Due to its
extreme trendiness and popularity even in Christian circles, yoga has become a
bit of an elephant in the room. I have gone round and round about its risk to
people of the Faith but my pleas often fall on deaf ears and blind eyes. I have
felt compelled to write on this issue. The premise is simple. Yoga is dangerous
to the Christian. Yes, you're free to do yoga just as a Christian has liberty
to do whatever they want but not everything is beneficial for the Christian
(sure hope that sounds familiar....1 Corinthians 6:12).
The response
when I say this is typical. "Andy, you're too legalistic, yoga is harmless
as long as you mediate and pray to the God in the Bible."
My reply is
always, "Really?"
I’ve had
this conversation with many and some have become heated conversations. I have
been told doing yoga for physical conditioning and exercise as a Christian is
harmless. I am told, “You’re not getting into the spiritual aspects of yoga
just stretching and doing the other physical aspects.” At first I would just
let it go in an effort to get along. Go along to get along. As I thought about
it though I realized something was amiss. God was very specific in the Old
Testament when he said His people were not to engage in pagan practices,
especially those with a spiritual element or aspect to them (Leviticus 18).
I will state
outright that the mental/meditative aspect is by far the most dangerous part of
yoga and is dancing on the edge of a razor. So how much does yoga provide a
valid non-spiritual way for a Christian to get physical exercise as opposed to
meditating and being at peace with the world and the universe via Hinduism?
First, some
history. Yoga means ‘union’, and in Hindu philosophy the person who does yoga
doe so to gain in self-control of their body AND mind. In Yoga, they are
inextricably linked and should not be separated out. Can they be used to create
union with God? No. They are to reach union with the Infinite who/which can be
perceived variously. A person that does
not have a firm grip of their Bible intellectually are already in dangerous
waters. This is at the core of even your basic yoga class. Although the
recruit to a class may be reassured that the exercises are ‘non-religious’ and
that a practitioners Christian God can be substituted with the other myriad of
gods acceptable for the practice, it must be remembered that yoga still represents
a Hindu (also Buddhist, Jainism) world-view.
As mentioned
by some of yoga’s devout practitioners, yoga is not supposed to be a weekend
warrior thing or a fad. It is an entire way of life...and therein lies its
allure and danger. There is not just an outright adherence to a pagan religion
and its practice but there is a clear danger of syncretism or blending of
religions into a synergistic whole. Part Christian, part Hindu/Buddhist. Just
like the picture above, the idea of mixing these two is as ludicrous. I figured
by giving an image of the hodgepodge of spirituality, it would hit home better.
There is of
course an allure to the physical and mental self-control that some of yoga’s
practices can bring but will practitioners see when they’ve crossed the line
spiritually? No, spiritual lines are often invisible. Only the Spirit of God
can see that and once you’ve begun to push the Spirit out with the practices of
yoga, the line will become much harder to distinguish. It is like building a
firewall with wood.
Yoga
presents the Christian with an alternative interpretation of the universe. The
Adi Deva or the primary being is called Narayana. Adi means the beginning of
creation and Deva means the one who shines. The perception of Deva is as one
who illuminates. The collective perceptions of all the beings put together is
called Adi Deva, which existed even before creation. Adi Deva is called
Narayana or the abode of all beings. Just as all rivers empty into the ocean,
all our energies and faculties empty themselves into this collective ocean of
energy called Prana which is the life force that sustains this universe. Yoga
presents the Christian with an alternate path to relief of the world’s pains
and anxiety which is Christ. The universal collective that Christians are
called to unite with is the Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ at center.
The basic Yoga
Lotus position is a circle is made of thumb and forefinger. This symbol implies
the unbroken unity of life in a never-ending circle of successive
reincarnations. Just putting ourselves into these positions and practices opens
a path to acceptance to them. Because we are dealing with the spiritual here
the risk is magnified. There are no spiritual vacuums. You become the company
you keep. You are not merging with a divine being when you do this in some
mystical transcendental experience, you are merging with the demonic. The
Christian worldview tells us clearly that if things are not of God, they are
demonic and from the system of the world.
