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| The yoga studio Swami Vivekananda Cultural Center in Seoul / Courtesy of Swami Vivekananda Culture Center |
By Kim Ji-soo
Yoga and pilates are becoming highly popular in Korea, in addition to the ubiquitous aerobic and gym classes that exist in every neighborhood.
The Yoga "population" in Korea has grown to about 2 million in recent years and there are even hopeful predictions that the number of yoga buffs will increase to 5 million creating a large market valued at 4 trillion won.
Yoga enthusiasts mostly tend to be woman, with a few men in the classes, who also like to sign up for both national and international yoga retreats. While international retreats are infrequent, word of mouth among yoga lovers is that Bali is the place to go for a non-stop yoga holiday, an idea that nation's leading tourist companies are seizing on.
But having experienced yoga in Mumbai, in Korea and from American teachers, there was always this curiosity on this reporter's mind about the yoga class offered at the Indian cultural center in Hannam-dong, Seoul. The upside to this center may be that one does not have to fly to India.
"Yoga is not about the body, it's about the mind," said the Indian teacher Soma Dutta over the phone. After asking the writer about her various yoga experiences, she said that she found the Korean yoga classes lean toward gymnastics and aerobics.
Then she explained that according to Maharshi Patanjali, the propounder of the philosophy of yoga: "Yoga is a discipline to restrain the modulations of the mind. He mentions the eight limbs of yoga (Ashtanga Yoga) namely Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi."
Asana is just 10 percent or the tip of the iceberg. From body consciousness, you have to move inward to reach your ultimate goal of Samadhi or bliss, which is a state of deep meditative contemplation which leads to higher consciousness, she explained.
"If you are a human being and you breathe, then you can do yoga," she said.
She has a lot of Korean yoga teachers who come to her class who say they had never learned what was offered at the center till they met her.
She is the sole instructor at the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Center, located in Hannam-dong, Seoul. The cultural center offers four types of classes for adults a week. There is also yoga for children on Saturdays. The center however is on a holiday and will open again March 2 for a 10-week run. The program's fees range from 50,000 won to 80, 000 won depending on how many times a week you attend.
