How Should Christians Respond to Yoga?

How Should Christians Respond to Yoga? (This will take you to Christian Research Institute)

I said the same thing in my article about practicing yoga.  Are you Worshiping the Son or the Sun?
Also of note in this article Kundalini-fashion or Foe?

Don't be Fooled

Nothing but Feelings

While reading a New York Times Bestselling book, I felt compelled to write a review that's going to call into question the author's beliefs, but she's freely calling into question the beliefs of Christians. My husband asked me if I felt the writer was telling her own story, or if she was pushing a belief system on the readers. She's pushing a belief system on her readers, I told him, making statements of fact, such as meditation is the only way. Then I said, "I think that Christians, as a whole, are too passive. Few of us are defending Christ in the manner that say, Paul, defended Him, through great suffering, opposition and death. Would we die for the name and Truth of Jesus Christ?

Are we a bunch of Peter's crouching behind the water fountain in the courtyard, lest someone finds out we're Jesus followers and not cool? By not speaking up when we see or hear Jesus persecuted, isn't that the same as denying Christ? Is it a sin to be passive about how people speak, write or portray the Son of man?

Without a doubt there's a movement to eradicate Christianity. The American Atheists are clearly pushing an agenda in Washington. The media, even public television, is out to debunk Christian beliefs. PBS just presented a program that brings into question whether Moses ever existed. The celebrity anti-Christian circus would require another article, but even the least of us who follow celebrity gossip know about Kabbalah and Scientology.

Then, of course, I began to wonder just how well I, not only shield my eyes from lies, but really stand up and defend Jesus?

While eternal life is a free gift given on the basis of God's grace (Ephesians 2:8,9), each of us will still be judged by Christ. This judgment will reward us for how we have lived. God's gracious gift of salvation does not free us from the requirement for faithful obedience. ¹

When I meet God, what if he asks, "Did you defend my Son?" And when I say, "Why, yes," and he asks, "We'll, what about the time when your friends used His name in vain and you said nothing?" I'll of course look dumbfounded, shuffle my feet around and make some lame excuse such as that using the Lord's name in vain became part of the American lexicon. "But what about that time you watched a TV show that made fun of my Son, and that time you enjoyed a movie that ridiculed him? What happened there?" I'll probably say something like, "What could I do even if I didn't like it?" Here God will say something like, "Why didn't you turn it off, walk out, warn others about the content? Why didn't you post the Truth on that blog you kept? I happened to be one of your readers."

By now you want to know what book I'm talking about that's led to this conversation with God.

First things first. This author is an amazing writer. There's nothing negative to say about her writing, in fact, I envy her ease of it and how she turns a phrase into a living, breathing thing. Her writing was so good that, even though it prompted this article, I kept reading. Perhaps more than anything that's why I'm here, now, not to defame her but to tell others that one must be prudent with the ideas and feelings of others when it comes to our spiritual life. Always look for the truth in the Word.

The name of the book is, Eat Pray Love, and her name is Elizabeth Gilbert.

She claims to have no personal issues with the many names of God, but prefers to use the name "God," rather, than, say for example, Shiva. She also believes God could be a woman, but prefers to think of him as a man. Culturally she claims to be a Christian, but not theologically. I stopped and re-read this again, scratching my head, wondering where the editor was because clearly there's no such animal as a cultural Christian. One either believes in Jesus or not. The writer goes on to say that Jesus is just a great teacher, and to quote her directly: "I do reserve the right to ask myself in certain trying situations what indeed He would do, though I can't swallow that one fixed rule of Christianity insisting that Christ is the only path to God."

How can anyone believe anything at all about Jesus if they don't believe what he said about himself? How can she "not swallow" what Jesus claimed himself to be? What did Jesus claim?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." John 3:16-18

For those who claim the Gospels were not composed by Jesus, it's important to note that they were written by four eye-witness accounts of the life of Jesus and all four recount similar, if not exact experiences, including the resurrection. These four disciples wrote what they remembered, not what they extrapolated off the Internet, out of books, or heard from a guru. In actuality there were hundreds if not thousands of people who saw Jesus, both before and after he was resurrected.

