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Paramhansa Yogananda: India’s first yoga guru in the US
If India’s idea of an International Yoga Day has found easy acceptance in the UN, much of the credit must go to Paramhansa Yogananda, India’s first yoga guru in the US whose 62nd death anniversary falls this Saturday.
Unlike Swami Vivekananda, Yogananda is not that widely appreciated although he played a huge role in laying the foundation for yoga in the United States a century ago.
Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, sailed to the US in 1920 and remained there until his death in 1952. In that sense, he was also one of India’s earliest longest serving NRIs.
Yogananda toured the US extensively, teaching meditation and Kriya Yoga to tens of thousands of American men and women in packed halls.
Unlike now, that was no easy task. Yoga was unknown in the West, and many Americans looked down upon Hindu holy men, yogis included.
The Kriya Yoga is a lesser-known yoga science based on special breathing techniques to help in self-realisation.
Yogananda left the US to visit India only once, during which period he taught Kriya Yoga to Mahatma Gandhi at the latter’s ashram in Wardha.
What really made Yogananda an iconic figure globally was his “Autobiography of a Yogi”, declared one of the 10 greatest spiritual classics of the last century.
Since it was first published in the US in 1946, the book became an instant hit, got translated into over 20 languages worldwide and has sold millions of copies. It remains a bestseller.
After his autobiography was published, Yogananda spent the last years of his life devoting himself to literary work. He withdrew more and more from public life.
During this period, he edited and revised his earlier books. Shortly before he died, Yogananda told a disciple: “My life work is done.”
On March 7, 1952, Yogananda was a speaker at a banquet hosted by the Indian Association of America in honour of India’s ambassador to the US, Binay Ranjan Sen, at the Baltimore Hotel in Los Angeles.
Those at the venue noticed that Yogananda did not have his usual heart warming smile. He didn’t laugh too at the amusing anecdotes in the various speeches. An aura of strangeness appeared to surround him.
In a short and memorable speech, Yogananda said: “Somewhere between the two great civilizations of efficient America and spiritual India lies the answer for a model world civilization.”
As he came towards the end of his speech, Yogananda became surprisingly emotional. His close followers would later recall that he knew he was about to pass away.
“I am proud that I was born in India,” he said, and recited a poem that read in part:
“Mortal fires may raze all her homes and golden paddy fields;
Yet to sleep on her ashes and dream in mortality,
O India, I will be there!”
As he finished the poem, Yogananda slid to the floor and died, a beatific smile on his face. The yoga master had often said: “I do not wish to die in bed, but with my boots on, speaking of God and India.”
A devastated Indian ambassador paid his tributes: “He (Yogananda) was born in India, he lived for India, and he died with the name of India on his lips.”
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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