The origin of yoga

Yoga's Hidden Agenda

I did some research before I attended another class. I learned that yoga, practiced predominantly by Buddhists and Hindus, has become one of America's hottest trends. While the variations of yoga are endless, one overriding principle pervades them all: the goal of obtaining oneness with the Universal Soul, known in Hinduism as Brahman, or in Buddhism as Nirvana. Every thought, every muscle movement, every breath I took in that class was designed to bring me to the feet of a false god.

Yoga actually means "union with god" or "to yoke." This union is accomplished by disciplining the flesh through difficult postures and the mind through meditation. Even chanting "Om" during meditation is meant to unite your spirit with the Universal Soul; "Om" is a sacred Hindu sound symbolizing the "Absolute." According to eastern religious thought, once you've mastered these elements, your spirit's no longer bound to your body; it's free to roam the netherworld, guided by a spiritual entity. It's then, according to cult expert Bob Larson, that practitioners believe they "possess all powers, psychic abilities, and sinless perfection." The breathing exercises (pranayamas) are also said to promote psychic abilities.

In light of such findings, I realized yoga was more than a harmless exercise regime. I also was troubled by the fact Beth decided to become a Buddhist after only three months of her hatha yoga class, one of the most commonly taught forms of yoga touted by yoga teachers and many physicians as the least religious variation. I wasn't surprised by Beth's decision when I considered what one of today's most influential yoga leaders has to say.

According to Swami Vishudevanadar, hatha yoga "prescribes physical methods to begin … so that the student can manipulate the mind more easily as he advances, attaining communication with one's higher self." Regardless of Beth's original intent, yoga had designs on her spiritual life the moment she removed her shoes.

The more I researched it, the more it became obvious yoga is a false gospel, claiming mental and physical disciplines bring about union with God. Just read what Yogi Maharishi Mahesh says about sin and redemption: "[Meditation] brings us more ability for achieving something through right means, and very easily a sinner comes out of the field of sin and becomes a virtuous man." But the true gospel tells a different story: "Since we have now been justified by [Jesus'] blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him" (Romans 5:9). The only union with God we can ever experience is through the saving blood of Jesus.

The Lure of De-stressing

Like many, I was originally intrigued by yoga's promise to manage the overwhelming stresses of my life. That's how my friend Michael's three-year struggle with yoga began. When I met Michael, he was a devoted Christian and Bible study teacher. On the advice of a physician, he began a yoga class to relieve the stress of his high-pressure job.

One evening, Michael shared with my husband and me his passion for yoga. "With each class I feel as if a new burden's lifted, a new muscle's softened. I don't know how I lived without yoga." But his wife, Leigh, shared the other side of the story with me. Michael's once-a-week class had turned into an everyday obsession, and their conversations had grown strangely mystical. "He keeps saying he can reach the God of the Bible through the body positions and meditations he's learning in class. He says God is somewhere on earth today as an avatar." The Sanskrit word "avatar" means "the descent to earth of a diety." According to the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text, and other eastern holy books, God comes to earth and dwells in human form once every age. Buddha, Muhammad, Christ, and Krishna are all considered avatars. In an effort to justify his increasing involvement in yoga, Michael began to mix biblical truths with eastern philosophies—behavior God doesn't tolerate. In the book of James, God makes it clear both fresh and salt water cannot flow from the same spring (3:11-12). Neither can Christians follow God's teaching while following other religious beliefs.

Biblical Alternatives to Yoga

Thankfully, I discovered some biblical alternatives to yoga, which I gladly passed to Michael. Once he modified my suggestions to fit his personality and advanced stretching skills, he discovered all the stress-reducing benefits of yoga could be achieved through his relationship with God.

Relaxing with God. God showed me yoga doesn't have a monopoly on relaxation techniques. I now set my alarm an hour early so I can spend time alone with God. Before I go to bed, I choose a Bible verse, then write it on an index card. I use a Bible concordance to help me search for a subject relevant to my life. For example, when my husband opened his own business this year, I exhausted all the verses under the heading "fear."

Each morning I immerse myself in the verse during a simple 15-minute stretching routine I adapted from the yoga class. While I stretch, I ask myself these questions: What is the main point of this passage? What does God want me to learn from it? How can I apply it to my life today?

I try to keep the stretches simple—no more pretzels for me. I start by focusing on the most troublesome areas, specifically tight or painful muscles. Experts suggest you include at least one stretch for each major muscle group—the arms, shoulders, neck, back, abdomen, lower back, buttocks, and legs. You'll want to keep the following points in mind as you develop your personal routine:

• Always warm up a few minutes before you stretch.

• Never push the stretch to the point of pain.

• Hold each stretch for 10-20 seconds.

• Complete 1-3 repetitions per stretch.

If you don't feel comfortable putting together your own routine, check with your local church. Many now offer stretching classes. Just make sure they're not influenced by eastern religions. Simply ask the instructor which program they base their class on. If their answer is yoga or tai chi, for example, you'll want to find another class.

