Hello Friends and welcome to our special edition of Namaskaram for February 2012.

It is at times like these that we are reminded of the limitations of the western world’s linear view of time. Tension rises between the UK and Argentina over the Falkland Islands, Sir Fred Goodwin has become just plain Fred again and threats to the freedom of the inexpressible wonder that is Yoga appear on the horizon yet again.

Several people have contacted me recently with a link to an article from the New York Times. CLICK HERE TO READ.

Namaskaram gives an extensive response to this article and the resultant furore in our special feature on the issue CLICK HERE TO READ.

According to the New York Times, Yoga is likely to wreck your body. In this alarmist article, the author lazily assumes that asana practice is the whole of Yoga and he seems obsessed with the anatomical minutiae of Yoga rather than its awesome universality. Once again the astonishing breadth of Yoga seems to be reduced to fit into an idea of what some guy thinks it is. The comedy photographs add little to the impression of journalistic seriousness but I guess the controversy won’t do any harm to the book sales.

As much as I would like to ignore it, what is worrying about this kind of thing is that it does have an impact. It puts the idea out there that Yoga is bad for you. It gives ammunition to the would-be regulators and tells the public at large that your average Joe or Josephine Yoga teacher is in the business of breaking people’s spines. How about a little perspective here? How many injuries are caused by skiing, rock climbing and even tennis?

William J Broad’s book, The Science of Yoga – The Risks and Rewards, on which the NYT article is based, is out now. There is a review of the book by Chris Holt in our reviews section CLICK HERE TO READ. If you have anything to say about this or anything else, we would love to hear from you too.  We are also interested in member submissions of photographs to use on the site.  Photographs must be non-promotional and publication is at our discretion. As ever we are looking for new articles.

One final thought: rumours, spin and half truths unfortunately have a formative effect on our world (materially, politically, and culturally) and just perhaps, yoga has a role to play in cutting through this tendency with its commitment to chittavrittinirodha.

Thank you very much for reading and be careful out there!

Matthew Head