Why Not Yoga At The Y?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question:   “Recently, I joined a yoga class at the local YMCA for the exercise and peace of mind.  A friend of mine, who is a Christian, doesn’t think it’s a good idea.  What do you say?”

Tom:

Before we answer that question, Dave, you know, I have toyed with the idea of starting my own aerobics class at a local YMCA, featuring “Dances to the Demons,” found in the Haitian Voodoo ceremonies.  Now, I am sure I could get the YMCA to approve it, after all, more outrageous as it may sound, it’s really no different than the practice of yoga, is it?

Dave:

Tom, I hope you are kidding us when you talk about organizing this dance—

Tom:

Of course, I am.  I’m trying to point out how ludicrous—but people would go along and say, wait a minute. I don’t see what the problem is with yoga.

Dave:

Well yes, because, number one, they say it’s scientific, number two, it’s good for health.

Tom:

But if they were aware that we are talking about the same thing they would recognize the dangers of taking a yoga class.

Dave:

You could say what’s wrong with physical fitness?  Nothing is wrong with physical fitness, but if you’re interested in physical fitness you should involve yourself in something that was designed for physical fitness.  Yoga, in fact, is designed—(well, “yoga” is a Sanskrit word that means: “To yoke”).  It’s designed to yoke you with “Brahman”—the goal of yoga is self-realization—to realize that you are God—to realize that “ataman” the individual soul, is identical with Brahman, the universal soul and, in fact, yoga is a technique, not for good health, but for dying.  It was brought over here from the East.  You say well, but I’m not really going to get—

Tom:

Dave, what do you mean, “Dying?”  These people look like good physical specimens to me.

Dave:

Well, you know, one of the things that a yogi can do, I mean the real experts from India.  You can confine them to a very—I mean, they can get themselves contorted up into a very small box, very small container and you can shut the thing down so there is no air in there and they can get along without any air for an amazing length of time.  Some of them can stop their hearts and just sort of go into a suspended animation—

Tom:

What’s the philosophy for that?  What’s the thinking behind it?

Dave:

Okay, the philosophy is that yoga—you see they want to escape the wheel of reincarnation.  So, they want to reach what’s called in Hinduism, (nirvana in Buddhism) but in Hinduism, “moksha,” escape from time, sense and the elements because they want to get out of this life.

Tom:

So there is a problem with our physical makeup, right?

Dave:

Yes, but they want to get off the wheel of reincarnation because, according to their philosophy, you keep coming back again and again and again.  Who wants to come back again and again and again?  Gandhi said reincarnation is a burden too great to bear.  It’s like a wheel and you can’t get off.  The only way to get off—

Tom:

Same sorrow, the wheel of sorrow.

Dave:

That’s right.  So, the only way you can get off of it is through yoga, supposedly.  Now, Yoga was taught by Krishna.  Shiva, the destroyer in Hinduism, the horrible god, is called Yoga Shwara.  He is the teacher of Yoga, so you could say one of the main sources of yoga is from the destroyer.  Vishnu, of course, who comes reincarnates, part boar, part man, part fish, you know all these things.  In mythology of Hinduism he comes as Krishna and he’s teaching yoga again.  But the goal of yoga is self- realization.  So you had Yogananda; Paramahansa Yogananda who founded the self realization fellowship and you have various ashrams all over the world and once again the whole idea is to realize that you are God—that there is no reality—that you create your own universe with your own mind.  You want to escape maya, this illusion that we have all created for ourselves out of which our suffering comes.  So, you are going to return to the void which is where the whole thing began.  That’s yoga!

Tom:

Can’t we just sanitize that?  Can’t we strip it of its spiritual elements and put it in the Young Man’s Christian Association and say, no problem here?

Dave:

Well, why?  Why would you want to do it?  In other words, why would you want to take something that is specifically designed for contact with the demonic world, in fact, the people that take it at the YMCA don’t know this and they are not going to learn it from their teacher.  But if you want to read the books on Yoga by the great yogis they will warn you that it is very, very dangerous and you should have a teacher along with you monitoring you because, for example, in Transcendental Meditation, which is a form of yoga, (and we probably need to go into that in more detail) and you learn a mantra.  Each mantra is the name of a Hindu deity and the repetition of the mantra over and over like, iying, iying, iying, iying, that is literally a call to this spirit entity behind every idol, behind every pagan deity, Paul says there is a devil.  And so, the repetition of a name of this pagan deity, this mantra, is a call to this being to possess you.  Now, you read this in the major works on yoga by the great yoga teachers and they warn you that it is very dangerous.  So, Tom, if fifty years ago I had said you mark my words, in the last days, (we’re heading for the last days), you’re going to have people all over this world who, in the name of science and supposedly for good health, are going to be learning techniques for dying and they will be calling upon demonic entities to come and possess them, you would say that I am out of my mind.  It’s exactly what is happening today.  So, this yoga that is being taught in YMCAs and YWCAs, maybe has been sanitized to some extent.  But if you are interested in good health and physical development, take some exercises that were designed for that.