Article below is from the Lighthouse Trails Newsletter, May 25, 2006. I also recently received an email from a yoga academy that I will be posting shortly.
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Yoga Academy Writes to Lighthouse Trails
The term Christian Yoga is an insult to Hindus and an oxymoron at best.
On May 19th, Danda of the Dharma Yoga Ashram wrote to Lighthouse Trails and said the following. We asked permission to post their email:
"Is Yoga a religion that denies Jesus Christ? Yes. Just as Christianity denies the Hindu MahaDevas such as Siva, Vishnu, Durga and Krishna, to name a few, Hinduism and its many Yogas have nothing to do with God and Jesus (though we do respect that others believe in this way).
"As Hindus who live the Yogic lifestyle, we appreciate when others understand that all of Yoga is all about the Hindu religion. Modern so-called 'yoga' is dishonest to Hindus and to all non-Hindus such as the Christians."
Danda
Dharma Yoga Ashram
(Classical Yoga Hindu Academy)
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For those who think that Yoga can be utilized as just a harmless exercise, we recommend you check out the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy. For Christians to use the phrase "Christian Yoga" such as Thomas Nelson publishers did in their recent book, Yoga for Christians, would be like Hindus calling our communion service, Hindu Communion. Listen to what former Hindu guru, Rabi Maharaj said in his book, Death of a Guru (Rabi Maharaj and Dave Hunt, 1977):
Nothing was more important than our daily transcendental meditation, the heart of Yoga, which Krishna advocated as the surest way to eternal Bliss.... Although the peace I experienced in meditation so easily deserted me, the occult forces that my practice of Yoga cultivated and aroused lingered on and began to manifest themselves in public.... Often while I was in deep meditation the gods became visible and talked with me. At times I seemed to be transported by astral projection to distant planets or to worlds in other dimensions. It would be years before I would learn that such experiences were being duplicated in laboratories under the watchful eyes of parapsychologists through the use of hypnosis and LSD. (pp. 31, 75).
Read more about the dangers of trying to integrate Yoga wiht Christianity:
Research on Yoga at Lighthouse Trails Research Project
Research on Yoga at the Spiritual Research Network
