-strung vata needs more gentle exercise, so Anusara might be the ticket, whereas a sluggish kapha might perk up with athletic Ashtanga. (Once you’ve determined your dosha’s dietary requirements, incidentally, the recipes at sivananda.org are worth trying—especially the cauliflower with peas and black mustard seeds.)

No matter the yoga style, learning the postures is only the beginning for the serious seeker. A grounding in the discipline’s 5,000-year history is essential, and there is no quicker way to obtain it online than by clicking on the three-page overview at abc-of-yoga.com, which swiftly carries the reader from the dawn of Hindu civilization to the Age of 500 Cable Channels. For a more thorough treatment, go to yrec.info, operated by the renowned scholar Georg Feuerstein. If a meander through the website whets your academic appetites, Feuerstein’s new organization, Traditional Yoga Studies, offers satiety in the form of an 800-hour distance-learning course. And should you be inspired to journey to yoga’s historical source, the spiritual e-travel agency divinerevelation.org can get you to India in time for this year’s Maha Kumbh Mela festival in May, when millions of worshippers will gather to bathe in the sacred Ksipra River.

Instruction in some of the more advanced aspects of yoga practice can be found on the Web as well. At the prosaically named 100megsfree.com/yoga, Sat Jiwan Singh teaches mudra meditation, based on a set of symbolic hand gestures. (I tried the Mukula, or Closed Lotus mudra, said to be helpful for new beginnings; as promised, it made me feel “fearless and able to excel in life.”) Possibly the most intensive mantra-chanting lesson in cyberspace comes from the Sikh master Gururattan Kaur Khalsa at kundaliniyoga.org. The seven-page exercise includes an explanation of the philosophy behind mantra yoga, precise directions for posture and intonation for various mantras, and an audio clip. And while there are countless guided meditations online, the most interactive may be the one led by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi at shahajayoga.org. Click the “Play” button and Shri Mataji’s voice ushers you through a series of phrases and movements designed to help you “receive your Self Realization while sitting in front of your computer.” At the end, ideally, a cool breeze will issue from the top of your head, indicating that your Kundalini energy has purified your chakras.

More down-to-earth guidance is provided by a host of yoga chat groups. One of the liveliest is at movingintostillness.com, the site run by Erich Schiffmann. There, practitioners advise one another on everything from overpronation to multiple sclerosis, offering empathetic cyber-hugs as well as specific suggestions for healing techniques. Yoga therapists have their own meeting place at yogatherapy.org, moderated by Mukunda Tom Stiles, one of the leaders of the field. Refereeing a discussion of how cerebral palsy can be relieved through pranayama, Stiles launches into an old Hindu tale involving an immortal crow and the sage Vasistha—a variety of wisdom you’re unlikely to find on WebMD.

But there’s room for pure silliness, too, in the world of online yoga. At yogakitty.com, you can download a video entitled “Clearing Past Karmas.” In it, an instructor identified as Yogi Carl shows how the common housecat may be used to erase the errors of past lives. “Start with your cat well-supported in your cupped palms,” he intones in a voice like chamomile tea. “Begin raising and lowering your arms in a scooping motion. Chant ‘Wahe guru, wahe guru.’ As the meditation progresses, increase the pace and raise your arms higher and higher.” The chanting and scooping intensify until the yogi inadvertently hurls his partner into the air. The tabby returns, hissing, and goes on the attack. A struggle ensues; I will not reveal the victor.

Watching this lesson at the end of my day of yoga-surfing, I experienced what a less humble student might describe as a glimpse of the wild freedom of Samadhi. The next morning, I would return to the realm of pitch letters and deadlines. But first, I would try to do a few asanas, and to remember the bliss of the flying cat.

Kenneth Miller is a former senior editor at People, now working as a freelance writer in Los Angeles.