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by jerrya 2013 days ago
I'll assume good faith and ignorance, but you might first try google

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_yoga

Naked yoga (Sanskrit nagna yoga or vivastra yoga) is the practice of yoga without clothes. It has existed since ancient times as a spiritual practice, and is mentioned in the 7th-10th century Bhagavata Purana and by the Ancient Greek geographer Strabo.

Early advocates of naked yoga in modern times include the gymnosophists such as Blanche de Vries, and the author Marguerite Agniel.

In the 21st century, the practice is gaining popularity, notably in western societies that have more familiarity with social nudity.

Yoga has been practiced naked since ancient times. In the Bhagavata Purana (written c. 800–1000 AD) it says:

”A person in the renounced order of life may try to avoid even a dress to cover himself. If he wears anything at all, it should be only a loincloth, and when there is no necessity, a sannyāsī should not even accept a daṇḍa. A sannyāsī should avoid carrying anything but a daṇḍa and kamaṇḍalu.” [1] Alexander the Great reached India in the 4th century BC. Along with his army, he took Greek academics with him who later wrote memoirs about geography, people and customs they saw. One of Alexander's companion was Onesicritus, quoted in Book 15, Sections 63-65 by Strabo, who describes yogins of India.[2] Onesicritus claims those Indian yogins (Mandanis ) practiced aloofness and "different postures – standing or sitting or lying naked – and motionless".[3]

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2 comments

This is misleading - yoga in the traditional sense means something along the lines of "spiritual way of living" rather than yoga as an exercise (hatha yoga) and naked yoga in this sense is an extreme ascetic lifestyle where you live with as little clothes as possible as a form of renunciation, to avoid any further entanglement/karma in the world. It's about giving up comfort and status associated with clothes as well as avoiding karma associated with the production of clothes and it doesn't make a lot of sense until you've already given up most of the comfort provided by the material world. Associating doing yoga poses on Youtube naked for views and attention with an ascetic lifestyle is absurd.
The emphasis is on "instructors".

Practice is one thing, instruction is another, and I don't see why city-dwellinig practitioners should be mixed up with mendicants and ascetics.