After Christian Yoga, Islamic Yoga*…
…just kidding.
On a more serious note, in Hindu Voice UK, Anish Shah recently wrote about the trend to ignore (or de-link) Hindu traditions from their origins and pretend that these were really secular practices.
This trend may be entirely harmless on the other hand, I am also slightly worried that there is no mention at all about Yoga’s origins and how it is intimately connected to the Hindu spiritual and philosophical tradition.
So we now have Christian Yoga (see here and here) and I will not be surprised if Islamic Yoga is next…
I have nothing against Yoga…in fact, I am a firm believer in its benefits…but at the same time, I am strongly against crass commercial exploitation of this tradition without a hint or a nod towards its spiritual and philosophical aspects.
In fact, the ChristianYoga.com website mentions that, “If a secular yoga class is not completely separated from its eastern religion and philosophy, then you may be exposed unintentionally to a non-Christian environment“(sic)… and its FAQ section has this nugget: “(our approach)...allows you to enjoy the physical benefits of yoga without the spiritual dangers presented by other forms of yoga.“!
Susan Bordenkircher, ChristianYoga.us’ instructor (the other ChristianYoga organisation) was “recognized in 2003 by the United Methodist Conference as a Denman award winner for her efforts at evangelism.”
***
I am very interested to hear Yoga teachers and practitioners views on this.
On Yahoo! Groups, Shri Sampath wrote a nice letter to the head of one of the fore-mentioned Christian Yoga organisations (Susan Bordenkircher). I would encourage readers to add their voice to this:
Dear Ms. Susan,
I have seen your web site and glad to note that you have benefited from the practice of yoga and are keen to propagate it to others interested in improving their physical and spiritual health.
You must have learnt that Yoga is of Hindu origin and has spiritual sanction as one of the methods (though not high in the hierarchy) for God realization. I am sure you will appraise your students the background and history of yoga, and the book in Sanskrit by yogi Patanjali.
Christian yoga has as much truth and validity as Hindu Christ.
Hinduism is a religion which respects all religions and does not appropriate the teachings of other saints and preachers.Yours sincerely,
Sampath”
Well said…
And now there is Egyptian Yoga too
* UPDATE: Apparently that may not happen anytime soon:
Read: Egypt: ‘Yoga is a sin’ in which the Grand mufti of Egypt Ali Gomaa is reported to have ruled (in Oct ’04) that Yoga (is) a sin for Moslems because it “is considered one of the ways of practising Hinduism and therefore should not be used for worship….(and) Even if Moslems do not know the link with Hinduism, it is a sin”.
…and another report on the same edict: “Yoga violates Islamic Law: Cleric”
Image: Screenshot
indias secular / anti hindu media will conveniently ignore this and most of us will not even talk about this topic ( like how we turn a blind eye to most of the burning issues harming us).
but just imagine if this had been a chritian practice or an islamic practice… it would have become a burning national issue. why are we so over sensitive towards muslim and christian appeasement while we dont even bat an eyelid when secular antinationals / criminals like teesta setalvad/ shabana azmi/ shabnam hashmi and their clan rubbish hinduism at any given oppurtunity? when we comprise a 85% majority why are we scared of this malignant minority? by being impotent silent spectators we are as guilty as the perpetrators of such crimes.
It is painful for them to find and see good in a religion that doesnot belong to christians. I feel them very narrow minded as they cannot see anything other than christinity. So it is obvious to see the tag of christianity with Yoga. They don’t want to be guilty of accepting good from others religion. Smart way to accept Yoga! I think, it will take a long way for them to see truth about Hinduism. But once they will know the truth they will never abandon it, and may laugh on their ignorance till they were in.
I see them narrowminded- Why?
On one occassion I was caught into discussion with evanglical people and topic was about healing power of “Bible”. (Though I highly respect “Jesus Christ” but that doesnot mean I stop seeing the truth). As discussion on “healing power” was going round and round at one point I got fed up with their stupidity and i was tempted to ask them ” Do you know from where does “Yoga” comes from?” One of them answered “China”. I was shocked by their ignorance!
