Why the deities?

If you practice in our space, you may have noticed the images of deities in our entryway and big studio—depictions of Ganesha, Lakshmi, Hanuman, and Saraswati. These are just a few of the characters from yoga’s myths, and their stories have survived through a strong oral tradition that continues to this day. 

When I was a new student at Yoga Sanctuary, I wondered,

Who are these beings? What do they mean to the practice of yoga? And what do they have to do with me?

Depiction of Ganesha above the altar in the big studio.

Many of the teachers at Yoga Sanctuary weave their stories into class. As I practiced, I learned that Lakshmi is auspicious abundance and she is present in the beauty of autumn leaves; that Hanuman reminds us that even when we feel broken, we have superpowers we may not know; that Ganesha greets us with sweetness when we embark on a new venture. I came to know the deities as my friends. Moreso, I saw them as multifaceted representations of the divine. Yoga is not a polytheistic tradition; rather, it sees the One in the many, and the many in the One.

While deities are religious objects of devotion for some, in the tantric yoga that we teach at Yoga Sanctuary, the deities are archetypes that reveal who we are. As we listen to the stories of these gods and goddesses, we relate to them and see ourselves in them. Perhaps they unveil some possibility within us that we didn’t know was there. Within the epics, we are the demon and the superhero; the sage and the goddess.

We are every character in the story.

The origins of yoga, and these deities, dates all the way back to the Indus Valley civilization (3500–1500 BCE). Iconographic images from this time suggest that this civilization felt deeply connected to the natural world, revered women as the givers of life, and had a love for and reciprocity with animals. These priorities are present within the deities we know now.

The Indus Valley civilization contained neighborhoods of distinct cultural groups who had immigrated to the area. There were people from Mesopotamia, the Greek and Roman Empires, and people from what is now Scandinavia. There were people who we now consider Indians, and a group of tribals called the Munda group, as well as two other groups we don’t know much about. What feels important is that the roots of yoga grew out of cultural pluralism, a diverse group of people coexisting, allowing their cultures to intertwine. 

These people considered life’s most important questions: How do we best form a human life? How do we sanctify birth and honor death? How do we educate our children? How do we initiate our children into adulthood? How do we create a society that is stable, secure, and loving? These are the answers that yoga seeks to answer, just as all of the great philosophical traditions. And these questions are woven into yoga’s mythological tradition.

The deities came out of the Indus Valley devotional practices, as they evolved into Vedic literature, the oldest Indian scripture (1500 BCE); to the Upanishads, written in response to the Vedas (900–300 BCE); to the Indian epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana (600 BCE–600 CE) which tell the story of the Great War; to the  traditions that we find linesages of in the West: Classical Yoga (100 BCE–500 CE), Tantra Yoga (500–1300 CE), and Hatha Yoga (500–1300 CE). 

Images above: Map of the Indus Valley Civilization (2600–1900 BCE); Pashupati Seal (Lord of the Animals); proposed Fertility Goddess; terracotta figurines.

Depiction of Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Ganesha in our entryway above the fountain.

During the British colonization of India, the varied and diverse devotional sects who worshiped these deities were mushed together into a single entity, now called Hinduism. In contemporary culture, the Hindu right (similar to the Christian right in the United States) is co-opting yoga as part of their faith tradition, when in actuality yoga’s origins, including these deities, existed long before and far outside the mainstream Hinduism we recognize today.

We acknowledge that taken out of context, the depiction of these deities in our space could be seen as exoticization of Indian culture. Indeed, in many Western yoga settings the spiritual themes of yoga are completely eliminated from the physical practice. Because we are a yoga studio that exists in the Western world, it is impossible for us not to take part in some form of cultural appropriation. And yet, we can always do less harm, and we can learn to relate to our practice with nuance and complexity. As we often hear in class, we are spacious enough to hold it all. In this case, we can offer you—our sweet students—many ways to learn about the deities that exist in our space so that you can relate to them with devotion, honor, and respect. 

Hanuman depiction that sits on our altar in the big studio.

Over the next month, we will be releasing blog posts and videos about the deities that adorn the Yoga Sanctuary space. We will also provide brief descriptions in our physical studio, with QR codes directing you to these blog posts, so that future students can also learn why we honor the deities at Yoga Sanctuary. We hope this project will enrich your appreciation for the beautifully complex and intricate philosophical tradition of yoga.

- Lindsay