Christian’s attempt to assimilate Yoga.

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In a sad attempt to assimilate Hindu teachings, some Christians have made a Christian Yoga class. This sounds very silly to me because Yoga is itself very specific to Hinduism, and expands much much further than the positions of Hatha Yoga. To say Christian Yoga would be like saying Buddhist Presbyterian.

Noun 1.yoga - Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility that is achieved through the three paths of actions and knowledge and devotion
Hindooism, Hinduism - a body of religious and philosophical beliefs and cultural practices native to India and characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being of many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal truth, and by a desire for liberation from earthly evils

Just to clarify

In the video the instructor basically says that taking classes in yoga would be okay if there wasn’t all that Hinduism involved.

“It made me feel uncomfortable. It made me feel as if those were elements that I didn’t want to participate in.”

Besides ending her sentence with a preposition, she seems to have missed the idea completely.

Take a tree and cut it’s roots off, you don’t have a tree do you

It’s another instance of Christianity gradually chipping away at other cultures. They got divine birth from a virgin mother, sun/son on a cross, Christmas, Easter, and now their trying to get Hinduism

It should be noted that Pope Benedict XVI was quoted as saying

“Yoga can degenerate into a cult of the body”

If anyone knows even the most basic teachings of Yoga, they would know that this statement is based on complete ignorance and is so far from the truth it’s laughable.

Why do Christians feel the need to distance themselves so much from other beliefs? It wouldn’t hurt to be a little multicultural would it?

From what I undertand, Hindu theology is central to yoga, and you can't really practice yoga, besides doing stances and stretches, without accepting hindu theology/philsophy.

So why is it surprising that christians want to eliminate that aspect? If christianity had an exercise programme that was popular, would anyone seriously expect hindus to take communion while burning their calories?? I guess that would be counter productive actually! Damn carbs!

Hatha Yoga A series of exercises to stretch and loosen the physical body. Originally intended to be a form of exercise to prepare for meditation, Hatha Yoga does not contain any exercises for the awakening of the consciousness or the elimination of the ego. "The Yoga that we require today is actually ancient Gnostic Christian Yoga, which absolutely rejects the idea of Hatha Yoga. We do not recommend Hatha Yoga simply because, spiritually speaking, the acrobatics of this discipline are fruitless; they should be left to the acrobats of the circus." - from The Yellow Book. There are many forms of Yoga in India, including Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and more. See yoga.

The common school of "Yoga" these days is completely degenerate and is only focused on the physical and superficial aspects of Hatha Yoga.


With the exception of a few physical asanas(such as the Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation), the Gnostic movement totally rejects said type of Yoga.

The last great Hatha Yogi was Swami Sivananda.

Yoga (Sanskrit) union. Related to the Latin Religare.

"The soul aspires for the union with his Intimate, and the Intimate aspires for the union with his Glorian." from The Revolution of Beelzebub

"All of the seven schools of Yoga are within Gnosis, yet they are in a synthesized and absolutely practical way. There is Tantric Hatha Yoga in the practices of the Maithuna (Sexual Magic). There is practical Raja Yoga in the work with the chakras. There is Gnana Yoga in our practices and mental disciplines which we have cultivated in secrecy for millions of years. We have Bhakti Yoga in our prayers and Rituals. We have Laya Yoga in our meditation and respiratory exercises. Samadhi exists in our practices with the Maithuna and during our deep meditations. We live the path of Karma Yoga in our upright actions, in our upright thoughts, in our upright feelings, etc." - from The Revolution of Beelzebub

"The Yoga that we require today is actually ancient Gnostic Christian Yoga, which absolutely rejects the idea of Hatha Yoga. We do not recommend Hatha Yoga simply because, spiritually speaking, the acrobatics of this discipline are fruitless; they should be left to the acrobats of the circus." - from The Yellow Book

Esoteric Christianity, Islam and Yoga indeed have a common Divine Root.

When the life-force ascends to higher centers, that is symbolically referred to as "uplifting Christ" or "raising up the Salaat."

For more, see the writings of Amir Fatir

I agree. I think most of the worlds major religions have a common root. From the Vedas, to Buddhism, to ancient Persian Zoroastrianism, to Judaism, to Christianity to Islam. The problem is Christianity has for the most part decided that the most ancient knowledge is meaningless, and focus on the most recent 400 years or so of teaching.

I think it's interesting that this Christian "Yoga" has little if nothing to do with the preparation for meditation. It is being used as an attempt to make the modern Christian focus mainly on the idolization of the body. It makes me think that the cult of the body that the Pope was worried about is soomething that these Christians are turning Yoga into.

Originally posted by Rasobasi420
The problem is Christianity has for the most part decided that the most ancient knowledge is meaningless, and focus on the most recent 400 years or so of teaching.

And thus its failure to uplift people.

They've abandoned the Ancient ways.

I think it's interesting that this Christian "Yoga" has little if nothing to do with the preparation for meditation. It is being used as an attempt to make the modern Christian focus mainly on the idolization of the body. It makes me think that the cult of the body that the Pope was worried about is soomething that these Christians are turning Yoga into.

And I actually agree with the Pope on this one(a rare thing).

Unfortunately almost all the "Yoga studios" in the West(or the whole world perhaps) are focused on the superficial aspects of physical body.


I'll stick with traditional Indian/Egyptian Yoga and Gnostic Christian Yoga.