Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup
Does doing yoga make you a Hindu?
Yoga is a Sanskrit word meaning union and in the context of its exercise it means communion of self with nature. No one is or should be offended with a language, be it Sanskrit or Urdu or Russian or English or Chinese. If yoga is for men's communion with nature languages are for communication among men. So, normally the communion and the communication should not be contentious.
But not with many, mainly religionists, who have disparate associations of both, with disparate motives and perceptions. Religionists object to the Hindu flavor of Yoga, its origin and antiquity of practice in Bharat that is India. They are put off by adopting and practicing a trait so identified with the core of another alien culture, as if having to enter another one's bedroom.
But these myopic people conveniently obfuscate the all round phenomenon of adopting cultural lifestyles of all hues, emanating from better exposure to technology, education, contacts, as well as sheer indispensability of many modern aspects of life. Take clothes and attire; do not Muslim men and women wear all kinds of dress and particularly of the west?; do they not play games and sports of all kinds, themselves originated in different countries? And also have education, specializations of all kinds in medicine including indigenous ones, technology and science? As world becomes more and more a global village, its inhabitants have to increasingly synchronize with what the wind of change brings in.
There are three primary kinds of yoga, the Jnana yoga, the Karma yoga and the Bhakthi yoga. Don't be put off by the Sanskrit terminology. It only means communion by knowledge, communion by action, and communion by devotion. None but the third, the Bhakti yoga has strict religious connotation, but even that need not be of any particular faith. Shorn of its Sanskrit name, a Muslim or Christian can practice Bhkathi yoga in his own religion ie. devotion to Allah or Christ. The yoga of common parlance and the subject here is known in more exact terms as the Hatayoga which is a part of Karma yoga. Hatayoga merely means physical exercise. And what objection have you got against physical exercise, unless you are an invalid incapable of exercise?
As a physical exercise, in yoga the main concern should be whether you are breathing correctly or your body parts are correctly aligned and should not be whether you should be doing it at all or whether you are betraying your faith. The main thing that is to be considered her is the intention. If you kneel down does it mean you are praying - or you are just kneeling?
This is what Farida Hamza, a young Muslim practitioner of yoga all her life and now an instructor, asked herself when she got yoga training initially in a Hindu temple. She felt very guilty but in the end trusted that Allah understood her intentions. She completed the training without participating in any rituals or actions of religious overtones. And she says they were so respectful of her feelings.
Many yoga institutions and ones in many countries now do not make any overt mention of spirituality at all. Iran is one such country where yoga is very popular. "It has managed to flourish in a country with Sharia law and an Islamist political system, by divesting itself of anything that could be construed as blasphemy. Yoga teachers are careful to always refer to "the sport of yoga" and are accredited by the Yoga Federation, which operates in the same way as a tennis or football organization . Classes tend to be slow with much discussion about the physical benefits of each position. As with other sports, yoga competitions are held, judged by specially invited international yoga teachers.
Yoga has been repackaged in the US as well. Schools in California, take part in classes twice a week based on a style of yoga called Ashtanga yoga. The name has been changed to American slang like"criss-cross apple sauce", for the lotus position, the Surya namaskar has become the "opening sequence" and the organizers insist that it is all just a form of physical exercise.
With its emphasis on practice and experience and not on words and beliefs like faiths, Yoga stands in a theological blind spot welcoming all.
Does doing yoga make you a Hindu?
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| Farida Hamza, a Muslim woman living in the US (pictured above), had been doing yoga for two or three years when she decided she wanted to teach it. |
Yoga is a Sanskrit word meaning union and in the context of its exercise it means communion of self with nature. No one is or should be offended with a language, be it Sanskrit or Urdu or Russian or English or Chinese. If yoga is for men's communion with nature languages are for communication among men. So, normally the communion and the communication should not be contentious.
But not with many, mainly religionists, who have disparate associations of both, with disparate motives and perceptions. Religionists object to the Hindu flavor of Yoga, its origin and antiquity of practice in Bharat that is India. They are put off by adopting and practicing a trait so identified with the core of another alien culture, as if having to enter another one's bedroom.
But these myopic people conveniently obfuscate the all round phenomenon of adopting cultural lifestyles of all hues, emanating from better exposure to technology, education, contacts, as well as sheer indispensability of many modern aspects of life. Take clothes and attire; do not Muslim men and women wear all kinds of dress and particularly of the west?; do they not play games and sports of all kinds, themselves originated in different countries? And also have education, specializations of all kinds in medicine including indigenous ones, technology and science? As world becomes more and more a global village, its inhabitants have to increasingly synchronize with what the wind of change brings in.
There are three primary kinds of yoga, the Jnana yoga, the Karma yoga and the Bhakthi yoga. Don't be put off by the Sanskrit terminology. It only means communion by knowledge, communion by action, and communion by devotion. None but the third, the Bhakti yoga has strict religious connotation, but even that need not be of any particular faith. Shorn of its Sanskrit name, a Muslim or Christian can practice Bhkathi yoga in his own religion ie. devotion to Allah or Christ. The yoga of common parlance and the subject here is known in more exact terms as the Hatayoga which is a part of Karma yoga. Hatayoga merely means physical exercise. And what objection have you got against physical exercise, unless you are an invalid incapable of exercise?
As a physical exercise, in yoga the main concern should be whether you are breathing correctly or your body parts are correctly aligned and should not be whether you should be doing it at all or whether you are betraying your faith. The main thing that is to be considered her is the intention. If you kneel down does it mean you are praying - or you are just kneeling?
This is what Farida Hamza, a young Muslim practitioner of yoga all her life and now an instructor, asked herself when she got yoga training initially in a Hindu temple. She felt very guilty but in the end trusted that Allah understood her intentions. She completed the training without participating in any rituals or actions of religious overtones. And she says they were so respectful of her feelings.
Many yoga institutions and ones in many countries now do not make any overt mention of spirituality at all. Iran is one such country where yoga is very popular. "It has managed to flourish in a country with Sharia law and an Islamist political system, by divesting itself of anything that could be construed as blasphemy. Yoga teachers are careful to always refer to "the sport of yoga" and are accredited by the Yoga Federation, which operates in the same way as a tennis or football organization . Classes tend to be slow with much discussion about the physical benefits of each position. As with other sports, yoga competitions are held, judged by specially invited international yoga teachers.
Yoga has been repackaged in the US as well. Schools in California, take part in classes twice a week based on a style of yoga called Ashtanga yoga. The name has been changed to American slang like"criss-cross apple sauce", for the lotus position, the Surya namaskar has become the "opening sequence" and the organizers insist that it is all just a form of physical exercise.
With its emphasis on practice and experience and not on words and beliefs like faiths, Yoga stands in a theological blind spot welcoming all.
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