Decolonizing Yoga

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Integrity Pledge

For Decolonizing Yoga with Zarna Joshi and Seattle Bhakti Yoga with Zarna Joshi (based out of Seattle WA USA). I pledge that I will not use what I learn from Zarna Joshi’s Decolonizing Yoga podcasts, videos, or in-person conversations/zoom sessions for capitalist gain in any way. I will also not use her Seattle Bhakti Yoga podcasts, videos, or in-person conversations/zoom sessions for capitalist gain in any way. That means all of the following: I will not present her lineage teachings as my own in any way including in my writings, speeches, interviews, or events; I will not advertise her teachings to bring in students to my own classes; I will not get paid or take money to talk about her teachings in any way including at in person events, in podcasts, in my writings, and in other published and/or digitally platformed works; I will not use her teachings to justify my own teachings, my writings, or my yoga business. In short, I will not profit from Decolonizing Yoga or Seattle Bhakti Yoga or Zarna Joshi’s lineage teachings in any way. I recognize that all sessions of Zarna Joshi's Decolonizing Yoga and Seattle Bhakti Yoga are audio recorded and podcasted online and that Zarna Joshi may record our conversations so there will be proof of what I have learned from her. I also pledge that I will not compromise the safety of Decolonizing Yoga or Seattle Bhakti Yoga by inviting people who are not sincere about decolonizing and anti-racism. I will vet them by asking them to sign this integrity pledge first and only after they sign will I share the resources of these groups with them with Zarna Joshi’s consent which she will share in writing via email. If I speak publicly about what I learn from Zarna Joshi, I will do it for free, I will be careful to frame her words as her teachings without distorting them, I will be sure to tell everyone that she does not endorse me as a teacher, and I will refer the public to zarnajoshi.com to learn more from a lineage-based decolonized source.

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Since 2015 I’ve run a decolonizing yoga group - with permission from an authentic spiritual elder - to address the cultural appropriation of yoga.

“The yoga industrial complex is a desecration of yoga that harms Hindus who are already suffering genocide every day.”

— Zarna Joshi, 2021

Learn how

To “decolonize” means to give the land back.

To decolonize yoga means to give the practice of yoga back to its authentic lineages. You are not entitled to yoga just because you feel like it, or it’s fashionable, or it “helps you”. If you are not part of an authentic lineage, if you don’t have permission from that authentic lineage to learn or teach, and if you don’t behave accountably towards that lineage, you have no right to yoga because it does not belong to you. Therefore, you must give it back.

All are asked to be accountable to this group and to me by reading and signing an integrity pledge (scroll down to sign the pledge).

Signing the integrity pledge is mandatory for entry into the group.

Adherence to the integrity pledge is mandatory for continued membership of the group.

I relate yoga’s ancient teachings to what is happening right now.

Right now yoga and Hindus are being colonized and that needs to stop.

We’ve done sessions all over Turtle Island*.

You can invite me to do a session in your community too. All sessions are podcasted and members of the group have access to the podcasted sessions so no one misses out no matter where the last session is.

*Turtle Island is the Indigenous name for North America for First Nations in the Northwest region of the USA.

Other First Nations in other regions have their own names for the continent also.

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