After some discussion, one of them aggressively took a stand that people from other religion dont want to see good about christianity, they just want to stick to false belief that is not useful to them in any way.
My final reaction in words to them was- “How can you preach me about your religion, when you dont know what my religion is all about? I know many things about your religion, and about “Jesus Christ”. We have many catholic schools in India too. How come you dont know anything about Hinduism? Or from where does Yoga comes from? That shows it is you who have to see beyond christianity. It is you who have to come out of caccoon, not me. Why are you stick to you christian way of living? Have you ever tried to see Hindus way of living, Not, than why I should do that.
I would also like to copy paste something that is nice to read from “Hinduism Today” site.
Carl Vadivella Belle’s Thai Pusam Journey
http://www.bmezine.com
AUSTRALIA, April 6, 2007: In 1976 Carl Belle began his personal journey with Lord Muruga when he was posted to Malaysia by the Australian government. To assist him with his job working with students he undertook a study of Malaysia’s religious and visited a number of religious and cultural festivals.
Carl says, “I first saw the major festival of Thaipusam at Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur in January 1978, and was so overcome that I had to sit down; I felt that I would pass out. The reason was not the body piercings, but rather the intense vibrations I felt emanating from the devotees; it was totally unlike any other emotion I had ever experienced, and certainly different from anything in my own religious background. This was spirituality as pure ecstasy. Indeed, I commented to my wife, Wendy, that I could see myself engaging in this, but of course, later that day my ‘skeptical-scientific’ Western background reasserted itself, and I dismissed my feeling s as a psychological trick of the mind. However, I did follow a friend who took a kavadi in the Thaipusam festival of 1979, and again I felt overcome and strongly attracted to the ritual.
“I returned to Australia in 1979, and felt culture shock. I felt that I had left for Australia prematurely, and that Malaysia held the answer to my queries. I had a number of psychic experiences after I returned to Australia, but I kept denying the validity of these experiences. The culmination came at a party I attended on 29 September 1979. I was talking to a group of scientists, who were enthusiasts for genetic engineering. I was horrified at the narrow world they envisaged, and the hatred or at least contempt for humanity which informed their arguments. Finally, one of these scientists turned to me, and stated ‘You are obviously speaking from a religious point of view. What religion are you?’ Without time to think, I responded automatically, ‘I am a Hindu,’ thus acknowledging for the first time, all that happened to me over the past twenty months.
“That night I had a powerful vision. I saw waves of kavadi bearers at Batu Caves, humble in the face of the Divine, and I saw the arrogance of a particular strand of Western science, dismissive of fellow humans. As I pondered on this, I saw Lord Murugan, the God of Thaipusam appear in a brilliant blue light, and summon me to Batu Caves, and I knew I had been asked to bear a kavadi. I thus made a vow to take a kavadi on five occasions (2007 was my fifteenth kavadi!) and my first pilgrimage was in January 1981.”
To read the full interview and view the personal photographs of Mr. Belle’s kavadi, click URL above.
—Some may find piercing arrows and other stuff over body painfull to see— but it really makes me wonder, What science has to say about it?
Great find Indian. thanks.
Also, good comment…thanks for reading and actively participating…
Thanks! But credit goes to B. Shantanu’s thought- provoking blog.
Jai Hind
Malaysia to impose Fatwa on Yoga
© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved.
Malaysian PM says Muslims can do yoga without mantras
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20090223/808/tnl-angry-india-moves-to-patent-yoga-pos.html
Angry India moves to patent yoga poses
Mon, Feb 23 01:30 PM
New Delhi, Feb.23 (ANI): India has set up a team of Hindu gurus and 200 scientists to identify all ancient yoga positions or asanas and register each one to stop “patent pirates” from stealing its “traditional knowledge”.
