The Story of Yoga: From Ancient India to the Modern West Hardcover – March 15, 2020

I was hooked. I practice yogi since 10 years and finished recently a 200 hrs training. This was my gift to celebrate my certification and I knew I would not be disappointed. The writing is clear and sometimes humorous. I appreciate the balance of facts, criticism, open question it also offer a lot of context that helps understand the lineage and who influenced who. It helps me grasping the concept of authenticity for this very particular discipline that is yoga. I now approach my practice with renewed interest and stronger emphasis on the metaphysical concept I can incorporate in my asana Practice.Yoga: come for your butt, stay for the samadhi!

Very comprehensive. Well researched. Enjoyable to read.

The author is very knowledgeable about the history of yoga (as well as Indian philosophy more broadly) and succeeds in explaining these topics to a broad readership. However, the last part where he writes about the present and future of yoga appears to me as a collection of newspaper articles. Reports about health/mental health (and their alleged costs) are uncritically presented as truths. Much of this information now already is outdated as the paperback just has been published in 2022. I think that these chapters would have fit better into a blog or online magazine than into a general book on the history of yoga.Note that the publisher left such a small printing margin in the middle that I often had to guess the first word of a line, which was annoying.

“The Story’’ is of how ‘yoga’, predominantly postural or hatha yoga, developed in India and spread to the west in the last couple of centuries. No one knows when and how it originated in India, but the story of this export is chronicled in detail that will surprise many. As ‘yoga’ moved into other cultures it was appropriated for a variety of purposes, often losing nearly all connection with its true nature, and Alistair’s comments on many of the misappropriations have a light touch, are always wise and frequently amusing. Read this in conjunction with Philip Goldberg’s “American Veda” and it is impossible not to register that the continuing diaspora of yoga must be occurring due to some want or partial vacuum in our western minds. “The Story” points to an immense enrichment of world consciousness from India, from the Veda. What is this leading to? More, Alistair suggests, than the ever more bizarre distortions of hatha yoga and contortions of those obsessed with their bodies. All in all, this is a must for anyone interested in the origins, development and deeper meaning of what we call ‘yoga’.

This is a well written and engaging book. It is fascinated to read the history of yoga, and is clearly superbly researched. Anyone interested in yoga will find this a worthwhile read. Any yoga teacher should read it as part of their training. Highly Recommend.

An educational read (even for an uneducated dyslexic), written with humility and occasional humour. I was disappointed when it was finished. Wondering what to read next before I read it again.