Yoga is Hindu. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. I happen to agree with OP that yoga is being culturally appropriated out of Hinduism by most yoga studios, but many yoga studios do try to be mindful of the spiritual components of yoga.

I think there's a different problem with mainstream yoga that is FAR more worrying: most people don't realize that yoga can seriously, seriously fuck you up. I'm not talking about a sprained hamstring here, I mean it can induce psychotic states. When corporate yoga doesn't acknowledge the mystic Hindu and Buddhist practices, they leave you pretty vulnerable to all the intense spiritual and sometimes scary effects of yoga.

The dangers of yoga are clearly outlined in the scripture, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. In chapter 2 it says, "Just as lions, elephants, and tigers are tamed, so the prana [the divine force in the breath, similar to Chinese qi] should be kept under control. Otherwise it can kill the practitioner." (emphasis mine)

Pranayama is the breathing exercise that you're taught in yoga class. It can rewire your nervous system and really, really mess you up if you're not doing it under the close and careful supervision of an experienced teacher.

And most American yoga teachers are NOT experienced.

They go through about 200 hours of "teacher training" and that's it. That's their certification. They cannot protect you from out of control kriyas, they can't stop a spontaneous kundalini crisis and they can't tell you if you're doing pranayama incorrectly, frankly, because they have not been correctly trained in pranayama.

I'm speaking as an American yogi who was initiated by a guru and also trained in ashtanga yoga in India. This was decades ago before yoga became a big rage. I have seen the difference between people who were taught correctly and people who weren't.

People who went deep into advanced asanas just for the physicality and challenge and ended up in psychotic states.

People who had their nerves fired and fried by incorrect, badly taught pranayama.

People who used mudras that they were not supposed to use - but hey nobody told them that at their Lululemon-wearing yoga studio - and invited all kinds of problems into their lives.

Honestly, there is so much that is dangerously wrong with the way mainstream yoga is practiced, and the danger comes from stripping away the mystical parts of it and then still trying to teach beginner students how to do things like awaken their kundalini. That is very irresponsible. Nobody has any business awakening their kundalini without the supervision, guidance and protection of a self-realized guru. The kundalini is Shakti (the mother goddess), and she will fuck you up because she wants to burn away your blocks and limitations - but the issue is that you will either becomes self-realized or you will die...or you will develop symptoms of mental illness. I'm not joking. I've heard of people who have died.

Authentic yoga practitioners in India are extremely aware of the dangers of yoga, and nothing is watered down there or sanitized and packaged up nicely for profitable mass consumption. Yoga is literally a highly advanced and sophisticated superhighway to the cosmic consciousness and it's not meant to be casually dabbled with.

Wut?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. I happen to agree with OP that yoga is being culturally appropriated out of Hinduism by most yoga studios, but many yoga studios do try to be mindful of the spiritual components of yoga.

I think there's a different problem with mainstream yoga that is FAR more worrying: most people don't realize that yoga can seriously, seriously fuck you up. I'm not talking about a sprained hamstring here, I mean it can induce psychotic states. When corporate yoga doesn't acknowledge the mystic Hindu and Buddhist practices, they leave you pretty vulnerable to all the intense spiritual and sometimes scary effects of yoga.

The dangers of yoga are clearly outlined in the scripture, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. In chapter 2 it says, "Just as lions, elephants, and tigers are tamed, so the prana [the divine force in the breath, similar to Chinese qi] should be kept under control. Otherwise it can kill the practitioner." (emphasis mine)

Pranayama is the breathing exercise that you're taught in yoga class. It can rewire your nervous system and really, really mess you up if you're not doing it under the close and careful supervision of an experienced teacher.

And most American yoga teachers are NOT experienced.

They go through about 200 hours of "teacher training" and that's it. That's their certification. They cannot protect you from out of control kriyas, they can't stop a spontaneous kundalini crisis and they can't tell you if you're doing pranayama incorrectly, frankly, because they have not been correctly trained in pranayama.

I'm speaking as an American yogi who was initiated by a guru and also trained in ashtanga yoga in India. This was decades ago before yoga became a big rage. I have seen the difference between people who were taught correctly and people who weren't.

