Is Yoga a Form of Hinduism? Is Hinduism a Form of Yoga? --- Sightings

One of the Big Issues of 2010 concerned whether Yoga was a Hindu practice and thus off limits to Christians.  Interestingly enough, there was agreement from both some Hindus and some Christians that this was true.  Al Mohler on one side said that Yoga was too Hindu for Christians, while a number of Hindus (Hindu American Foundation) said that American Yoga wasn't Hindu enough and therefore Christians should get their hands off the practice so that Hinduism can be put back into this important Hindu practice.  Well, maybe things are a bit more complicated than this, and Wendy Doniger, an expert on Hinduism at the University of Chicago, sorts things out for us!  I may not practice yoga, but if I did, thanks to Wendy, I needn't fear for my soul!  Take a read.

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Sightings 12/30/2010


Is Yoga a Form of Hinduism?
Is Hinduism a Form of Yoga?

- Wendy Doniger

Debates about these questions have been making headlines lately. Some American Hindus have argued that American yoga is not Hindu enough, that Hindus should “Take Back Yoga” (the label of a campaign by the Hindu American Foundation). Other Americans agree that the Hindus should take back yoga—but because yoga is too Hindu: R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, advises Christians to abandon yoga if they value their (Christian) souls, for “yoga, as a spiritual practice, runs directly counter to the spiritual counsel of the Bible.” The problem should not have been breaking news; a spoof in 2003, “Yoga: A Religion for Sex Addicts,” depicted a Christian minister who was asked, “Should Christians practice Yoga?” He replied, “Are we going to have to bring this whole thing up about Yoga again? I thought our Sunday school curriculum included lessons about the evils of everything Oriental, including Yoga!”

But the issues involved are not trivial. Is yoga, in fact, “a spiritual practice”? More particularly, is it a Hindu spiritual practice? The word “yoga” originally meant “yoking” horses to chariots or draft animals to plows or wagons (the Sanskrit and English words are cognate). Though many yoga practitioners, particularly but not only Hindus, insist that their practice can be traced back to the Upanishads (c. 600 BCE) and Patanjali (c. 200 CE), the word “yoga” in these texts designates a spiritual praxis of meditation conjoined with breath-control, “yoking” the senses in order to control the spirit, and then “yoking” the mind in order to obtain immortality.

Buddhist sources in this same period also speak of techniques of disciplining the mind and the body, and the word “yoga,” owing as much to Buddhism as to Hinduism, soon came to mean any mental and physical praxis of this sort. (Similar disciplines arose in ancient Greece and, later, in Christianity, a subject on which Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault had a great deal to say). This is the general sense in which the word “yoga” is used in the Bhagavad Gita, a few centuries later, to denote each of three different religious paths (the yoga of action, the yoga of meditation, and the yoga of devotion). But these texts say nothing about the physical “positions” or “postures” that distinguish contemporary yoga. The postures developed much later, some from medieval Hatha Yoga and Tantra, but more from nineteenth-century European traditions such as Swedish gymnastics, British body-building, Christian Science, and the YMCA, and still others devised by twentieth-century Hindus such as T. Krishnamacharya and B. K. S. Iyengar, reacting against those non-Indian influences.

So there is an ancient Indian yoga, but it is not the source of most of what people do in today’s yoga classes. Contemporary yoga traditions are a far cry both from the Upanishads and from Hatha Yoga. Most twenty-first century American yoga practitioners have more in common with a jogger than with a meditating sage; they want to relax after a hard day at the office, tighten up their abs, and reduce their cholesterol and their blood pressure; their yoga of relaxation and stretching may also involve regular enemas, a cure for back pain, a beauty regime, a vegetarian diet with a lot of yogurt (which is not etymologically related to “yoga”)--oh yes, and a route to God.

Is yoga, then, for the mind or for the body? Is it like going to church or like going to the gym? Is it a spiritual praxis or an exercise routine? To all these questions, the answer is: yes. For some people (both in India and in America) it has been one, for others, the other, and for many, both.

In his online column and elsewhere, the Reverend Mohler has objected to the frequent citation by yoga teachers of "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine," which he says is “just not Christianity.” But yoga is “not just Hinduism”; as we have seen, it has rich European (and Christian!) elements. Despite this historical evidence, however, many Hindus, such as those in the Hindu American Foundation, insist that meditational yoga—rather than temple rituals, the worship of images of the gods, or other, more passionate and communal forms of religion—has always been, and remains, the essence of Hinduism, their religion. Christians for whom a yoga class is simply physical exercise may offend such Hindus but should pose no problem for Mohler; and Christians who take the philosophical doctrines of yoga seriously should be no problem for a more ecumenical, not to say multi-cultural, pastor.


