How is popular yoga in Russia? There are over 200 yoga centres in Moscow alone, and the practice of yoga is spreading fast. Evgeny Trufanov, the founder of 'Yoga People', joins Voice of Russia's Eco Plus programme host John Harrison to answer these questions.
How big is yoga in Russia?
It is good news that yoga is happening in Russia. But there is a big difference between big cities, for example such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the regions. In Moscow, as far as we know, this is around 1200 yoga spots. Maybe around 200 yoga clubs and all the others are just the spots where everybody can touch yoga. This can be through CDs with the mantras, special signings, this can be books and something like this, but 1200 spots. It is amazing for one city.
We are calling this movement Yoga People. We made a research and discovered that in the regions sometimes yoga is not popular at all. And that’s why we started this program to show, to send a message to the people from the regions that yoga is now, I would say, one of the main kinds of activities, which doesn’t need any special facilities. You don’t have to go somewhere to do this, you can do it at home, you can do it without any equipment.
I want to make it clear that yoga is not gymnastics. It is the biggest myth about yoga. And many-many people don’t go to yoga clubs or classes because they think that there people are very flexible and they are not. And because of this difference they are afraid to be not like them.
Who practices yoga in Russia?
People of high intellectual level or, at least, with middle level. But mostly these are people who are free in some way. And I very much hope that most of these people do realize that yoga is, first of all, calming you mind and stops this endless stream of useless thoughts.