I came across something else in the Bible about the testimonies of Jesus. He makes a case for himself, perhaps knowing there would be people in this world who reserved the right not to believe in him, which of course is free will, the very gift God gave humans over all other creatures on this planet.

"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid.

You have sent John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony, but I mention it that you maybe be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you posses eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me, to have life.

I do not accept praise from men, but I know you, I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" John 5:31-47 NIV

Sadly, many Christians don't know exactly what Jesus said and they can get sucked into false teachings that promise they're in harmony with Christianity, and without much dissension.

"...most of the Christians I know accept my feelings on this with grace and open mindedness..."

She doesn't know any Christians. Christian's profess belief in Jesus as Christ and follow the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus. There is no middle ground with Jesus Christ. One only has to pick up a Bible and read the RED.

Open mindedness means having or showing a mind receptive to new ideas or arguments. She doesn't present new ideas or arguments. To this writer, any explanation other than none would have helped me have an open mind to her feelings pertaining to Jesus.

After a few more chapters about her painful divorce (which I feel no empathy as she left an otherwise decent man), she flies the reader to Italy. Now, the story holds me tightly and is so provocatively written that after beautiful, breathless months spent in Europe we're abruptly dumped in India, and pummeled on Hindu philosophy, a detailed, rehashed monologue about yoga, ashram life, meditation techniques and how to find the right guru, peppered with cheeky comments about God being a turnip. Nothing unique in selling Hinduism, different, untold, or captivating. Her guru hammer had me ready to sob. She'd taken us out of glorious Italy on an amazing journey and dropped us on our heads in a shabby chic ashram.

Inside the ashram she meets more privileged spiritual seeking cohorts (whom she points out are all successful (which isn't true or they wouldn't be there). One even has a PhD, mind you! Why some people think education justifies bad choices, I'll never know. So, all these inmates of hers had the free choice to put their lives (and those of their husbands, wives, children, employers, friends, cats and dogs) on hold to travel half way around the world to suffer (but not too much) for their guru, completely unconcerned while zoning out in meditation, about the millions of real Hindus who haven't enough clean water to drink. The devoted ones eat delicious meals, have their personal needs met, with just a few inconveniences (for effect), yet on the other side of the wall people are living in abject poverty.

Christians would have been working outside, in the trenches, to help those in need, not spending their days in service to those within the ashram. Therein is a pivotal difference between Christ and a guru. Christ wants us to roll up our sleeves and administer to the poor and needy, but guru's want you serve them first, then their devotees (who support the guru's pampered lifestyle), while ignoring the poverty and suffering all around them.

I wanted rip the book in two and keep the part I was adoring! But no. Here I am reading what I already know about Hinduism (or any variant of it) and wanting to find this writer's phone number and call her and scream, "How could you have ruined such a perfectly fabulous book?"

I understand that she had to write about her experience in the ashram since she went there, but she presents her case for yoga with an air of professional qualifications, discounting Christ, to proclaim her own feelings, with certainty that her--struggling in a dark fake cave and sitting rigid for hours of meditation is the only way to know God. This chapter tries to sell a package that all Hindu guru's have sold since Swami Vivekananda successfully introduced yoga to the West in the late 1800's.

Her single experience wasn't based on years and years of this kind of spiritual pursuit but a few months, and yes, the ashram makes for an interesting adventure because of her talent as a writer, but she's not walked this razor's edge long enough to weigh in with such authority that the actual teachings are superior to Christ's.

Now, as I continue reading, weary from frustration, she begins what I call the Hindu witnessing and proof they all proclaim, in one manner or another, yet they deny witnessing.

* You're chosen

* The guru was unique, chosen by his master, enlightened

* You received an initiation.

* The guru seldom visited the austere, desolate ashrams in India that were run mostly by volunteers, rather her guru lived most of the time in America. This void is explained. The devotees do not need the guru in their presence to benefit from them. They can be alive or dead, here or thousands of miles away. It's all the same.

* Ashram life was difficult. There are long hours of physical work and tedious hours of meditation. Devotees are exhausted and under fed.

* To come to the ashram the guru wants the devotee to be in good physical and mental health and have financial assets. This is stance is viewed as practical, giving credence to the guru.
You're not to be a drain on anyone.

