One hallmark of the yuppie lifestyle adopted by Russians lucky or talented enough to afford it is a fondness for yogaand many things Indian. For this crowd, Goa is a popular vacation spot, and Indian clothes, furniture and food are necessary accoutrements.
This week, which has been designated Yoga Week in the country, Russians also got a guru: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who went on a whirlwind tour visiting St. Petersburg; Moscow; Kazan; Irkutsk; Sochi and the site of a new ashram in nearby Tuapse.
The confluence of Mr. Shankar’s philosophy and Russian society turned up some incongruities. At a seminar called “Ethics in Business” at the Ritz-Carlton, among Moscow’s most expensive hotels, Mr. Shankar told a ballroom full of well-dressed people, who paid 5,000 rubles, or close to $200, a ticket, about Vedic philosophy and the spiritual subtext of corruption.
“Corruption begins outside the purview of belongingness,” he said, in response to a question about how to battle corruption, so endemic in Russia that President Dmitri Medvedev and Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church regularly inveigh against it.
The only way to overcome corruption, he said, was “to reorient people, educate them,” adding “the governments, religious bodies, NGO’s, business, all of them have to work together.”
Yoga, which was officially taboo in Soviet times but retained an underground following, has been embraced by Russia’s elite. In 2007, shortly before he became president, Mr. Medvedev told Itogi magazine that he was “mastering yoga,” as one activity that helps him deal with the stress of political obligations.
That immediately led to speculation that yoga would become a national pastime, as judo has under Vladimir Putin, a black belt in the sport who is regularly photographed displaying his mastery.
Mr. Medvedev has not been photographed in the lotus position. But, in Moscow at least, yoga studios have become almost as ubiquitous as coffee shops and sushi bars, and yoga is an essential part of elite health clubs.
Mr. Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation, which was started with the vision of creating a stress-free society, has its Russian headquarters in a Moscow business center. The organization, saying it sought to help to alleviate stress, sent instructors to North Ossetia to work with victims of the school hostage-taking in Beslan in 2002, and to Tskhinvali in South Ossetia after Russia’s war with Georgia in 2008, and it has also worked with the Russian military.
On Sunday, Mr. Shankar drew about 1,000 people to Luzhniki Stadium for a meditation session. It did not compare to the tens of thousands who came to see Bono and U2recently at the same venue, but the attendance was sizable for a rainy September morning, with tickets ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 rubles.
Retirees and students got a 50 percent discount, but there were also Louis Vuitton bags and Burberry blankets among the yoga mats. Followers were offered the opportunity to join Mr. Shankar for a river cruise in the evening, at 5,000 rubles for a full-price ticket.
Some forms of yoga are regarded as dangerous sects by the Russian Orthodox church, which also warns that sects hide behind good deeds, but there were no widely publicized protests over Mr. Shankar’s tour from either the church or Muslim leaders in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan in central Russia. Vissarion, a Siberian cult leader who was once a traffic policeman but now calls himself Jesus Christ, was welcomed by Mr. Shankar at his ashram near Bangalore, India in 2008, which was noted with concern by cult watchers in Russia.
At Luzhniki Stadium, Lena Savina, a 27-year-old hairdresser, said she had changed for the better since she took up yoga 18 months ago, following her mother’s example.
“Those around me really feel and see this,” she said. “It helps at work, in the family, in relations with friends. It teaches such discipline, to control emotions. We are very subject to emotions.”
Ms. Savina said it helped people avoid misunderstandings at work. “You need to breathe, calm down, and move on, so this doesn’t happen.”
Of Mr. Shankar, she said: “It is rare for such an enlightened person to visit Russia.”
Margarita Zakarina, 47, from the city of Ufa in Bashkortostan, said the Art of Living movement saved her after a fire destroyed her apartment and killed her husband. “I didn’t want to live,” she said. “After the course, I understood that life is given once.”
Stanislav Vintslav, 49, a lawyer, took up yoga a year ago and credited it for being able toquit smoking. He bought a discounted ticket to the Luzhniki event at the recommendation of his instructor, but was angry that Mr. Shankar made only a 45-minute appearance, and doubts that yoga or deep breathing could cure Russia’s larger ills. “I don’t have illusions,” he said.
Mr. Shankar also cut short his visit to Y Club, a new yoga and lifestyle center opened by his followers in a basement in one of central Moscow’s most fashionable areas. He raced through the grunge-chic basement, with exposed brick walls, dim lighting, Indian music and scattered rose petals, cringing visibly when asked by Tatiana Gevorkian, a former Russian MTV host who was the emcee for the event, about being rated as one of the five most influential people in India, by Forbes magazine. (Russians are obsessed with the Forbes billionaire rankings, which are filled with Russian oligarchs.) “Love is the greatest wealth,” Mr. Shankar said, before leaving because of an allergic reaction to construction dust as final touches are added to the new center, according to Natalia Sukhomlinova, who handles public relations for the Y Club.
Source:The Newyork Times
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