From formalism to presence: yoga as ritual

Rooms decorated with sacred images, incenses, chanting mantras are common elements in many yoga classes around the world .

Even though I was quickly won over by yoga, I admit that I never felt comfortable with this 'aesthetic' of the classes. I felt they were distant and disconnected from our contemporary Western reality, or like a religious aspect of yoga that does not necessarily need to be absorbed into the practices. That is why the Yogares studio has a neutral look, adorned only by the surrounding garden. I also always avoided chanting mantras at the beginning of classes... until I started reading 'The Disappearance of Rituals - A Topology of the Present.' The author, Byung-Chul Han, opens the book with the following message:

"Rituals are symbolic actions. They convey and represent all the values ​​and orders that a community carries. They generate a community without communication, while today communication without community predominates."

Throughout the book, the author continues to discuss how our current societies - marked by the speed of data and information, coerced into production, performance, authenticity - have increasingly rejected rituals and symbolic formalities that serve no practical purpose: "“Ritual” has become a dirty word, an expression for empty conformism; we are witnessing a general revolt against all kinds of formalism, against “form” in general."

As I read Byung-Chul Han's words, I felt my cheeks flush, as I quickly identified with this tendency to, on the one hand, overvalue inner states, feeling, authenticity and, on the other, reject any and all (seemingly) empty and meaningless formalism.

Throughout 10 chapters, Han outlines the ‘pathologies of the present,’ reflecting on how the rejection of form, formalities, and formalism has brutalised today's societies, plunging us into a wave of collective narcissism, in which individuality overrides the spirit of community. Increasingly, we only accept what makes sense to us, what pleases us, or what we agree with. It is no wonder that intolerance and extremism are growing rapidly around the world, with everyone believing that their opinions are absolute truths and wanting to impose their will and worldview on others. For Han, the rejection of forms and the disappearance of rituals in our modern societies has led to the erosion of community:

‘The process of narcissistic internalisation develops hostility towards form. Objective forms are condemned in favour of subjective states. Rituals do not lend themselves to narcissistic internalisation. (...) Those who devote themselves to them must renounce themselves. Rituals produce a distance from oneself, a transcendence of oneself.’

Yoga practice: ritual or exercise?

Swami Sivananda Sarawasti of Rishikesh describes yoga as a means of 'integration and harmony between thought, feeling and action, or integration between head, heart and hands. In pursuit of this integration, most yoga techniques focus on form, such as asanas, which explore different body postures, or mudras, described as aesthetic gestures that combine subtle physical movements and thus alter mood, attitude and perception, deepening awareness and concentration (Swami Satyananda Saraswati). Based on these premises, yoga is definitely a ritual practice.

However, in societies coerced into performance and achievement, it is very easy to lose ourselves and transform asanas into mere stretching and flexibility exercises, "concerning ourselves exclusively with the physical and the development of the potentialities that exist within it, until we achieve extraordinary results of resistance and “physiological juggling”. Its followers become idolaters of the body, and the perfection they achieve imprisons them rather than liberating them," as Antonio Blay once said.

As I write this text, I realize how contradictory the practice of yoga can be in societies that repudiate form: all the symbolism of ritual forms is reduced to mere contortions that only feed the ego in Instagrammable photos. Who among us has never found ourselves peeking and comparing with others in a yoga class? Even more common are those who don’t even consider practicing yoga, since they already assume they won’t be able to do those “exercises” of such complicated stretches and twists…

Being a ritual practice, the practice of yoga, although individual, presupposes a community, leaving no room for comparisons, or feelings of shame and inadequacy. According to Byung-Chul Han, ‘rituals create a community of resonance capable of harmony, of a common rhythm.’

However, when we lose the ritual aspect of yoga and practise it only as another type of exercise, we lose the resonance in community, reducing yoga not only to an individual practice, but above all, to an individualistic one.