* If your family objects to you coming to the ashram, you should not to come. Your family is not to be a drain on anyone. You're to serve the guru and his/her followers without any resistance.

* Any abuse you receive (hard labor, lack of food or sleep and hours of still meditation) will help you on the path.

* The guru came from a "line" of guru's.

* The guru gives a mantra, and special lessons.

She presented many other commonalities of yogic life seen in similar sects, but there are too many to list. What's important to note is her "feelings" were her guide to truth. Because she "felt" something in her meditations, this was proof enough to her that she was communicating with God.

Why then were her original feelings about her husband not enough to sustain her marriage? Feelings are never accurate, especially when God is involved.

Group experiences seemed to hold some value to her as well. She tells a story about a rowdy crowd of people waiting to see their guru and calmed into bliss when he appeared on stage, therefore the yogi is authentic by his ability to transcend people who came looking for spiritual joy.

A crowed can be convinced to drink cyanide.

Yogi's are seeking an experience. They gather for that experience. They come together with silly "bliss bunny" smiles and meditate together. Whether in a group or alone, they are not meditating to just sit there. They're straining for something God-like, whether it's a breathless state or to gaze into the third eye (often described as a blue light with a white star), or some form of out-of-body feeling. They may very well hallucinate by a self imposed hypnotic states, fueled by opiate type endorphins.

She writes, "In mystical India, as in many shamanistic traditions, kundalini shaki (life force) is considered a dangerous force to play around with if you are unsupervised; the inexperienced Yogi could quite literally blow his mind with it."

I knew such an inexperienced man and after doing a technique to control Kundalini, he went behind a gas station and stabbed himself to death. Read that again. I did not mean to say that he cut his wrists. He, quite literally stabbed himself to death. If this is any indication of what she means by blowing ones mind, then on this note she is indeed accurate.

I studied, mediated and followed a very famous Indian guru during most of my life. I was a profoundly excellent devotee. Though I didn't live in an ashram, I'd stayed in one, and visited many in America. One need not travel to India to have this deprived experience. I knew hundreds of yogis for up to 30 years, but not one of them had ever attained much. I don't mean money, though most of them had little financial success, but happiness. There were drugs, alcohol, affairs, divorces, physical abuses, and because yogi's do not believe in sin and have no way to be absolved the guilt. They seemed a bunch of shame driven antisocial beings. I'd never seen anyone enter into the highest state, Samadhi, and yet we heard many times of our gurus experience. None of these struggling yogi's were better off, if anything, all of them suffered mental and emotional problems. Guru's offer much to the unpopular, the antisocial and the broken people who never quite fit into anything. Here they become special, and needed, chosen, ripe for picking. If they came from the Christian faith they generally grew up with a distorted view of Christianity perpetrated by their parents.

Everything this author shares about her yoga experience I've heard before, accept this one thing: "You come to your Guru, then, not only to receive lessons, as from any teacher, but to actually receive the Guru's state of grace. Such transfers of grace can occur in even the most fleeting of encounters with a great being."

I experienced no Grace in eastern religion. Grace is the divine favor toward man; the mercy of God, as distinguished from His justice; also, any benefits His mercy imparts; divine love or pardon; a state of acceptance with God; enjoyment of the divine favor.

When I left my guru, I did so for reasons that had nothing to do with his deceptions--those I learned about them many years later (his followers continue to disbelieve what's been uncovered). I had no grudge to bear against the guru, I loved him dearly. I just needed space from the people he attracted, including the monks and nuns who ran the organization like a gulag. I was completely unaware that I'd been slowly brainwashed into believing the Hindu philosophy, and had abandoned so many years ago the truths in the Bible.

I came back to Christ in a simple way. I began reading the Bible. Truth was revealed. I remember setting the Bible on my lap, glancing up at my husband and saying, "They (our old guru church) have it all wrong."

The first thing the Lord showed me was that the Christian life is a fight against evil forces from without and temptation from within. Christ paid for our sins. God wants us to live by faith, not by magic, or by trying to manipulate God. Satan tried to temp Jesus into sinning by quoting scripture. Don't be fooled. One can't believe Jesus was a good teacher if one doesn't believe what he taught.

Jesus said, "If a kingdom cannot stand against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." Mark 3:24

"It is also written: Do not put your God to the test." Matthew 4:7



₁ Life Application Study Bible, Zondervan

Kundalini - Fashion or Foe?

