Imagine yourself to be in the most vulnerable state of your life.. you have no control of yourself, your mind is literally NOT in this universe! Your body movement isn’t normal. You are shaking, crying,farting, laughing out loud and in some cases even vomiting (it happens I know).
And then out of the blue imagine a guy taking pictures or making a video of you at that time. I don’t know about you but I might take that person into trance with a punch.
Now, why I am I talking about this?
I don’t know I have seen people doing that it doesn’t seem right. Sometimes you don’t care but sometimes it is hard to keep on thinking about it.
What’s the reason behind it?
Since you have signed up for a course you have given a right to be photographed all the time. And those picture are used for marketing purposes.
What the other side of the coin has to say about it?
If you don’t have pictures, videos of your students then how will you advertise? This is the inside peek into the course. People like to know how effective are the classes.
Well, Given the need of marketing material taking pictures while doing asanas is totally fine. People love to pictured doing complex asanas. But in the case of meditation pictures and videos it’s like someone is making a video of you while you are sleeping. Doesn’t matter how calmly you sleep if you would know that someone is recording; you would forget all the eight fold path of yoga, the yamas and the niyamas in a sec and then the unconscious martial arts training kicks right in!
There are numerous ways of doing ethical marketing. Inside peek into the lifestyle of the place, recorded lectures, student reviews, factual information etc. I have been here..it takes time but the top spot on Google will be yours if done right. And on a different note hire professional models for pictures… duh!
People might argue about this a lot and trust me you will get a thousand philosophical answers… “You shouldn’t care what the world thinks” , “Dive in your own journey forget the material world”.
But ethics play a more important role than rules. I might have broken numerous rules but ethics I never have and I never will. Being a computer engineer, web developer and an digital marketing friend of yours I know where the picture actually ends and it never goes in for medical research or yoga research for sure.
As part of my job I have taken many pictures and videos but never during meditation. In fact I have put my job in line to stop people from doing it several time in the past to make sure my friends aren’t the ones showing up on youtube or facebook.
Since I am more into software programming now least I can do is to make peace with myself..that is what yoga is all about.
Our Prime minister politely denying a selfie during Yoga day.
Source: Indian Express
So next join in a yoga meditation class make sure they have a no camera policy. And if that is not possible use a thin cloth on yourself which would also protect you from guess who? freaking mosquitoes! ( in case you are in tropical regions).
There is a thin line between ethics rules and business needs make you don’t cross it and don’t let anyone else cross it. It’s personal trespassing and as one of the famous Texas rule on trespassing says –
On a different note- when was the last time you have seen a video of a meditation instructor recording himself / herself in trance crying out loud?
Mahendra Kumar
PS: I am sorry if it offended anyone but it was and always is a terrible site to see this happening everywhere. I can’t let that happen not on my watch! Feel free to write in your views down below. Thanks
I absolutely agree. Some things are sacred. Your yoga practice and meditation is yours, not for anyone else to record or tape for their personal use, media and advertising. Nice words of wisdom Mahendra.