Exercising with God. Once I'm done stretching, I spend the rest of the hour in what I term "prayerful exercise." Exercise is a perfect time to pray if you choose activities such as walking, biking, jogging, or hiking. I like to start with a worship CD to get my praise juices flowing. Listening to the lyrics prepares my spirit to connect with God. Sometimes I find it helpful to bring a list of prayer requests to refresh my memory, but usually the praise music, time alone, and natural surroundings are sufficient inspiration. Regardless of the exercise I choose, my time alone with God renews my mind and the exercise fuels me for another busy day.

Meditating God's way. Aside from stretching, another one of yoga's primary promises is to calm your mind through meditation. The difference between yoga meditation and the type God commands in Scripture is twofold: the object of our meditation and the result. Yogi philosophers urge followers to empty their mind. This empty mind, they claim, is the doorway to communion with the Universal Soul. But cult expert Bob Larson warns that yoga mediators "should not be deceived into thinking they have communed with the Lord." What they have done instead is "left [their] mind open to an evil invasion by the spirit being associated with the particular discipline employed."

God, on the other hand, should always be at the center of true meditation. While prayer and Bible study tend to be proactive, meditation is your time to listen to God. I meditate by focusing on a single verse. You may prefer meditating on one of God's characteristics, one of his names, or an aspect of his creation. As you do this, over time you'll grow closer to God, because you'll have learned how to "cast all your anxiety on him" (1 Peter 5:7).

Looking back, I'm amazed at how God used my yoga experience to teach me to be more discerning. The apostle John warns, "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1).

It wasn't until after my yoga adventure that I began practicing this advice. Now I use my Bible to test whether the latest trends, personal habits, or beliefs truly belong to God. Characteristically, God took what was meant for evil and turned it into good (Genesis 50:20).

He also used the yoga class to introduce me to Christian meditation. Through this practice, I'm getting to know him more intimately. I'm learning to rely on him when I'm anxious, and to be quiet so I can hear him speak. For the first time I understand what it means to be still and know that he is God (Psalm 46:10). Besides my personal spiritual growth, I also have more energy and feel healthier.
Like many Christians, I was ignorant of yoga's underlying force. What appeared to be a healthy exercise alternative really harbored a more insidious agenda. Yoga is designed to lead you into the arms of a false god. The question every Christian considering yoga must ask is: Can I still worship the true God if my body's reaching toward another?

In a recent Today’s Christian Woman online poll, we asked how many of you have practiced yoga.

27 percent of respondents have. 73 percent of respondents haven't.
VIII 7. DANGEROUS MEDITATIONS –WHAT HARM IS THERE IN ACHIEVING A HIGHER STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH MEDITATION?

By Douglas Groothuis 10/20/2004 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/011/10.78.html :

Overstressed Americans are increasingly turning to various forms of Eastern meditation, particularly yoga, in search of relaxation and spirituality. Underlying these meditative practices, however, is a worldview in conflict with biblical spirituality—though many Christians are (unwisely) practicing yoga.

Many Eastern religions teach that the source of salvation is found within, and that the fundamental human problem is not sin against a holy God but ignorance of our true condition. These worldviews advocate meditation and "higher forms of consciousness" as a way to discover a secret inner divinity.

Yoga, deeply rooted in Hinduism, essentially means to be "yoked" with the divine. Yogic postures, breathing, and chanting were originally designed not to bring better physical health and well-being (Western marketing to the contrary), but a sense of oneness with Brahman—the Hindu word for the absolute being that pervades all things. This is pantheism (all is divine), not Christianity.

Transcendental Meditation is a veiled form of Hindu yoga, though it claims to be a religiously neutral method of relaxation and rejuvenation. Initiates to TM receive a mantra (Hindu holy word) to repeat while sitting in yogic postures and engaging in yogic breathing. The goal is to find God within their own beings, since God (Brahman) and the self (Atman) are really one.

Differences in various forms of Eastern meditation aside, they all aim at a supposedly "higher" or "altered" state of consciousness. Meditation guides claim that normal consciousness obscures sacred realities. Therefore, meditation is practiced in order to suspend rational patterns of thought. This helps explain why so many Eastern mystics claim that divine realities are utterly beyond words, thought, and personality. In order to find "enlightenment," one must extinguish one's critical capacities—something the Bible never calls us to do (Rom. 12:1-2). In fact, suspending our critical capacities through meditation opens the soul to deception and even to spiritual bondage.

The biblical worldview is completely at odds with the pantheistic concepts driving Eastern meditation. We are not one with an impersonal absolute being that is called "God." Rather, we are estranged from the true personal God because of our "true moral guilt," as Francis Schaeffer says.

No amount of chanting, breathing, visualizing, or physical contortions will melt away the sin that separates us from the Lord of the cosmos—however "peaceful" these practices may feel. Moreover, Paul warns that "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14). "Pleasant" experiences may be portals to peril. Even yoga teachers warn that yoga may open one up to spiritual and physical maladies.

