On Top of The Mountain with Elizabeth Kadetsky
Today we explore the epic yoga battle between the Iyengar school and the Ashtanga school, as we sit down with author, yoga practitioner, three-time Fullbright fellow to India, researcher, editor, and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Penn State University, Elizabeth Kadetsky!
Elizabeth’s took up the study of yoga when she was a teenager (back in 1984, but who’s counting?) and she continues to practice yoga today. After twelve years studying in Iyengar studios, she finally met BKS Iyengar at a talk he was giving in New York City in 1996.
You may have heard of her very popular book, First There Is a Mountain (published in 2004). This book was intended to be the original “Eat, Pray, Love.” As early yoga students, it was the first of it’s kind.
This book chronicles a year where Elizabeth worked directly with the great Yoga Master, BKS Iyengar, while she was researching his role in the history of Indian Independence and the complicated dance between East and West.
Later her practice evolved to include many forms of Hatha Yoga and also Ashtanga yoga, which is how she first met Russell, while practising with Guy Donahaye, in New York city.
Today, we’re learning about her research around the authenticity of the origin stories we were told about the yoga practice and how yoga’s being weaponized by the Right-Wing politics of India. We look at how the idea of anything as a “Pure Tradition” can become a toxic premise upon which racism festers.
The world has always been a global place and we should celebrate the continuation of cultural exchange. Building bridges instead of walls.
We’re also diving into her current and ongoing research about a set of stolen goddess sculptures from India, and the great debate around whether these recently found stolen works of art should be returned back to their place of origin or not.
What is the difference between a temple, a church, or a museum?
Should great works of art belong to a more universal collective or to a particular group or person?
Does the repatriation of art, actually right a colonial wrong? And what happens to these works of art once they are returned back to their native land? What kind of transparency and accountability is required of a government who takes back their stolen works of art to the rest of the global community?
If you’re ready to examine the intersection of politics, art, and yoga and what’s our responsibility is as conscious leaders and yoga practitioners… This is the conversation for you!
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
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Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here.
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