YOGA - Just Exercise or a Hindu Religion?
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Practicing Yoga in Church.
A Hindu Yogi Speaks: "There is no Christian Yoga."
The following article is written by Yogi Baba Prem, who is a Hindu Yogi, a Vedavisharada trained in the traditional gurukural system. We hope that Thomas Nelson, who publishes Yoga for Christians, and emerging leader, Doug Pagitt, who offers it at his church, will all read this article by Yogi Baba Prem.
"There is no Christian Yoga?" by Yogi Baba Prem
"It was quite astonishing to see on the flyer 'Christian Yoga! This Thursday night....' I could feel the wheels spinning in my brain. 'Christian Yoga,' I thought. Now while Christians can practice yoga, I am not aware of any Christian teachings about yoga. Yoga is not a Judeo/Christian word! It is not a part of the Roman Catholic teachings and certainly not a part of protestant teachings. It is not found within the King James Version of the bible. It is a Hindu word, or more correctly a Sanskrit word from the Vedic civilization. So how did we get 'Christian Yoga'? "From this I could conclude that 'Christian Yoga' could only indicate one of two possibilities:" Read more ...
From
an email we received from the Classical
Yoga Hindu Academy:
"Is Yoga a religion that denies Jesus Christ? Yes.
Just as Christianity denies the Hindu MahaDevas such as
Siva, Vishnu, Durga and Krishna, to name a few, Hinduism
and its many Yogas have nothing to do with God and Jesus
(though we do respect that others believe in this way). As
Hindus who live the Yogic lifestyle, we appreciate when
others understand that all of Yoga is all about the Hindu
religion. Modern so-called 'yoga' is dishonest to Hindus
and to all non-Hindus such as the Christians."
Danda,
Dharma Yoga Ashram
(Classical Yoga Hindu Academy)
East
and West, The Two Shall Never Meet
"Christianity
cannot be integrated with yoga and remain Christian. To think
otherwise imperils the Christian truth and faith. As the managing
editor of 'Hinduism Today,' Sannyasin Arumugaswami, remarks, 'Hinduism
is the soul of yoga 'based as it is on Hindu Scripture and developed
by Hindu sages. Yoga opens up new and more refined states of mind,
and to understand them one needs to believe in and understand
the Hindu way of looking at God. . . . A Christian trying to adapt
these practices will likely disrupt their own Christian beliefs'.'
East is east, and west is west, and if Christianity is to remain
Christian, 'the twain' should never be married. Can
yogic practices be integrated with the Christian faith? Pastor Larry De Bruyn
"The
practice of Yoga is pagan at best, and occult at worst. Its teachings
emanate from the Eastern religions, all of which teach that self
is God, only we just don't realize it until we do the techniques.
'The goal of Yoga is self-realization-to look deeply within
to what ought to be the temple of the one true God and to discover
the alleged true Self or higher Self to be God.
Nothing could be more religious than that, yet with straight faces,
all of the Yogis insist that practicing Yoga does not change anyone's
religious beliefs.'"— Mike Oppenheimer, Let Us Reason
Ministries, Read
More ...
Gimmie
Yoga, a Burger and Fries
This
week I had yet another new shock to the system. While standing
in line to order a Number 3 meal at the local McDonalds®,
I noticed an interesting new promotion that is taking place.
They now have Adult Happy Meal. This is pretty cool because
the kids always got some pretty neat toys. The adult meal also
comes with a prize, but I was kind of shocked when I found out
what it is ... a DVD on Yoga.
Well on my
bag for my Big Mac®, I found a handy URL telling me more
about this and I checked it out.
Here is what
they say...
15 Minutes of Sane
area of focus—flexibility, stress relief, balance or strength.
The eastern
thought of New Age mentality is not only entering the burger
joints of
| Yoga - Helping to Unite the World's Religions |
Can We Separate the Exercise From the Philosophy?
"There is a common misconception in the West that hatha-yoga, one of about ten forms of Yoga that supposedly leads to self-realization, is merely a neutral form of exercise, a soothing and effective alternative for those who abhor jogging and calisthenics ...
"[However], Hatha-yoga is 'one of the six recognized systems of orthodox Hinduism' and is at its roots religious and mystical. It is also one of the most difficult and potentially dangerous [spiritually] forms of Yoga. "The term hatha is derived from the verb hath, which means 'to oppress.'... What the practice of hatha-yoga is designed to do is suppress the flow of psychic energies through these channels ["symbolic, or psychic, passages on either side of the spinal column"], thereby forcing the 'serpent power' or the kundalini force to rise through the central psychic channel in the spine (the sushumna) and up through the chakras, the supposed psychic centers of human personality and power. Westerners mistakenly believe that one can practice hatha-yoga apart from the philosophical and religious beliefs that undergrid it. This is an absolutely false belief. ...
"You cannot separate the exercises from the philosophy. ... 'The movements themselves become a form of meditation.' The continued practice of the exercises will, whether you ... intend it or not, eventually influence you toward an Eastern/mystical perspective. That is what it is meant to do! ... There is, by definition, no such thing as 'neutral' Yoga" —Johanna Michaelsen, Like Lambs to the Slaughter, pp. 93-95).