The answer to our plight is not found in some "higher level of consciousness" (really a deceptive state of mind), but in placing our faith in the unmatched achievements of Jesus Christ on our behalf. If it were possible to find enlightenment within, God would not have sent "his one and only Son" (John 3:16) to die on the Cross for our sins in order to give us new life and hope for eternity through Christ's resurrection. We cannot raise ourselves from the dead.

The biblical concept of prayer assumes that rational and meaningful communication between God and humans is possible. There is no summons to suspend rational judgment even when prayer through the Holy Spirit is "with groans that words cannot express" (Rom. 8:26). Nor should we repeat words meaninglessly to induce a trance (Matt. 6:7).

In the Bible, meditation always means pondering God's revealed truths and reflecting on how they pertain to us. David revels in the richness of God's law throughout Psalm 119. He encourages us to meditate on it: "I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word" (Ps. 119:15-16). Since all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16), all of it is profitable for meditation in the biblical sense.

Question from Michael Collins, Poolesville, Maryland

Douglas Groothuis is professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary and the author of several books, including Unmasking the New Age [click: Unmasking the New Age] and Confronting the New Age [click: Confronting the New Age].

VIII 8. MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY - “MONUMENTAL MOMENTS”

From "In Search of the True Light" by Mike Shreve 2002 http://www.thetruelight.net/myspiritualjourney.htm

Monumental moments are significant turning points in our lives. For the remainder of our days we can look back to these ‘moments’-decisions, events, experiences-and feel their worth and their warmth all over again. It’s as if a monument is erected in our souls that we can visit to have our vision and zeal renewed.

According to Buddhist tradition, Siddhartha Gautama encountered such a ‘monumental moment’ around the age of twenty-nine. Modern thinkers might even term it a ‘personal paradigm shift’ (a private transformation in life-style and beliefs that effected a societal change). Though sheltered all his life within the confines of a royal palace, he dared to venture into the ‘outside world.’ According to legend, it was then that Siddhartha viewed what has since been titled the "Four Sights"-a sick man, an old man, a corpse and an ascetic.

No longer could he remain spiritually asleep on a bed of princely ease. Having witnessed the suffering that abounds in this world, he was shaken, jarred from a self-serving mentality. The resulting desperation to find answers became, as author William Burrough’s puts it, "the raw material of drastic change."

The palace protégé made a radically unorthodox decision. Walking away from the opulent surroundings to which he had grown accustomed, he turned instead down the narrow path of renunciation. Hoping to transcend the natural world, he subjected himself to intense ascetic disciplines. Then after a number of years, while meditating under the Bodhi tree, he claimed to receive an experience of Ultimate Reality. At that point, according to those who subscribe to his philosophy, he became the "Buddha," the "Awakened One," the "Enlightened One."

Even if we do not subscribe to Buddha’s conclusions, most of us can definitely relate to him-for we can isolate certain heart-touching incidents as defining moments in our lives. A near-death experience in my freshman year of college proved to be a ‘pivotal point’ for me.

That almost-tragic night, I had the distinct impression that my soul was actually leaving my body and passing into a very frightening and dark void. I felt totally unprepared. I have heard it said that those who desire to die well, must first learn to live well. I certainly had not been living well, so I wasn’t ready to die well either.

There was nothing pleasant about my encounter with this ever-present stalker of the human race. Yet it proved to be extremely beneficial. What looked like nothing more than a negative experience became a positive one, because I emerged with a new set of values. My former life was no longer attractive or fulfilling to me. Quite the contrary, it seemed overwhelmingly senseless, selfish and vain. The pursuit of pleasure left my heart empty. Temporal goals that had been all-consuming seemed frustratingly unimportant.

Earn a college degree? Pursue a career? Become financially secure? For what -if ultimately a grave was waiting somewhere in my future? That inward voice kept probing and prodding with admonitions similar to the one given to Horatio, in the Shakespearean play, "Hamlet": "There are more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Like a blind man I stumbled through the darkness, grasping for something of substance. I was desperate to go beyond my self-imposed boundaries and desperate for lasting answers. Once again, this sense of desperateness became "the raw material of drastic change."

Religion took on a renewed importance. I was raised a Roman Catholic. Until my early teens I was very devoted, but the idea that Christianity was the only way to God, to the exclusion of all other religions, just seemed too narrow-minded, too unreasonable. Besides, I decided I could no longer embrace something just because it was part of my cultural or family ‘belief system.’ I purposed to ‘wipe the slate clean’ and start from a pure and unbiased beginning point.

Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." I resolved that beliefs left unexamined might not be worth much either…at least, to me personally. Intending to explore various religions of the world with an open mind, I set out on a quest for "True Light." Even though I recognized I was studying the revelations, theories and opinions of others, my primary goal was to experience God for myself. I had faith that something somewhere would prove to be my connection with Ultimate Reality. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s words well describemy mindset at that time:

Earth’s crammed with heaven;

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

‘Blackberries’ held no interest for me any longer. I was willing to ‘take off my shoes’ and look at things differently. I was definitely searching for my ‘burning bush.’ All of this was definitely progress in the right direction. Little did I anticipate the unique turns my life would take before reaching this goal. The first main milestone in the road was...