The body in yoga : tradition and modernity

This article is an attempt to show one of the most important, in the author’s opinion, changes that took place in the cultural and historical development of yoga, namely the change of direction in thinking and perceiving the body in the yoga practice, being the transition from the model named as “off the body” (functioning in the pre-modern, traditional yoga) to the model named as “to the body” (functioning in the modern forms of yoga). Both models have been shown through the prism of three values that in today’s yoga practice (especially in the mass practice) are perceived through the prism of the body and through the body are realized. These values have been defined as: “healthy body”, “beautiful body” (aesthetically perfect) and “social body”. Description of both models has been supplemented with basic information about those processes which enabled the aforementioned transition to occur, changing the body-tool into the body-goal.