Paper Short Abstract:

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in India in 2017/18 and 2023/24, the paper explores ways out of the dilemma of how to maneuver fieldwork and simultaneously follow the Guru to nothingness through the Path of Yoga as a spiritual body technique.

Paper Abstract:

The ‘Path of Yoga’ leads to attaining Moksha, a state of self-realization and full liberation from all sufferings. Although Yoga is conceived as ancient, unchanging Indian tradition that requires full dedication to its study as a lifelong endeavor, nowadays Yoga is open to everyone: Decontextualized as Global Yoga, it is made easy to consume by transnational cosmopolitans.

As its alleged place of origin, India's claim on spiritual authority and yogic authenticity led to a huge commercialization and certification boom in India that puts Yoga at the center of a global multi-billion-dollar wellness industry. At the same time, practicing Yoga promises to enable practitioners to reach a blissful state of mind and body.

Doing research on Yoga is full of contradictions: Surrendering to the native’s point of view, I would have to stop with my research on the conflict zones of Global Yoga. If I follow the instructions given by the Guru, I would have to drop all knowledge, all thoughts, and all cravings. And doing so, there is nothing left to write about because worldly matters and academic aspirations lose their meaning. If I as a researcher take my interlocutors and my field seriously, I have to ‘leave’ my role as a researcher with an academic mission to be accomplished behind.

Based on fieldwork conducted in India between 2017 - 2024, the paper explores ways out of this dilemma and discusses how doing fieldwork and simultaneously undoing the self with Yoga as spiritual body technique remains a worthwhile anthropological endeavor.