If we read
Colossians 2 we get a pretty clear answer on how to deal with questionable
practices that pertain to errant Christian practice, pagan practice or general
non-Christian practices. Paul had to deal with the Colossian heresy (which was
syncretism) and in so doing wrote a grocery list of things to be suspicious or
wary of. Why does he do this? Paul tells us so that we do not “disqualify”
ourselves. Disqualify ourselves form what?
Salvation.
Colossians
2:16-23 ~ “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and
drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a
shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one
disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in
detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not
holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together
through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with
Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were
still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not
taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are
used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an
appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and
severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of
the flesh.
Paul is
telling us what these pagan and non-Christians practices really are. They are a
subtle form of hedonistic pleasure and appeal to the flesh. There are better
ways to exercise that pose a much lesser risk to the Christian then yoga folks.
All these other religions are not divine in origin but rather demonic in
origin. They are self-made or more specifically demonically influenced through
our own flesh and desires. When we do things physically to reach some form of
holiness or as Paul says, “severity to the body,” we are doing a work for
salvation. Salvation is by grace alone.
How does the
Hindu philosophy of yoga view the divine? It degrades the image of God. The
Hanumanasana or monkey position in yoga is a degradation to the point of
animism. Hanuman was the name of a powerful monkey chief who was the son of
Anjana, the devoted friend and servant of Rama, the seventh incarnation of
Vishnu. This in contrast with Colossians 2: 6-10 shows the main difference
between the basically Hindu concept behind Yoga, and the revealed truth of God
in Jesus Christ.
Colossians
2:6-10 ~ “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were
taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by
philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the
elemental spirits[a] of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the
whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is
the head of all rule and authority."
This is a
direct shift towards pantheism (henotheism actually). It is comparing God to
multiple gods and things in nature. It even shows God as an impersonal “It” at
times with no personality which any Christian that reads his Bible can tell you
is not true.
Be filled
with Christ, not pagan nonsense which is in reality, demonic.
Which leads
to the last thought and most dangerous about yoga. It is an attempt to empty
one’s self mentally. Many will say you can meditate on the God of the Bible
while practicing yoga but in truth, yoga is an attempt to empty one’s self
completely through chants and mantras. Again, I will ask, when does a person
spiritually know when that line begins to be crossed when the very practices we
are practicing are an attempt to drive out the very Spirit that will allow us
the discernment to know when we are crossing that line? The answer is that they
will not know and at that point it will be too late. The trick isn’t to see how
close we can get to these practice and still pull ourselves back…it is to avoid
it completely.
Can you
practices yoga and mediate on the God of the Bible. I suppose. Is it worth the
risk flirting with the potential dangers involved? I don’t know, is it worth
sprinting headlong to jump over a fire pit and risk tripping and falling into
the fire when you can just as easily walk around it?
It’s a
shame, Hinduism sort of tells us to turn inward to find the truth by emptying
ourselves. Christianity tells us to turn outsides ourselves to find Christ and
in so doing we are asked to be filled with Christ, not emptied. In Hinduism we
supposedly gain by losing identity but in Christianity we gain our true created
identity by absorbing the One who created us. We are not truly who we were
created to be until we are completely filled…not emptied.
Another sad
fact about yoga is that never once is sin mentioned. If sin is never mentioned
then a remedy to it never needs mentioning either. Therefore, no Christ and no
Gospel. So the enlightenment offered in Hinduism and yoga is therefore not
really enlightenment at all but a darkening. If there is any light it is like
shining light down a deep bottomless well of human depravity. Although the
breathing exercises and meditation (upon Christ and his Word) are commendable
we are unwise to open the door for the entry of a system that in Paul’s words,
causes someone to lose connection with Christ Himself (Colossians 2).
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