People who went deep into advanced asanas just for the physicality and challenge and ended up in psychotic states.

People who had their nerves fired and fried by incorrect, badly taught pranayama.

People who used mudras that they were not supposed to use - but hey nobody told them that at their Lululemon-wearing yoga studio - and invited all kinds of problems into their lives.

Honestly, there is so much that is dangerously wrong with the way mainstream yoga is practiced, and the danger comes from stripping away the mystical parts of it and then still trying to teach beginner students how to do things like awaken their kundalini. That is very irresponsible. Nobody has any business awakening their kundalini without the supervision, guidance and protection of a self-realized guru. The kundalini is Shakti (the mother goddess), and she will fuck you up because she wants to burn away your blocks and limitations - but the issue is that you will either becomes self-realized or you will die...or you will develop symptoms of mental illness. I'm not joking. I've heard of people who have died.

Authentic yoga practitioners in India are extremely aware of the dangers of yoga, and nothing is watered down there or sanitized and packaged up nicely for profitable mass consumption. Yoga is literally a highly advanced and sophisticated superhighway to the cosmic consciousness and it's not meant to be casually dabbled with.

This kind of highlights how Satanic yoga is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. I happen to agree with OP that yoga is being culturally appropriated out of Hinduism by most yoga studios, but many yoga studios do try to be mindful of the spiritual components of yoga.

I think there's a different problem with mainstream yoga that is FAR more worrying: most people don't realize that yoga can seriously, seriously fuck you up. I'm not talking about a sprained hamstring here, I mean it can induce psychotic states. When corporate yoga doesn't acknowledge the mystic Hindu and Buddhist practices, they leave you pretty vulnerable to all the intense spiritual and sometimes scary effects of yoga.

The dangers of yoga are clearly outlined in the scripture, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. In chapter 2 it says, "Just as lions, elephants, and tigers are tamed, so the prana [the divine force in the breath, similar to Chinese qi] should be kept under control. Otherwise it can kill the practitioner." (emphasis mine)

Pranayama is the breathing exercise that you're taught in yoga class. It can rewire your nervous system and really, really mess you up if you're not doing it under the close and careful supervision of an experienced teacher.

And most American yoga teachers are NOT experienced.

They go through about 200 hours of "teacher training" and that's it. That's their certification. They cannot protect you from out of control kriyas, they can't stop a spontaneous kundalini crisis and they can't tell you if you're doing pranayama incorrectly, frankly, because they have not been correctly trained in pranayama.

I'm speaking as an American yogi who was initiated by a guru and also trained in ashtanga yoga in India. This was decades ago before yoga became a big rage. I have seen the difference between people who were taught correctly and people who weren't.

People who went deep into advanced asanas just for the physicality and challenge and ended up in psychotic states.

People who had their nerves fired and fried by incorrect, badly taught pranayama.

People who used mudras that they were not supposed to use - but hey nobody told them that at their Lululemon-wearing yoga studio - and invited all kinds of problems into their lives.

Honestly, there is so much that is dangerously wrong with the way mainstream yoga is practiced, and the danger comes from stripping away the mystical parts of it and then still trying to teach beginner students how to do things like awaken their kundalini. That is very irresponsible. Nobody has any business awakening their kundalini without the supervision, guidance and protection of a self-realized guru. The kundalini is Shakti (the mother goddess), and she will fuck you up because she wants to burn away your blocks and limitations - but the issue is that you will either becomes self-realized or you will die...or you will develop symptoms of mental illness. I'm not joking. I've heard of people who have died.

Authentic yoga practitioners in India are extremely aware of the dangers of yoga, and nothing is watered down there or sanitized and packaged up nicely for profitable mass consumption. Yoga is literally a highly advanced and sophisticated superhighway to the cosmic consciousness and it's not meant to be casually dabbled with.

This kind of highlights how Satanic yoga is.

Since yoga comes from a non-Christian religion, how could it possibly be Satanic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, we had this issue with my mom, yoga, and Reiki. Both yoga and Reiki really helped with some health issues she had. However, once she learned that they are essentially worshiping or appealing to other gods, she stopped.

I don't get this kind of response.