Rescuing rituals, rescuing communities

The mantra Om Sahana Vavatu is well known to yoga practitioners. It is often chanted in many yoga studios at the beginning of practice. Thinking of yoga as a ritual practice that creates a “community of resonance”, opening classes with this mantra is quite significant. In free translation:

Om Sahana Vavatu

‘May we be protected

Saha Nau Bhunaktu

May we be nourished

Saha Veeryam Karavaa Vahai

May we work together with great vigour

Tejasvi Naava dheetamastu

May our study be filled with light

Maa Vidvisha Vahai

May there be no conflict between us

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

Om Peace Peace Peace’

Although the message of the mantra is beautiful, I used to have doubts about chanting mantras at the beginning of classes, fearing that it would become a meaningless and mechanical formality over time. Furthermore, I must admit that I was part of the ‘team’ of people who insisted on authenticity at all costs. "Doing something mechanical just because it is customary or traditional, or because everyone else does it? No, it doesn't make sense. And if it doesn't make sense, there's no reason to do it", I used to think.

This insistence on pure authenticity may seem liberating, but it risks becoming another cage. Byung-Chul Han warns us about the danger of this tendency in our time:"Today we live in a culture of meaning that discards the signifier, the external form". According to Han, "if the sign, the signifier, is completely absorbed by meaning, by signification, then language loses its magic and brilliance. It becomes merely informational."

Serving only the function of communication, purely informational language is co-opted by capital, production, and performance. Under capitalism, nothing is tolerated unless it has some utility, unless it yields some measurable result. Even idleness must serve a purpose: we only permit it if it can be framed as rest or restoration. Otherwise, idleness is dismissed as laziness — a mortal sin in the logic of capitalism and neoliberalism (today, I see how, without even realizing it, I had fallen into this capitalist trap, refusing anything “useless,” anything that seemed to make no sense).

Beyond that, the signifier without meaning, form without content, carries a certain sense of mystery. As Han observes: “Magical formulas do not convey any meaning either. They are, so to speak, empty signs. That is why they appear magical, like doors that lead to the void.” In this light, the increasing functionalization and informationalization of language renders it disenchanting. “Pure information radiates no magic. It does not seduce.”

Thus, even if over time we forget the “message” of the mantra; even if, over time, the mantra becomes an empty, meaningless formalism and routine, chanting it at the beginning of the classes still adds a special resonance to the practice. More than that, chanting mantras is not an isolated ritual in itself; it reminds us that the whole practice should be experienced as a ritual, rather than reduced to a gymnastics class. In the end, to practice yoga as ritual can be an act of resistance against the neoliberal, narcissistic, and individualistic madness of our times.

Furthermore, rituals as pure form give time a container, a structure, reminding us that we do not need to rush to achieve this or that goal, as we are so conditioned to do within the logic of capitalism. As pure form, they are not in service of any “content,” of any objective or goal. Then, freed from serving any utilitarian purpose, we have the chance to simply be. We can simply enjoy. We simply allow ourselves to live the moment, with all that it has to offer.

If such a paradigm shift is already powerful and revolutionary when practiced alone, imagine what it can be when we practice together. Imagine reclaiming the value of forms and symbolic rituals in this globalized, neoliberal world, which constantly coerces us into production, performance, comparison, and achievement, leading to ever more frequent states of depression, anxiety, burnout, intolerance, and polarization. Imagine what it will be like when we allow ourselves to let go of our personal preferences and opinions to gather around symbolic rituals (even if they are meaningless formalities), emanating a spirit of union, communion, and community. It will be beautiful. It will be revolutionary…

Come to think of it, it already is.

Shall we continue together?

Namasté!

REFERENCES:

Blay, A. "Fundamento e técnica do Hatha Yoga", Edições Loyola, 1971.

Han, B. "O desaparecimento dos rituais: uma topologia do presente", Ed. Vozes, 2021.

Saraswati, S. S. "Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha", Yoga Publications Trust, 2008.