People Magazine has an article this week about a young actress who overcame an eating disorder and now draws her strength from Kundalini yoga. What concerned me most about this story is Kundalini is described as simply meditation and chanting. This lack of information is typical of our culture.

We’re obsessed with eastern religion, and if you read much of my Blog you’ll see I’m quick to point out the erroneous mistake in promoting it so blatantly.

Even more ironic is the message from this story is to go from one addiction to another. Yoga can be an addiction.The writer of the People Magazine article didn’t consider a common thread that yoga has with addictions. Control. Eating disorders are about control, and so is yoga, especially Kundalini yoga, which is a meditative discipline. The addicts I knew who clung to yoga as their means of recovery, failed and are now dead. 30 years in an Eastern Church gives me some authority on the subject, and a bird’s eye view of the wreckage that a yogic life can leave behind.

Here’s what People Magazine didn’t tell you.

Kundalini yoga focuses on moving energy through the spine, or what yogi’s call the chakra system. How do they do that? They imagine moving energy around the chakras (spine), and this is done in conjunction with certain breathing exercises. It is done in repetitions, usually starting out with a small number and increasing as you practice.There is an additional concern for addicts. Self-hypnosis is very addicting. It produces endorphins that mimic the same kind of high that cocaine can produce and stopping it suddenly can cause withdrawals. Practicing yoga can become an emotional obligation, something yogi’s might feel forced to practice, and when oneness is never found, depression can follow. Finally, the yogi self-hypnotizes isolates and disconnects from their world in the same way addicts isolate and disconnect. It’s important to remember that the word yoga is “union,” meaning one. Kundalini yoga is said to enable the person to merge with or "yoke" the universal Self, resulting in union with the Divine.

All yoga classes introduce meditation in some form. Breath control, affirmations and incense are often included. These caveats are part of Hindu mysticism. Christians especially should know that any form of pagan rituals, dressed up in cultural style and paraded by Hollywood is a dangerous message. This lovely actress founded a national eating disorder association and I wonder how much of Kundalini yoga will be introduced to other young women struggling with this cultural disease, or those reading People Magazine. Recovery requires something yoga can’t offer: Grace. Forgiveness.

Yoga is not just exercises; it’s a life-style, a practiced and believed philosophy. In the end, yoga can alienate people from the God of the Bible. It might not happen overnight, but it can change beliefs through hypnotic states. Repetitive yoga techniques interspersed with chanting, mantras or affirmations, has direct access to the subconscious mind without any interference from the conscious mind.“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” Proverbs 11:17

(This is a reprint from the old TD 8/23/07)

The Selling of Yoga

Looking into New Religion Part II - The Selling of Yoga

The medical world touts yoga and meditation as the cure for everything from flatulence to cancer. Yoga teaches you how to move the energy in your body, and since everything is made of energy, animal, vegetable and mineral, we can control our health, well-being and our spiritual life. Since energy vibrates at different levels, and depending on the rate of vibration, you can either see it, such as rock, or not see it, such as wind. A table is energy re-arranged. We are energy, not souls, according to yoga.

This makes perfect sense and is believable, scientific even, and is usually the hook to drag people into yoga classes. We know there’s a life force within us and Christians call that the soul. The spirit that lives within us is part of the Holy Trinity. The problem with yoga, is this philosophy (which trickles into the classes) teaches that all life force, both that which vibrates at high rate and that which vibrates at a low rate, is God. We used to say, “God is in the lamp post.”

The duty of a good Yogi is to get in touch with that energy and control it’s flow. But, we’re told, we can’t control the energy if we’re freely operating in duality, or in this three-dimensional world. What this means is, if we’re hyped up, we can’t tune into God. Thus, in order to sit for hours in meditation, one prepares ones body by doing Hatha (system of physical) yoga, or what we now recognize as a yoga class. What’s the harm?

Eastern healing arts always work with “energy channels and states of awareness.” Yoga can not exist without this philosophy. Classes always combine postures and meditation. Yoga teaches that unless we’re in a motionless, erect state, our eyes focused between the eyebrows (called the 3rd eye) we’re not centered, or out of balance to the energy–or God. Yoga classes can call this practice anything they want, but it’s a Hatha Yoga.

