“Yoga Terrorist or Yoga Saviors? My Sit-Down with Aghori Babarazzi”
Bodyworker, Ashtangi, and writer for Elephant Journal, Thaddeus Haas, recently sat in a Brooklyn park with The Babarazzi’s very own lover of love, Aghori Babarazzi. It was sunny and warm and the conversation meandered through a variety of topics including:
- Krishna
- The scientific method
- Vaginas!
- Yogilebrities
- Cultural imperialism
- Postmodernism
- And, being nice
From the interview:
“When you just sort of barf all over the market with cheap selling points, you don’t give the seeker an opportunity to even seek. That’s such an important part of it all. The climb. It’s like when a baby is born through the vagina, there is this wringing out process. The head, the whole thing gets wrung out. That’s the first “welcome to the world” experience. There’s a reason why there’s pain. There’s a reason why you forget that pain. Today, doctors would rather just pluck babies from the womb, circumventing that wringing out process.
That’s how cheap yoga marketing works. It turns the seeker into a consumer, constantly trying to pluck them out of the greater consumer base. Constantly shoveling down people’s throats this “you don’t have to do yoga in a cave” slogan. It’s like a psychosis!”
Read the rest here. Enjoy! We think Mr. Haas did a very fine job. Nice work, Haas!
![This Naked Yoga School Video is Awesome [VIDEO]](https://thebabarazzi.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/hqdefault.jpg?w=200&h=200&crop=1)
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The Babarazzi 
I want to thank Aghori for allowing this small time kid from the sticks the opportunity to probe into the inner workings of The Babarazzi. It was a wonderful experience and it’s my hope that the result will help push the dialogue surrounding The Babarazzi beyond the names they were given at birth.
From the comments to the larger article:
“I think this focus says a whole lot more about those who have a problem with them than anything else. When you can’t attack their mothers or their practice, you are forced to deal with what they’re saying and those invested in the commercial world yoga would rather have you think about anything than the man behind the curtain. Ironically, they spend all their time and energy fighting with the “man” behind the mask rather.
Just goes to show, irony knows no bounds these days.”
It’s been a long time coming …
All is not well in Wanderlustland … and has not been for a long time …
nice interview. dig.
just heard a piece on the radio about the recent death of art critic robert hughes. dude was pretty amazing, so many of his quotes they mentioned could have easily substituted the word “yoga” in place of “art” and been just as well aimed. better do some homework babz, some good stealing….i mean borrowing to do sitting inside his cave.
“The new job of art is to sit on the wall and get more expensive”
“One gets tired of the role critics are supposed to have in this culture: it’s like being the piano player in a whorehouse; you don’t have any control over the action going on upstairs”
weird
This interview appears on elephant journal?
Delicious, nutritious irony…
nice interview, refreshing to read…
will say based on his comments about anonymity Waylon “namaste” EJ still just doesn’t get it…
Great interview which is surprising from EJ but I remember a post from a few years ago that took on this issue of the yuppification of yoga.
http://yogadawg.blogspot.com/2009/08/yoga-news-group-to-stop-yuppification.html
Oh my dearest soul mates– Using childbirth analogies will always win my heart, though you already had me at hello. One of the most amazing things about you is your response to criticism and to readers questions and comments. They (your responses) are really something to glean from. Such an ability to listen. Such keen references. So lacking in defense and so forthright, witty, kind, cutting, and to the point. What a wringing it is! Thanks.
Thanks, everyone, for reading the interview!
@amphibi: Your comments are like psychedelia. Keep ’em comin’!
@jorge: Great quotes!
@DimensionYoga: Weird, indeed.
@Greenpoint: I agree
@AlexA: Consider yourself wrung.
@The Moment: Tastes great.
@Kendra: Thanks for the link! I guess where we differ from the link slightly, is that we don’t think there is a “yuppification of yoga” going on, per se. But rather a very yuppified reading of the yogic tradition.
You have provided a much needed enema to the soul of celebrity yoga.
thank you for your works…
Oh my!
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/08/the-shallowness-of-hate-a-response-to-the-babarazzi-paul-morris/
Hehe… Yeah. Saw that. Reads like an exploded soggy box of Fruit Loops cereal. Love it!
Wow, there’s not a coherent thought anywhere in that, my head hurts now…
Incoherent rambling and also boring..why would they even put up a response that unreadable? Guess the articulate folks have nothing bad to say! Keep it up Babs!
I love love love how worked up people get about the articles n posts on this site!!!