The Soft Empire of Yoga™

How the “Yoga Misfit” trend markets inclusion by distorting sacred stories

Jun 26, 2025

I didn’t plan to write this.

But over the last few years, I’ve watched something shift quietly and now, unmistakably in contemporary yoga spaces. At first, it looked like creativity. Then inclusivity. Then progressive storytelling.

But now, it’s something else: a soft empire, one that doesn’t colonize with weapons, but with emotional branding.

From Arjuna being reframed as a genderfluid icon to Mirabai cast as a rebel feminist, the reinterpretations of yoga’s sacred narratives have taken on a strategic tone. They’re not simply personal reflections. They’re ideological constructions, delivered with poetic punchlines and marketing gloss, packaged as “inclusive lineage.”

And they’re being sold. As retreats. As teacher trainings. As DEI-approved certifications. This isn’t just about cultural appropriation anymore. It’s about reframing yoga itself, using modern identity frameworks that feel modern but subtly harm the tradition from within.

From Path to Product

Yoga was never a platform for identity expression. It was a path to transcend identity itself. But increasingly, yoga is presented not as a discipline grounded in śāstra and sādhana but as an emotional experience meant to validate who you already are.

It’s no longer:

“Transform yourself through yoga”

Now it’s:

“Make yoga affirm who you already are”

Take the rising trend of calling Arjuna nonbinary. On the surface, it might seem harmless, even clever. But it’s not just a metaphor. It’s a full-fledged reinterpretation of the Mahābhārata, one of the world’s most profound spiritual texts, recast to align with the language of gender theory.

In the name of inclusion, sacred vows become symbols. Tapasya becomes performance. Bhakti becomes rebellion. And the sincere seeker is left disoriented — fed ideology in Sanskrit packaging.

Who Profits from These Reframes?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t just expression.

It’s commerce.

Recasting ancient figures to match modern politics doesn’t just create visibility. It creates brand positioning. It gives you a niche. A narrative. A product to sell.

You’ll hear:

“These stories show yoga has always been inclusive.”

But often, what’s really happening is projection, not inclusion. True inclusion doesn’t require rewriting Arjuna or Mirabai. It requires contextual integrity, a willingness to let the tradition speak in its full complexity, even when it challenges our preferences.

What we’re seeing instead is a filtering process:

Spiritual teachings are passed through ideological lenses designed to affirm modern identities not to question or transform them.

This isn’t pedagogy. It’s affirmation marketing.

What’s Being Lost

Yoga is not here to reflect your trauma. It’s here to dissolve the part of you that clings to it. It doesn’t center your identity. It disarms it, with love, discipline, and clarity.

When yoga becomes a performance of the modern self, one that seeks validation more than liberation, it loses its radical edge. What once called us beyond the ego now comforts us inside it. The fire of sādhana becomes the soft glow of a lifestyle brand.

Why the Soft Empire Is Hard to See

This trend doesn’t always come from “outsiders.” In fact, some of its most vocal champions are South Asian often diaspora teachers reclaiming cultural space through progressive frameworks.

But let’s be clear:

Relevance is not the same as authenticity. Social justice is not the same as śāstra. This soft empire doesn’t erase yoga all at once. It does something more seductive: it softens it. It uses emotionally potent language- “healing,” “belonging,” “edge-walking,” “queering the tradition” to gently reorient the purpose of yoga. From sādhanā to storytelling. From transcendence to therapeutic validation. And it does it with just enough Sanskrit and sacred symbolism to feel legitimate.

Who Is This Really For?

It’s not for the seeker who wants truth. It’s for the consumer who wants resonance.

A student signs up to study yoga and is handed a toolkit of identity-aligned affirmations. They want the Gītā but they get a DEI Talk. They want bhakti but they get Mirabai as a messy rebel with a heartbreak arc.

And when they leave, they feel moved. But not necessarily transformed. This is not yoga’s failure. It’s the result of branding dharma into digestible, monetizable meaning.

So What Can We Do?

This isn’t about gatekeeping.

It’s about guarding a lineage from distortion especially distortion that hides behind the language of uplift and access.

Yoga can be accessible without being rewritten.It can be inclusive without being ideological. But it cannot survive as a vessel for everything we wish it to be.

That’s not inclusion. That’s dilution.

Let’s Stay Rooted

Not because we’re nostalgic. Because we’re committed to clarity.

We live in an era where meaning is scarce and narrative is currency. Where emotional resonance often substitutes for truth. But yoga was never here to validate us. It was here to empty us. To free us. To burn through our false identities, not rebrand them.

You don’t need Arjuna to be nonbinary to feel seen. You need the courage of Arjuna to face reality, even when it challenges you. You don’t need Mirabai to break norms to feel inspired. You need her surrender to what transcends you.

The Soft Empire Will Grow

Through curated retreats, poetic posts, and heartfelt distortions.

But those of us who care about this path must continue to draw the line, clearly, compassionately, and unapologetically:

We don’t honor yoga by bending it to our truths.We honor yoga by allowing it to reshape us.

This is just the beginning

In the coming days, we’ll dive deeper into how sacred stories from Arjuna to Mirabai are being reshaped to fit modern ideologies - not to attack but to clarify and to reclaim.

In the meantime, if this resonated, share it. Speak up. Help protect the roots of yoga from dilution- with context, courage and care.