If you have your believe (let's say, Christianity), how can you end up worshiping other gods? Do you believe those other gods also exist? If you believe in the divinity of Jesus, do you also believe in the divinity of gods in other religions? How can you end up worshiping or appealing to them, if there's only one real god (Jesus, Allah, whatever you believe in)?

You don't have to believe that other gods actually exist in order for Jews and Christians to violate the first commandment "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (BTW, there is an interesting piece on this commandment from the atheist perspective here: http://atheism.about.com/od/tencommandments/a/commandment01.htm)

For example, read this letter below, (Full disclosure: I have excerpted it a bit):

From: T. R. in Belgium

Dear Rabbi,

Could you please enlighten me on the controversy surrounding wearing wigs made of human hair from India, and also is it permissible to continue wearing one. Thank you in advance, T. R.

Dear T.R.

The Rabbis who oppose the use of Indian-hair wigs are not just splitting hairs. The root of the problem is that the hair from India seems to come from idolatrous ceremonies. Worshipers grow their hair in honor of a certain god, pledging to cut the hair at the temple of the god as a sacrificial thank-offering when their prayer is answered. ...

The hair is then auctioned to wigmakers, earning the temple a hair-raising 5.6 million dollars. ...

The problem is that the Torah not only forbids idolatry itself, but also prohibits deriving benefit from any accessory, decoration or sacrifice to idol worship. Primarily, such a sacrifice is forbidden only when it is similar to the Jewish Temple offerings of meat, flour, oil, wine and water. However, when this object of idolatrous sacrifice (tikrovet avoda zara) is whats normally offered, and is cut or broken in honor of the god, it is also forbidden to derive benefit from it in any way. Furthermore, the sacrificed object can never be nullified, even if its been changed or altered by some process, and even if its been indiscernibly mixed with some other permitted material.

http://ohr.edu/1698

It makes no sense. You believe those other gods exist, or they don't. If they don't exist, they have no power, no chance of influencing you. The Hindu gods don't affect you any more than Bigfoot affects you, or the Purple People Eater. If you believe in your "true" deity, then you believe others are also made up human concepts. You don't have any other gods ahead of the "real" god, because those other gods don't exist.

You are missing the point. For Jews, Muslims, and Christians at least, our God expects us to worship only Him. We are not supposed to do anything that even looks like worshiping other gods. It's not that we fear any actual influence from Krishna, Ogun, or Huitzilopotchli.

Well, you better stop brushing your teeth then, because it my religion, it's how we celebrate our internal goddess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Well, you better stop brushing your teeth then, because it my religion, it's how we celebrate our internal goddess.

In Judaism at least I think it is acceptable to do things that a have a general positive purpose, that idolators do, as long as there is no direct connection to idolatry. Thus - Greek pagans used wine for libation ceremonies - thus there is extensive Jewish law on the kosher status of wines, to ensure the wine you drink did not have a libation said over it (in the strictest form of observance, this means only drinking wine that was made by Orthodox Jews) However no one says we should abstain from wine on this account.

So we might want to be careful of toothbrushes from people in your religion (if there was any evidence that that practice actually existed) but would not mean we would have to stop brushing our teeth.

As far as I can tell most Orthodox opinion allows the physical practices of yoga, but calls on those do those to be wary of the spiritual practices. Though I note Chabad forbids yoga completely. Most Conservative and Reform opinion is more lenient.

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/23099/is-yoga-kosher


I know some Conservative shuls have presented yoga sessions in which the teacher incorporates specifically Jewish spiritual ideas that are compatible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, you better stop brushing your teeth then, because it my religion, it's how we celebrate our internal goddess.

In Judaism at least I think it is acceptable to do things that a have a general positive purpose, that idolators do, as long as there is no direct connection to idolatry. Thus - Greek pagans used wine for libation ceremonies - thus there is extensive Jewish law on the kosher status of wines, to ensure the wine you drink did not have a libation said over it (in the strictest form of observance, this means only drinking wine that was made by Orthodox Jews) However no one says we should abstain from wine on this account.

So we might want to be careful of toothbrushes from people in your religion (if there was any evidence that that practice actually existed) but would not mean we would have to stop brushing our teeth.

