Episode 33 - Addressing Cultural Appropriation in Yoga: A Conversation with Raj Patra

Yoga originates in India, and today flourishes in the West. Questions of cultural appropriation often arise within the spiritual community, and there is a great responsibility on the part of yoga teachers to address this. Raj Patra, owner of Yoga for Life Portland, helps us navigate cultural appropriation in yoga with grace and integrity.

Yoga is from India, and as yoga teachers and spiritual leaders, it is our great responsibility to educate ourselves, as well as honor the roots and foundations of yoga. This couldn’t be more important in terms of cultural appropriation and ensuring the ways in which we teach and spread yoga, are in alignment with yoga’s true and original values. In this podcast, I chat with Raj Patra, the founder of Yoga for Life Studio, in Portland. He gives us frank and honest and open conversation about how we can do better, in terms of cultural appropriation

To be an Indian and not to practice yoga, at least when I was growing up, was not possible because I think the Western understanding of yoga is so limited and so boxed within a yoga studio.

I have the great honor and pleasure today in talking with Raj Patra who is the owner and founder of Yoga Life in Portland, and we’re gonna talk to him about cultural appropriation in terms of yoga. This is a very big topic that’s happening, I field a lot of questions around it, I actually discuss it quite a bit inside my teacher training program, but I wanted to bring this discussion to my broader audience, through the podcast with Raj who is an amazing force in the field of yoga. And Raj, thank you so much for being here today.

If you want to learn more about Raj Patra and Yoga for Life Studio.