References

Landover Baptist Church, “Yoga: A Religion for Sex Addicts,” March 2003.

Dylan Lovan, “Southern Baptist Leader on Yoga: Not Christianity,” Associated Press, October 7, 2010.

R. Albert Mohler, Jr., “Yahoo, Yoga, and Yours Truly,” AlbertMohler.com, October 7, 2010.

Paul Vitrello, “Hindu Group Stirs a Debate Over Yoga’s Soul,” New York Times, November 27, 2010.


Wendy Doniger is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago and has published translations of the Rig Veda, the Laws of Manu, and the Kamasutra. Her latest book is The Hindus: An Alternative History (Penguin, 2009).

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Editor’s Note: Sightings will break and return on Thursday, January 6. Happy New Year!

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Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.


Comments

Brian said…
I've practiced yoga when I was trimmer. It feels good (after you're done!).

I've had these discussions before. Here's my take. Yoga comes out of India and the religions of India. I believe yoga goes back before the religion was called Hinduism (but may be wrong).

Like most ancient cultures, there was no understanding of something being religious or not religious. It simply was. (Everything was religious.)

The ancient Greeks (and Romans) participated in athletic events as an act of religious devotion. But Jews and others participated without taking on the "pagan" baggage. (Paul uses athletic metaphors freely.)

If Paul felt confident in teaching it was fine to eat meat offered to idols, I think it would be fine for any Christian to participate in exercise/meditation that is offered to other gods.

There is the matter of cultural sensitivity to the Hindus. Normally I'm all about cultural sensitivity. I'm not in this case. Yoga is great exercise. Lots of people can/do participate without religious overtones. It is true that yoga can be practiced on a deeper level as a practicing Hindu. If one feels called to that, more power to 'em, but that's not for everybody.

It is kind of like Christmas. Non-Christians can/do participate in Christmas without the religious overtones. Those of us who are Christians take it to a deeper level by adding the religious.
Rial Hamann said…
To my mind, Yoga is a form of metephysical exercise. Hinduism is a form of religion.

The posed question is one which is trying to relate two items of different sets. There is no answer.

It would be like asking: "Is being a Catholic a form of being an animal? Is being an animal a form of being a Catholic?'
Robert Cornwall said…
I have since learned that this is a much bigger debate. Mohler, it seems, was standing in agreement with the Hindu American Foundation, which wants to "take back yoga" for Hinduism. So the debate now stands -- who owns yoga? Is it a form of Hinduism or is it not? Here is a NY Times article concering the larger debate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/nyregion/28yoga.html
Ramanan said…
Hinduism is for every one.

It is away of Living.

It applies to every one.

Very term Hindu is an invention of the West to indicate people living by river Sindhu,the Indus.

Real name of so-called Hinduism is Sanatana Dharma,that is ancient, that which is without a beginning.

Systems were developed to uplift mankind by Seers who found certain paths that were useful and they have been conveyed to us through the Ages.

Vedas are self-evident and have no beginning and end.

They are Eternal Truths.

Those that follow the authority of the Vedas are called Astikas(Orthodox); those that don’t are Nastikas(heterodox).

Of the Astikas there are six systems

Nyaya,Vyseshika,Samkya,Yoga,Poorva mimamsa,and Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta.

Of this the path of Action is enunciated in Yoga for with Active disposition(Rajas)

Theoretical aspect is enunciated in Samkya and practical is Yoga.

Yoga is defined by Patanjali as ‘Cessation of the modification of the Mind (Chitta‘)

_Yogah; Chitta vritti norodhithha.

Yoga has eight steps

Yama,Niyama,Aasana,Pranayaama,Prathyaahara,Dhyana,Dharana and Samadhi.

All these eight steps are be followed in that order.

Important point is that is You should have a personal God(Iswara);it might be anything.

Without that Yoga will do more harm than Good.

Yoga is not a physical exercise , but a Spiritual Discipline.

Unless these these eight steps are followed in order and you have a personal God Yoga will not be effective.

What is now being taught by so called Gurus is nothing but a fraud on Yoga.

Read Patnjali’s Yoga Sastra.

Yoga in this sense belongs both to Hindus and non Hindus if they follow it correctly.

Hinduism does not need labels;it does not need some one’s certification.

It is for your benefit.

Take it as it is.
www.ramanan50.wordpress.com

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