As far as I can tell most Orthodox opinion allows the physical practices of yoga, but calls on those do those to be wary of the spiritual practices. Though I note Chabad forbids yoga completely. Most Conservative and Reform opinion is more lenient.

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/23099/is-yoga-kosher


I know some Conservative shuls have presented yoga sessions in which the teacher incorporates specifically Jewish spiritual ideas that are compatible.

In this post: insulting the original philosophy of yoga by calling them "idolators", then tries to appropriate yoga for "specifically Jewish spiritual ideas". Sorry honey, you can't have it both ways. Yoga is happily idolatrous.

Signed,
A Hindu

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. I happen to agree with OP that yoga is being culturally appropriated out of Hinduism by most yoga studios, but many yoga studios do try to be mindful of the spiritual components of yoga.

I think there's a different problem with mainstream yoga that is FAR more worrying: most people don't realize that yoga can seriously, seriously fuck you up. I'm not talking about a sprained hamstring here, I mean it can induce psychotic states. When corporate yoga doesn't acknowledge the mystic Hindu and Buddhist practices, they leave you pretty vulnerable to all the intense spiritual and sometimes scary effects of yoga.

The dangers of yoga are clearly outlined in the scripture, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. In chapter 2 it says, "Just as lions, elephants, and tigers are tamed, so the prana [the divine force in the breath, similar to Chinese qi] should be kept under control. Otherwise it can kill the practitioner." (emphasis mine)

Pranayama is the breathing exercise that you're taught in yoga class. It can rewire your nervous system and really, really mess you up if you're not doing it under the close and careful supervision of an experienced teacher.

And most American yoga teachers are NOT experienced.

They go through about 200 hours of "teacher training" and that's it. That's their certification. They cannot protect you from out of control kriyas, they can't stop a spontaneous kundalini crisis and they can't tell you if you're doing pranayama incorrectly, frankly, because they have not been correctly trained in pranayama.

I'm speaking as an American yogi who was initiated by a guru and also trained in ashtanga yoga in India. This was decades ago before yoga became a big rage. I have seen the difference between people who were taught correctly and people who weren't.

People who went deep into advanced asanas just for the physicality and challenge and ended up in psychotic states.

People who had their nerves fired and fried by incorrect, badly taught pranayama.

People who used mudras that they were not supposed to use - but hey nobody told them that at their Lululemon-wearing yoga studio - and invited all kinds of problems into their lives.

Honestly, there is so much that is dangerously wrong with the way mainstream yoga is practiced, and the danger comes from stripping away the mystical parts of it and then still trying to teach beginner students how to do things like awaken their kundalini. That is very irresponsible. Nobody has any business awakening their kundalini without the supervision, guidance and protection of a self-realized guru. The kundalini is Shakti (the mother goddess), and she will fuck you up because she wants to burn away your blocks and limitations - but the issue is that you will either becomes self-realized or you will die...or you will develop symptoms of mental illness. I'm not joking. I've heard of people who have died.

Authentic yoga practitioners in India are extremely aware of the dangers of yoga, and nothing is watered down there or sanitized and packaged up nicely for profitable mass consumption. Yoga is literally a highly advanced and sophisticated superhighway to the cosmic consciousness and it's not meant to be casually dabbled with.

Wut?

It's a demonstration of the right way to revive an old thread. This is amazing.

[Anonymous]

Yes, yoga is only for Indian Hindus.

Ballet and opera are only for whites of European descent.

Stay away from paper unless you are of Egyptian descent, you appropriator, you!

Hey old man practicing Tai Chi to help you with your balance, cut it out! You're not Chinese.

OP, it must be hard for your to live in a multicultural society, where people of different religions, races and ethnicities learn about and enjoy each other's practices. I am sure there is a city in India you can move to where you will never see a non-Hindu practice yoga again.

Good luck and God Speed! (Now I am off to Heckman's deli for a reuben, I hop they don't kick me out because I am not Jewish).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, you better stop brushing your teeth then, because it my religion, it's how we celebrate our internal goddess.

In Judaism at least I think it is acceptable to do things that a have a general positive purpose, that idolators do, as long as there is no direct connection to idolatry. Thus - Greek pagans used wine for libation ceremonies - thus there is extensive Jewish law on the kosher status of wines, to ensure the wine you drink did not have a libation said over it (in the strictest form of observance, this means only drinking wine that was made by Orthodox Jews) However no one says we should abstain from wine on this account.

