What is wrong with Yoga classes?

Soon after I started my sabbatical from teaching yoga, I received the following letter from Alena, one of my long-time students:

I have been supplementing my yoga practice by going to 7th Heaven yoga where I have been to classes with many teachers and done many different types of yoga. I have to say that the Hatha Yoga you teach is what I like the best out of them all so far. Please let me know if you resume teaching!

I decided to explore and evaluate the yoga that is being taught at private Yoga Studios in the United States. This is necessarily a personal and subjective evaluation:

On the plus side I find a number of young, enthusiastic teachers who are very committed to spreading yoga and making it accessible to all. There are also some extensions of yoga that have been developed by teachers that are new and interesting.

Having said that I must say that I am most profoundly disappointed not only with American teachers of yoga but also Indian teachers who have taught yoga to American teachers. The yoga that is being taught in the US today is only a shell without an inner body. Yoga is taught as a series of postures without reference to energetic movements of the prana or life force. That's a little like someone dressing up as Superman and because he is dressed the part, believing that he is the part.

The heart of yoga is the understanding that the person is composed of three interconnected layers. First, there is the physical you. Second, there is your body image. Yoga must expand our body image to accurately reflect an awareness of all parts of the body. Most people only have their face and one other body part as part of their body image and hence suffer from poor posture, poor alignment, and low self-worth. Third, is the energetic system of the body. Yoga promotes the circulation of prana, or life force energy throughout the body, equalizing emotions, desires, and the unfoldment of the spiritual life.

Yoga literally mean to join. I call on yoga teachers in America to end the disconnect, the teaching of the form without the function, and to teach yoga as a true gestalt.

Peace and Love,

Abhay