2. What is Yoga? Today, many people are taking up yoga techniques for physical exercise, and most don’t know the history of yoga. They believe there is nothing wrong with implementing this form of exercise into their daily regiment to promote a more healthy body. However, the practice of yoga is much more than a system of physical exercise for health. Yoga is an ancient path to spiritual growth, and originates out of India where Induism is practiced.
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4. Is it spiritual? The techniques are practiced by the Indus to initiate spiritual growth. The yogis encourage union with the finite jiva (transitory self) and with the infinite Brahman (eternal self). Brahman is a term used by the Hindus to mean “God.” Since it is taught by the yogis that everything is God, it then stands to reason, man is God. Christianity, on the other hand, teaches us there is a clear distinction between man and God. Since God is the Creator, we are one of his creations and created “in the image” of God.
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6. Unlike the yogis, the Bible presents man’s primary problem to be sin -- a failure to conform to God’s character and standards. Yoga views man’s problem primarily in terms of ignorance. Man simply does not understand he is God so the solution is enlightenment, or an experience of union with God.
7. Is yoga safe? Can the methods used in the yoga techniques for exercising be separated from the philosophy? The answer is a distinctive “no” because yoga is considered to be a practice of psychosomatic exercises. There is no way to separate the two. The yoga scholar will tell you that in order to practice yoga in the fullest, one must experience what is called the “kundalini” effect within meditation.
8. What does this mean? For spiritual lessons to be grasped by the soul within the person, the chakra, or different locations within the body where a circle of metaphysical and biophysical energy resides, join together in the process.