So far, they have added 600 asanas to India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library to stop so-called gurus in the United States and Europe patenting established poses as their own, reports The Telegraph.
Attempts by mostly American yoga teachers to patent yoga moves from their classes as their own originals has angered India.
Since its arrival in Britain and America in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it was popularised by Beatles guitarist George Harrison, among others, Yoga has become a 225 billion dollar industry.
In India, however, it remains collective knowledge – practiced in public parks where gurus often teach fast breathing exercises, like pranayam, and different ‘sun-salutations,’ free of charge.
But as the number of Western yoga teachers has grown, there has been a steady increase in patent applications claiming each pose in their class is not part of the ancient discipline of mind and body, but their own unique invention.
In the United States alone, there have been more than 130 yoga-related patents, 150 copyrights and 2,300 trademarks.
Now India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library is being made available to patents offices throughout the world so they can establish whether the claim is a genuine innovation or “prior art” from Indian systems of medicine.
So far a team of yoga gurus from nine schools have worked with government officials and 200 scientists from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to scan 35 ancient texts including the Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Bhagwad Gita, and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras to register each native pose. (ANI)
The urge to be ‘politically correct’ and to appear ‘secular’ must be very strong. For even Baba Ramdev had to concede “Yoga has nothing to do with religion. It is not Hinduism. It is for all people, whether he is Hindu, Muslim or Christian.”
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2007/jul/17slide2.htm
A day ago there was news about the Pope washing and drying feet of layman – a hijacked vedic / Hindu tradition. Just as they conveniently fail to acknowledge now, the Vedic / Hindu contributions of Mathematics, Science, Cosmology etc, some day in future they will also successfully dissociate the religious element from Yoga, unless we emphasize our contribution.
@ Arindam B.
Nailed down. Liked it! The same occured to my mind when I was reading the news of washing feet.
Take care!
http://www.newsweek.com/id/237910
This link contains following and dispute surrounding Yoga and religion.
In all religions, heartbreak and enmity lie in this struggle between those who want to unify and transcend, like Chopra, and those who want to protect their tradition’s unique identity and character, like Shukla. My friend the Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero has just written a book called God Is Not One, which argues that the good in any religion (e.g., yoga) necessarily comes with the bad (caste systems). By seeing religion as a single, happy universal force, we blind ourselves to tensions of great consequence to individuals and to history. “America,” he says, “has this amazing capacity to make everything banal. That’s what we do. We make things banal and then we sell them. If you’re a Hindu, you see this beautiful, ancient tradition of yoga being turned into this ugly materialistic vehicle for selling clothes. It makes sense to me that you would be upset.”
Lately, though, that muddle is less innocent. Some of yoga’s best-known—and most entrepreneurial—purveyors concede they’ve consciously separated Hinduism from yoga to make it more palatable. “The reason I sanitized it is there’s a lot of junk in [Hinduism],” explains Deepak Chopra, the New Age guru whose latest book, co-written with Marianne Williamson and Debbie Ford, is The Shadow Effect. “We’ve got to evolve to a secular spirituality that still addresses our deepest longings … Most religion is culture and mythology. Read any religious text, and there’s a lot of nonsense there. Yet the religious experience is beautiful.”
Indian,
You forgot to state the final words from that article
But know where yoga came from and respect those origins. Then, when you chant “om,” it will resonate not only in the room but down through the ages.
NOT VERY Indian? eh!?
I was reading this war between Aseem Shukla on Chopra’s attitude towards Yoga, on Hindu American Foundation and than it got in the newsweek. Link alone can be overlooked by readers so I thought to paste some excerpts here along with the link. Regarding “OM”, research in US shows that reciting OM before any surgery has given good results to both patients and doctors.! the strength of “OM” cannot be iignored. Right!
Share your thoughts below.
Some Videos..
.
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter
Support
Remind Me!
Archives
Join the Community
Recent Comments
Categories
Do Not Copy
Recent Posts
Most Commented
.
Search
Most Viewed (since Dec '09)
.