Just who's teaching the class?

Over the years, I’ve known many yoga instructors. All of them were involved in some form of eastern religion or thought. You can’t be a yoga teacher if you’re not seriously instructed in the history of yoga. Before you start the class ask the instructor if he/she believes Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and if he died for our sins. I can almost guarantee you, you'll get an explanation something like this:

"I believe in Jesus, but Jesus isn't the only way, I mean, think about it. What about those poor souls in the amazon who never heard about him? What kind of God abandons innocent people? God loves everyone. Krishna and Buddha taught the same message as Jesus. Besides, there's proof Jesus knew yoga and taught it to his disciples. He was only a great yogi, or sage. Doesn't it make sense that the lord responds to all, and works for all?" Then they might quote Carl Jung:

"The deeper your understanding of self realization the more influences we have on the whole universe by our spiritual vibrations. Yoga offers the possibility of a controllable experiences and this satisfies our scientific need for facts--and besides this, by reason if its breadth and depth, its venerable age, its doctrine and method, which includes every phase of life, it promises undreamed of possibilities!"*

All Yoga classes use eastern lexicon freely and over time introduce more of the philosophies into the class. Talk of higher power and chakras (energy centers in the spine), burning of incense, playing or singing chants, and nearly always, at least at the end, some kind of guided meditation. They often teach yoga breath work which may or may not include a mantra, such as Aum. You may see an altar with flowers and statues, along with incense, even food, an offering to their Gods. There may be gongs and Thangka's hanging around. They might sell books, soap stone elephants, lotus chains and sandalwood beads. You might see yogic symbols on the walls, such as the Aum (OM) sign, lotus flowers, and pictures of India Gods, such a Lord Krishna. Or, the other extreme, you won’t see anything but blank walls and yoga mats.

The Yoga class environment depends on where the classes are given and what kind of yoga is being taught. In Indian philosophy, yoga is the name of one of the six orthodox philosophical schools. There isn’t just one kind of yoga class, but all systems of yoga do not harmonize with Christianity.

“What is the big deal about yoga? Who cares what it’s called, right? It’s just exercise to lower my blood pressure–my doctor recommended it! You’re another intolerant right-winged Christian full of yourself!”

As Paul said in Galatians 4: 16 “Have I now become the enemy by telling you the truth?

Yoga is a Sanskrit word and it encompasses a group of ancient spiritual practices originating in India. Its disciplines of asceticism and meditation are believed to lead to spiritual experiences and a profound understanding or insight into the nature of existence.

If you practice yoga of any kind, the understand the root:

Pantanjali

Patañjali ** is the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, a major work containing aphorisms (original thought) on the philosophical aspects of mind and consciousness... In recent decades the Yoga Sutra has become quite popular worldwide for the precepts regarding practice of Raja Yoga and its philosophical basis. "Yoga" involves inner contemplation, a rigorous system (works) of meditation practice, ethics, metaphysics, and devotion to the one common soul, God, or Brahman. (You are God.)

Physical movements of yoga practice in combination with pranayama (life control), constitutes a form of yoga referred to as Hatha Yoga. In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali describes asana as a "firm, comfortable posture", and referring specifically to the seated posture, most basic of all the asanas. He further suggests that meditation is the path to samadhi (state of perfection); transpersonal (mystical states) self-realization (one with God).


The Sanskrit term yoga has many meanings. It is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, "to control", "to yoke", or "to unite". Common meanings include "joining" or "uniting", and related ideas such as "union" and "conjunction." Sanskrit is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism.

Satan loves ignorance, and practicing an ancient yogi discipline is ignorance of the Bible's message of freedom in Christ.

“But now that you know God–or rather are known by God–how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?” Galatians 3:16

Cancel the yoga class and take a stretching class.

To be Continued...


* CG Jung, Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda, Self Realization Fellowship
**Patañjali is known to be an incarnation of A-di S'esha who is the first ego-expansion of Vishnu, Sankarshana. Sankarshana, the manifestation of Vishnu His primeval energies and opulences, is part of the so-called catur vyu-ha, the fourfold manifestation of Vishnu. (Wikipedia)