So we might want to be careful of toothbrushes from people in your religion (if there was any evidence that that practice actually existed) but would not mean we would have to stop brushing our teeth.

As far as I can tell most Orthodox opinion allows the physical practices of yoga, but calls on those do those to be wary of the spiritual practices. Though I note Chabad forbids yoga completely. Most Conservative and Reform opinion is more lenient.

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/23099/is-yoga-kosher


I know some Conservative shuls have presented yoga sessions in which the teacher incorporates specifically Jewish spiritual ideas that are compatible.

In this post: insulting the original philosophy of yoga by calling them "idolators", then tries to appropriate yoga for "specifically Jewish spiritual ideas". Sorry honey, you can't have it both ways. Yoga is happily idolatrous.

Signed,
A Hindu

Idolatry is a technical term in Jewish law. If you would prefer we can use the Hebrew, Avoda Zara.

And yes, appropriation happens. We, if anyone, know that. The largest religion in the world is based on appropriating texts, ideas, prayers and practices from Judaism. IIUC Hinduism involved mass appropriation of local religious traditions by the conquering aryans, which is one reason it is so diverse. People appropriate ideas from one tradition, and adapt them to another. The notion that traditions are pure seems to me to be quite ahistorical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Idolatry is a technical term in Jewish law. If you would prefer we can use the Hebrew, Avoda Zara.

And yes, appropriation happens. We, if anyone, know that. The largest religion in the world is based on appropriating texts, ideas, prayers and practices from Judaism. IIUC Hinduism involved mass appropriation of local religious traditions by the conquering aryans, which is one reason it is so diverse. People appropriate ideas from one tradition, and adapt them to another. The notion that traditions are pure seems to me to be quite ahistorical.

1) "Conquering Aryans" is a historical narrative popularized by the colonizing British, based on a translation of "Arya" that served the interests of eugenics. The conquering Aryans, conquered Dravidians narrative has been refuted MULTIPLE times since then.

2) A slow melting pot of indigenous polytheistic traditions of the subcontinent and melding of their deities, into a religious complex that has a central philosophy of non-dualism but a wide variety of diverse yet non-mutually-exclusive religious practices, is NOT the same as what you're doing to bring yoga into an Abrahamic-happy worldview: discard and insult the originating philosophy, totally rip the asana practice from the eight limbs of yoga and the inner meaning of the asana practice, and re-work it for your own views.

Not the same thing at all, sorry. I know it's really convenient when we can play mental gymnastics to make ourselves feel better about cultural appropriation. Too bad I'm not letting you go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. I happen to agree with OP that yoga is being culturally appropriated out of Hinduism by most yoga studios, but many yoga studios do try to be mindful of the spiritual components of yoga.

I think there's a different problem with mainstream yoga that is FAR more worrying: most people don't realize that yoga can seriously, seriously fuck you up. I'm not talking about a sprained hamstring here, I mean it can induce psychotic states. When corporate yoga doesn't acknowledge the mystic Hindu and Buddhist practices, they leave you pretty vulnerable to all the intense spiritual and sometimes scary effects of yoga.

The dangers of yoga are clearly outlined in the scripture, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. In chapter 2 it says, "Just as lions, elephants, and tigers are tamed, so the prana [the divine force in the breath, similar to Chinese qi] should be kept under control. Otherwise it can kill the practitioner." (emphasis mine)

Pranayama is the breathing exercise that you're taught in yoga class. It can rewire your nervous system and really, really mess you up if you're not doing it under the close and careful supervision of an experienced teacher.

And most American yoga teachers are NOT experienced.

They go through about 200 hours of "teacher training" and that's it. That's their certification. They cannot protect you from out of control kriyas, they can't stop a spontaneous kundalini crisis and they can't tell you if you're doing pranayama incorrectly, frankly, because they have not been correctly trained in pranayama.

I'm speaking as an American yogi who was initiated by a guru and also trained in ashtanga yoga in India. This was decades ago before yoga became a big rage. I have seen the difference between people who were taught correctly and people who weren't.

