The practice of naked yoga is nothing new. Even the ancient Rig Veda mentions 'air clad' ascetics who wandered without clothes.

The major difference between nudity in the practice of the proto-yoga of the Vedic Age and nudity in the practice of modern yoga is the meaning ascribed to the nakedness.

In the old form, ascetics wore no clothes as a sign of their renunciation of the world. They renounced worldly lives, including sexuality. Even today, some ascetic yogis in India from the Hindu and Jain religions practice nudity as part of their total renunciation of all things separate from the spiritual world..

The nude yoga we're becoming accustomed to in the West stems from a tantric tradition of affirming the world, including sexuality, sensuality and everything else, as a means for transformation. In tantra, all things are, or at least can be, of a spiritual nature. Tantric yoga also comes from India, but is a later development.

Nude yoga classes have proliferated over the last several years, popping up in invitation-only settings as well as openly advertised in large urban studios. In these public classes, rarely does yoga become oversexualized, even though the teacher and practitioners are all stark naked.

On the Internet, however, nude yoga has taken on a different form. Nude yoga photos of both men and women have proliferated on adult sites, not so much for the purpose of personal transformation as for the profit motive.

It sounds worse than it is. In tantra, we can embrace our own darkness. Our sex desire can actually bring us closer to God. However, this is clearly a dangerous path and a 'slippery slope' to either spiritual freedom or karmic suffering.

So I will recommend looking at nude yoga photos on the Internet for a much more practical purpose, that is to study alignment of the body in various yoga poses.

No doubt it is much easier to study proper alignment without clothing hindering your view. There are now multitudes of beautiful, tasteful naked yoga pictures on the Internet where yogis and yoginis display picture perfect posture.

There are even more photos of nude adult models simulating yoga poses, obviously without the background knowledge needed to hold the postures safely or well enough to maximize the movement of 'prana' or energy.

However, even the latter case can be informative and educational. Nude yoga photos can show us what to strive for in alignment as well as what to avoid.