Non-spiritual Yoga

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from the Associated Press January 28, 2007, with a headline:Stripped of Spiritualism, Yoga Stretched Into Public Schools.The following are excerpts:In Tera Guber’s ideal world, American children would meditate in the lotus position and chant in Sanskrit before taking stressful standardized tests.But when she asked a public elementary school in Aspen, Colorado, to teach yoga in 2002, Christian fundamentalists and even some secular parents lobbied the school board.They argued that yoga’s Hindu roots conflicted with Christian teachings, and that using it in school might violate the separation of church and state.Portrayed as a New Age nut, out to brainwash young minds, Guber crafted a new curriculum that eliminated chanting and translated Sanskrit into kid-friendly English.Yogic panting became, bunny breathing, and meditation became, time in.I stripped every piece of anything that anyone could vaguely construe as spiritual or religious out of the program, Guber said.

Tom:

Dave, then why didn’t she just send them down to the gym to a physical education class?You know, there seems to be a little bit of deception here.If you find that what’s on your heart, and she said in her ideal world this is what she wanted to teach, but it wasn’t acceptable.Well, she found ways to disguise, I believe, what was on her heart, to continue teaching it.She’s not interested in just the physical aspects of this obviously, from what she said.

Dave:

Unless she abandoned those ideas, which seems unlikely.Tom, I was just on the radio yesterday in call-in and we were talking about yoga, and people said, Well, it’s just physical, it has been a great help to me.Well, this lady changed it, disguised it really. But was this just extra baggage on yoga?If yoga comes packaged like that, with chanting mantras, breathing exercises, and the assan as the positions, they are all part of this package.Now, what are they supposed to do?Why would this be involved?What is yoga?Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means to yoke with Brahman.What it means is, Atman, the individual soul, this is the goal you are trying to reach, the state of consciousness where, as the Sanskrit says, that thou art—you are god, you are Brahman.So you reach a state where you realize that Atman, the individual soul in Brahman, the universal soul, are one and the same.Now that’s obviously what the yoga was about that she originally wanted to teach.Now, what has she done?Well, she stripped it, but not entirely, chanting, and she’s translated the Sanskrit into kid-friendly English, so it’s kind of the same idea.See, it’s not so much the words you say, but it’s the state of consciousness that they put you into, the breathing.

Tom:

But Dave, now we call it, “bunny-breathing” so that makes the big difference, doesn’t it?

Dave:

I guess bunnies breathe.

Tom:

Come on!

Dave:

Well Tom, it’s the same breathing exercises, meditation.You see, meditation, Tom, well, you know, Tom, you can explain it as well or better than I can.In the West, meditation always meant to think deeply about something, it was cerebral, it was conscious awareness and thinking.Of the Psalmist, it says, Psalm 1, In his law, that is, in God’s law, doth he meditate day and night.So we meditated upon the Word of God to seek a deeper understanding, meditated upon the sufferings of Christ, and what He has done for us.In the East, meditation is something different, it’s not thinking at all, in fact you cannot think, you must tune everything out, you must reach a state of awareness, but without thought!So, you just let your environment and so forth, come in at you and gradually impresses itself upon you.So, meditation—well, she’s turned meditation into time in.Well, but what does this mean?Well, you’re trying to get yourself in a state of alert, but no thought, put everything out, relaxed state, supposedly.And the yogis will tell you, you are opening the door, and you are opening the door to what?Well, they will all tell you that when you repeat—I remember, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, he was giving them the names of Hindu deities, these were their mantras, and when you mention, when you chant the name of this Hindu deity, you are calling it to come and possess you!So, there are some real dangers here, but she’s disguising it.

Tom:

Dave, the concerns from these Christian fundamentalists, as this article indicates, they just want to maintain a separation between church and state.Okay, no Christianity in, no yoga, no Eastern mysticism, no religion in.Now, if they call it “yoga” just as you mentioned, it means yoking yourself to Brahman.So it has religious aspects, and then all of the techniques are related to this religion, no matter whether you call it, “bunny breathing” or whatever.Now, I give you another analogy.In the first segment, I mentioned that I was a Roman Catholic.Suppose I decided in public school I wanted to start an exercise program and I called it, “Catholicizer” and in this exercise I had genuflecting, I had making the signs of the cross, I had dipping in holy water, I had running my fingers over the beads, and so on, and I said, No, no, it has nothing to do with religion, this is just exercise for good health.Now who would buy that, Dave?

Dave:

Yoga is the very heart of Hinduism.The goal of Hinduism, of course you get reincarnated, you move up to—finally when you reach Brahman, the highest cast, you become a Brahman, then you can launch from there, through yoga, into Moksha, escape from time, sense and the elements, and you merge into godhood, you become one with god.Now this is the very heart of Hinduism, yoga is.This was what was designed to accomplish the goal of Hinduism.Now how can you say, But we can have that in the public school, and we can’t have Christianity!That is—there is something desperately wrong here!

Tom:

Well, one other item, Dave, we know there are many books now being published called, “Christian Yoga”—wow!