People who went deep into advanced asanas just for the physicality and challenge and ended up in psychotic states.

People who had their nerves fired and fried by incorrect, badly taught pranayama.

People who used mudras that they were not supposed to use - but hey nobody told them that at their Lululemon-wearing yoga studio - and invited all kinds of problems into their lives.

Honestly, there is so much that is dangerously wrong with the way mainstream yoga is practiced, and the danger comes from stripping away the mystical parts of it and then still trying to teach beginner students how to do things like awaken their kundalini. That is very irresponsible. Nobody has any business awakening their kundalini without the supervision, guidance and protection of a self-realized guru. The kundalini is Shakti (the mother goddess), and she will fuck you up because she wants to burn away your blocks and limitations - but the issue is that you will either becomes self-realized or you will die...or you will develop symptoms of mental illness. I'm not joking. I've heard of people who have died.

Authentic yoga practitioners in India are extremely aware of the dangers of yoga, and nothing is watered down there or sanitized and packaged up nicely for profitable mass consumption. Yoga is literally a highly advanced and sophisticated superhighway to the cosmic consciousness and it's not meant to be casually dabbled with.

Oh wow. This is actually spot-on. *stands and applauds the PP*

[Anonymous]

I'm just going to leave this YouTube video here, because it says everything.

If Gandhi Took A Yoga Class:

[Anonymous]

Whoops, the video didn't embed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBMc9s8oDWE&app=desktop

[Anonymous]

Yeah and Christmas is Pagan. Cultures evolve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, you better stop brushing your teeth then, because it my religion, it's how we celebrate our internal goddess.

In Judaism at least I think it is acceptable to do things that a have a general positive purpose, that idolators do, as long as there is no direct connection to idolatry. Thus - Greek pagans used wine for libation ceremonies - thus there is extensive Jewish law on the kosher status of wines, to ensure the wine you drink did not have a libation said over it (in the strictest form of observance, this means only drinking wine that was made by Orthodox Jews) However no one says we should abstain from wine on this account.

So we might want to be careful of toothbrushes from people in your religion (if there was any evidence that that practice actually existed) but would not mean we would have to stop brushing our teeth.

As far as I can tell most Orthodox opinion allows the physical practices of yoga, but calls on those do those to be wary of the spiritual practices. Though I note Chabad forbids yoga completely. Most Conservative and Reform opinion is more lenient.

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/23099/is-yoga-kosher


I know some Conservative shuls have presented yoga sessions in which the teacher incorporates specifically Jewish spiritual ideas that are compatible.

In this post: insulting the original philosophy of yoga by calling them "idolators", then tries to appropriate yoga for "specifically Jewish spiritual ideas". Sorry honey, you can't have it both ways. Yoga is happily idolatrous.

Signed,
A Hindu

Idolatry is a technical term in Jewish law. If you would prefer we can use the Hebrew, Avoda Zara.

And yes, appropriation happens. We, if anyone, know that. The largest religion in the world is based on appropriating texts, ideas, prayers and practices from Judaism. IIUC Hinduism involved mass appropriation of local religious traditions by the conquering aryans, which is one reason it is so diverse. People appropriate ideas from one tradition, and adapt them to another. The notion that traditions are pure seems to me to be quite ahistorical.

Every Jewish person knows that the term Avoda Zara, while being a technical term, is a derogatory technical term. Just because you add the words Jewish Law to it don't make it less derogatory.

You should also be more in tune with what your Jewish leaders at world religious council meetings have agreed to. It has been formally declared by your people in the higher ups that Hinduism is not Avoda Zara.

http://www.millenniumpeacesummit.org

http://www.millenniumpeacesummit.org/Hindu-Jewish_Summit_Information.pdf

You also need to refresh on the outdated and no longer supported theory of the Aryans being some sort of invading group. That has long been debunked.

You can do yoga and call it "Torah Yoga"-http://www.torahyoga.com/page1-what-how-content.htm
or "Kosher Yoga"-http://kosheryoga.net

and try so very hard to convince yourself that you have completely cut yourself off from "idolatrous" roots, but the TRUTH is within either way. Good luck with that ring of fire you believe in.