About 20 million people in the United States practice some form of yoga, from the formal Iyengar and Ashtanga schools to the more irreverent "Yoga Butt."
But some Hindus say yoga is about far more than exercise and breathing techniques. They want recognition that it comes from a deeper philosophy — one, in their view, with Hindu roots.
Many forms of yoga go back centuries. Even in the U.S., the transcendentalists were doing yoga in the 1800s.
William Broad, a reporter for The New York Times and author of The Science of Yoga, has been practicing since 1970. He says people pursue yoga for all kinds of reasons, from achieving health and fitness to seeking spirituality, energy and creativity.
Yoga, Broad says, is an antidote for a chaotic world.
"You see a wild correlation between yoga studios and the most stressful places on the planet," like lower Manhattan or road-rage prone Los Angeles, Broad says.
That's because, he says, "yoga works — to unplug, to relax, to help tense urbanites deal with that tension," he says.
Reconciling Modern Views With An Ancient Practice
But some Hindus are taken aback by how so much of the yoga practiced in the United States emphasizes only the physical.
One group, the Hindu American Foundation, has launched a "Take Back Yoga" campaign to address what they see as a fundamental disconnect between yoga and Hinduism.
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