Is yoga spiritually-neutral self-improvement? Here are 7 quotes
Everyone's doing yoga, so surely it must be ok. Look at all the influencers on social media who swear by it. Even local YMCAs and public school systems have embraced it. The rate of growth of people doing yoga in the past few years is nothing short of phenomenal.
But what many unsuspecting enthusiasts fail to recognize or admit is that yoga — even so-called “Christian yoga” — is a form of discipleship based on Hinduism, or Buddhism, or New Age-ism. Here are some insights from a variety of sources:
“I'd practiced yoga for years and loved the feel of stretching and relaxing from a day's stresses. But after I became a Christian, I sensed something spiritual about yoga that made me uneasy. . . . I've practiced yoga with many different instructors who all said they taught purely physical exercise without any yogic spiritualism. . . . But yoga . . . postures and language [pay] homage to Hindu deities. . . . Most instructors . . . use traditional Sanskrit terms that have been translated into English, such as downward facing dog, corpse pose, and sun salutation. The last one, by the way, directly pays homage to the Hindu sun god. . . . As someone who was deeply involved in New Age and metaphysical practices, I can tell you from experience: There is a spiritual realm in this world. There are spiritual battles being fought. And there are frightening things from which we need to run — even if, like [a] Ouija board, they look benign on the surface.”
—Holly Robaina, former yoga enthusiast
“Based as it [yoga] is on Hindu scripture and developed by Hindu sages . . . a Christian trying to adapt these practices will likely disrupt their own Christian beliefs.”
—Yogi Sannyasin Arumugaswami, managing editor of Hinduism Today Magazine
“Many Westerners who practice yoga today are unaware that the physical positions assumed in yoga symbolize a spiritual act: worshiping one of the many Hindu gods. . . . To a Hindu, yoga is the outward physical expression of a deep spiritual belief. You cannot separate one from the other.”
—Dr. George P. Alexander, Christian missiologist born in India
“Praying with others for deliverance from oppression tied to yoga involvement is enough evidence for me to recommend strongly that Christians stay as far away as possible from yoga of any kind!”
—Jay Jakub (D.Phil., Oxford), prayer minister at The Falls Church Anglican
“I used to go to . . . yoga at the local YMCA to ‘ease’ my mind and soon was drawn into a lifestyle of sin without feeling guilty at all. When I stopped going to those yoga classes is when I closed the door to the spirituality grip it had on my mind. Once I closed that door, I opened the door of my heart to the Holy Spirit once again and He changed my life . . . I realized that yoga and Christianity do not belong together. I wish the woman who [is] still in the yoga classes realizes [she] is opening up herself to being in the spirit realm of the demonic.”
—Danielle Ray, former YMCA yoga participant
“Tibetan Buddhism yoga (Tantric Yoga) . . . promises to bring the person into a new (re)incarnation . . . Tantric yoga is also practiced as a sexual union yoga, man/woman together. The ultimate purpose of this sexual yoga is to nullify any type of procreation . . . Yoga is anti-life. Jesus is pro-life.”
—L. G. Marshall, former yogi who converted to Christianity
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't bow down to the idol King Nebuchadnezzar had made (Daniel chapter 3). If all that matters is what is in the heart, couldn't they have just taken on an outward posture of bowing, but be bowing to God in their hearts? This is a thought that has stuck with me. Bowing in the heart to God in front of that statue sure would have been a lot easier than not bowing, knowing a fiery furnace awaited. This has given me a pretty big check to consider. There are plenty of exercises I can do that don't include ones designed to honour pagan gods. I would have really enjoyed continuing with hatha yoga, but it is a small thing to set aside.”
—anonymous former yoga participant
A few examples of alternatives to yoga worth considering:
• A God Worth Knowing podcast
• Shalom For My Body simple quieting, breathing, and vagus nerve exercises
