130 Biography of a Yogipushed for such an identification. Since scholarship on modern postural yoga
has hit its stride only over the last decade, in a context in which the postural
canon of modern yoga has more or less been formalized through print media and
decades of popular practice, the oversight is not surprising. However, in light of
Singleton’s findings, Yogananda’s system merits full inclusion under the umbrella
of modern postural yoga, at least for taxonomic purposes.
Yogoda, a title that has now been subsumed into the modified version of Kriya
Yoga espoused by the SRF, is a masterful adaptation of a traditional Indian tan-
tric and haṭha yogic techniques into a Western register of harmonial wellness.
Moreover, it is a prime example of what Alter refers to as a marriage of the haṭha
yogic “perfection of the body” to the modern cosmetic fitness model^13 that has
come to characterize the practice of modern postural yoga. Yogananda’s integra-
tion of European physical culture with Indian haṭha yogic ideolog y signals an
important step in the complex transition not only into a model of yoga as fitness
but fitness as ritual spirituality.
Yogi Gymnastics and Progressive Era Health Culture
Yogoda arose in a context where the methods of Yogis— real or purported—
were already becoming embedded in the simmering blend of Progressive Era
alternative spirituality, health consciousness, sexual politics, and other heralds
of modernism. Yogananda’s target demographic was the same high society that
sustained Vivekananda’s legacy of Vedanta Society centers and rocketed esoteri-
cist playboys like Bernard to dazzling infamy. As we saw in chapter 1 through
the testimony presented over Sara Bull’s involvement with the aforementioned
organization, Americans were slowly becoming exposed to the basic hallmarks
of yoga methodolog y: breathing exercises, energ y manipulation, and medita-
tive techniques. Furthermore, while Vivekananda did not teach postural prac-
tice, the publications of subsequent Vedanta Society leaders indicate that basic
āsanas were most likely part of the curriculum. Then, of course, there was the
“weird, fantastic form of calisthenics” reportedly practiced at Pierre Bernard’s
Clarkstown Country Club.
The momentum that caused postural yoga practice to overtake Vivekananda’s
more mystically inclined vision, even within his own organization, had been
building for decades. Nineteenth- century Spiritualist activists advocated for
dress reform, g ymnastics, temperance, vegetarianism, and water cure not only to
invigorate the bodies of men but to free the bodies of women from the shackles
of Victorian feminine frailty.^14 Such countercultural trends found their coun-
terbalance in the Evangelical Muscular Christianity movement, which depicted
strength, aggression, and muscularity as not just masculine but pious traits.^15