Bali profits from business of soul-searching
Being a Hindu yogi once meant renouncing worldly pleasures for a life of solitary meditation, wandering the jungle in search of union with god. Today, new-age yogis wander the globe from one retreat to another, stay in luxury hotels and preach to the converted masses through a headset microphone.
At the Bali Spirit Festival last week, yogis sold their take on life – along with complementary DVDs — as visitors from as far afield as the United States, Australia and Europe lapped up expensive yoga apparel, mats and mala beads. Just stepping through the festival gates cost $100 a day. “I bought a gold pass for $500 and I find it hard to get $100 worth of yoga a day. At the same time, all the classes have been amazing, so in the end, I’m happy to have paid that,” said Australian Jean Cameron, 39.
A 2008 study published by the Yoga Journal valued the yoga industry in the United States alone at almost $6 billion a year, with some more recent estimates for the global industry rising to $18 billion. Bali is an obvious hub for yoga fanatics. The Balinese are Hindu, the Indonesian island is rich with natural beauty and the government supports spiritual tourism including temple tours and visits to traditional healers. Demand for such experiences spiked recently with the publication of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” – a romantic journey of self-discovery featuring a mystical encounter with a Balinese soothsayer.
EAT PRAY LOVE Trailer
Typical that a movie would bring hoards of Americans to Bali for soul-searching. The yoga industry in the United States being valued at $6 billion a year is a new current trend but globally it has been very profitable for many years. There have been many self-proclaimed “Spiritual Gurus” who have made astronomical profits from their followers dead and alive and continue to do so. One of the most controversial and famous being the Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi, Spiritual Guru of the Beatles.
I think that this business of yoga and soul-searching is wide open to yogis who are actually honest and caring people who want to generously preach what they know to benefit and enrich the lives of others out of goodness rather than for outrageous profits! People who are willing to do work in order to give back and spread good karma will automatically be rewarded in other ways! Isn’t that what the hindu religion and Indian Spirituality is all about anyway??