Thus The Guardian today. “All the exercises exist purely to make you feel old and frail and infirm and much less fit than you actually are,” elaborates the newspaper. The drawing that comes with the article shows a plump woman in her thirties lying on her belly and holding her legs just above the feet with both hands extended behind her back. A backbreaking posture, to be sure. The article does not go beyond postures, though. Yoga is presented as nothing but bending and stretching that boggles the mind and hurts all over. As such, it is hardly worth commenting upon. Except that it represents the most common view of yoga in the so-called west, and in one of the best newspapers in the English language available at this inglorious time. To wit, yoga has been reduced to mere fitness. The remaining seven limbs culminating in enlightenment are shoved under the proverbial rug. Patanjali came to my mind as soon as I glanced through the pitiful article. And my heart went to him at once. Progress, my ass.