Yoga is Hindu. Period.

[Anonymous]

I feel the need to emphatically state this, after having my white, atheist friend insist to me that she was a "yogi" because she was a certified yoga structor and doing yoga help make her feel emotionally centered.

Um, no. You are not a yogi.

1. Yoga isn't a corporate fitness program where you can just get certifications like you're teaching fucking pure barre and Pilates. It's a religious practice, and the physical asanas are just one very, very narrow part of it. "Namaste" does not have a watered-down New Age meaning like, "I bow to the light within you." It means "I bow to the God within you." External yoga is useless without internal yoga - meditation, pranayama, etc - and the purpose is to achieve union with the Divine.

2. You feeling good about yourself does not mean you can appropriate a religious practice, strip the religion out of it, corporatize it, and repackage is at "wellness" or some crap like that. Also, Om symbols and malas aren't decorative, thanks.

3. Do not talk to me about how Yoga has its roots in a Vedic religion that pre-dates Hinduism and Buddhism. Vedic practices led to Puranic practices, and Vedic practices are still widespread in the Hindu community today. They are central, in fact, as the Vedanta comes straight from the Vedas, not the modern Puranic flavor of Hinduism. Yoga's explicit purpose is to achieve union with God also excludes it from being a vaguely Buddhist/Jain practice, since neither of those religions believe in worship or a creator deity (though they do have deities, at least Buddhism does, but they don't have a creator and they don't want union with a creator).

4. Playing semantics with the term "Hinduism" is grasping at straws. At this point, it definitely does not just refer to "people in this particular region", even if the name originated from that meaning, and the vastness and diversity in the Hindu religious complex does not preclude it being considered one religion. Westerners have no problem using the term "Hinduism" to define a single religion in polls, national surveys, news articles and any other writing...but when it comes to discussing yoga, then we have to argue about what Hinduism means.

I just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for reading!

[Anonymous]

xojane turn you down?

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

I actually just looked up the xojane article now after reading that, first PP. The article was well-written - the comments are full of privileged non-Hindu people being insensitive assholes, soo.

Anonymous wrote:

But race has nothing to do with it. You can be Indian and atheist. You can be white and Hindu. Yoga isn't "Indian", it's Hindu.

[Anonymous]

If you think anything written by se smith is well written I feel bad for you.

[Anonymous]

Ok

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel the need to emphatically state this, after having my white, atheist friend insist to me that she was a "yogi" because she was a certified yoga structor and doing yoga help make her feel emotionally centered.

Um, no. You are not a yogi.

1. Yoga isn't a corporate fitness program where you can just get certifications like you're teaching fucking pure barre and Pilates. It's a religious practice, and the physical asanas are just one very, very narrow part of it. "Namaste" does not have a watered-down New Age meaning like, "I bow to the light within you." It means "I bow to the God within you." External yoga is useless without internal yoga - meditation, pranayama, etc - and the purpose is to achieve union with the Divine.

2. You feeling good about yourself does not mean you can appropriate a religious practice, strip the religion out of it, corporatize it, and repackage is at "wellness" or some crap like that. Also, Om symbols and malas aren't decorative, thanks.

3. Do not talk to me about how Yoga has its roots in a Vedic religion that pre-dates Hinduism and Buddhism. Vedic practices led to Puranic practices, and Vedic practices are still widespread in the Hindu community today. They are central, in fact, as the Vedanta comes straight from the Vedas, not the modern Puranic flavor of Hinduism. Yoga's explicit purpose is to achieve union with God also excludes it from being a vaguely Buddhist/Jain practice, since neither of those religions believe in worship or a creator deity (though they do have deities, at least Buddhism does, but they don't have a creator and they don't want union with a creator).

4. Playing semantics with the term "Hinduism" is grasping at straws. At this point, it definitely does not just refer to "people in this particular region", even if the name originated from that meaning, and the vastness and diversity in the Hindu religious complex does not preclude it being considered one religion. Westerners have no problem using the term "Hinduism" to define a single religion in polls, national surveys, news articles and any other writing...but when it comes to discussing yoga, then we have to argue about what Hinduism means.

I just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for reading!

Um ... so?

[Anonymous]

i wonder why the number of Hindus who actually practice "external yoga" is so small relative to the general Hindu population.

[Anonymous]

I hate yoga.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:xojane turn you down?

I love you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate yoga.

Awkward poses with strangers and the threat of random farting.

Whats not to love?

[Anonymous]

This is the argument people use against having yoga taught in public schools.

[Anonymous]

I'm of Indian descent. Yoga weirds me out precisely because of this.

Especially when they use Hindi or other made-up Hindi-like words/phrases/chants.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Haha, good luck with that, OP.