What's up with Sanskrit? by Alison King Tigges
What’s up with the Sanskrit?
If you come to a yoga class at OTY, you might here some strange words. Trikonasana? Adho Mukha Svanasana? Yoga citta vritti nirodaha? What’s the deal with this different language? And why the heck are my yoga teachers using it?
Sanskrit is the official language of yoga. It originated in India and is literally one of the oldest languages there is. Now, it is basically considered a “dead” language, meaning that it is not really spoken (beyond a few communities) anymore. It is also the language of Hinduism (a religion that originated out of India) and many Buddhist texts use Sanskirt as well. While I will not get into the whole lesson on the connections of these religions to yoga (but yes, you can practice yoga and not be a Buddhist or Hindu)—yoga also came from India. Because of its origins, there are lots of ties to this language AND India AND these religions AND yoga. “Yoga”, in this historical sense, being WAY more than the yoga poses we think of. We shall save that for another blog!
OK, now you have a better idea of what Sanskrit is, but WHY do we still use it in yoga classes?
At OTY, we tend to use Sanskrit for pose names and philosophical terms that we might weave in to class as a theme or a chant. Why? Because it keeps even just a small sliver of the tradition of yoga alive. In modern/western yoga especially, what we see as “yoga” is SO very watered down. That is not necessarily a bad thing—things change and shift always!--but it can be easy to forget yoga is an ancient tradition and discipline. Using the Sanskrt language is an easy and respectful way to do that. So instead of teaching “butterfly pose”, we teach “baddha konasana”! If we are weaving in the teachings of ‘learning to be more content’, we will teach about “santosha”. And so on.
Can you teach a great yoga class with zero Sanskrit? Sure! Using Sanskrit does not make you more of a “real yogi” (whatever the heck that is!) or a better teacher necessarily. It might, however, show that you have spent at least some time trying to learn more about the tradition and culture that yoga came from. In fact, we teach our new teachers to not just throw a bunch of words out there. Know your audience and tell them what the words mean if you are going there! It is important to be respectful of the language and culture on which you are speaking, and yoga is no different (FWIW—cultural appropriation is a valid conversation worth having here—but that is also for its own sperate blog topic!) Regardless, we are always going to advocate for ways to tie the current model of yoga to its origins. Plus, learning more about the subject you teach or practice and where it came from is never a bad thing. There are hundreds of years of teachings to learn! The language is one small piece of the practice.
The next time you are in class and hear a Sanskirt word. Never fear! We aren’t losing our minds and we are not trying to convert you to another religion. We are just speaking the traditional yoga lingo.