Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Perspective: Yoga meets Religion

I have come across an interesting article, on yoga and religion.

Now I don't mean to drop a bomb on Yogi's and Yogini's out there, but a Yogi is one that seeks union with God.

And guess what Yoga got its start a long long time ago, in our current history books, a first written discourse is provided in the Bhagavad Gita, the song of God.

Wait a minute, that's a Hindu text, you mean ...Religion. Yes, philosophy, religion you got it.

Now this just so happens to not jive so nicely with some Christians, please don't take me wrong, for others it integrates quit nicely.

In the Song of God there is an Avatar, Krishna, one of the 10 incarnations of Vishnu. Now I have a theory that in some text they have misinterpreted the 9th incarnation as the Buddha. And that in actuallity Christ was the 9th incarnation of Vishnu, 9 is my lucky
number.

Now this leads to some interesting perspectives indeed. (Perhaps a scientific hypothesis to be tested upon the 10th incarnation return.)

If only I could find mention of Yoga in the Bible.

Let's define Yoga- to yoke heh, hmm any recommendations from Jesus on a yoke.

Matthew, Chapter 11, Verses 28 - 30

Come unto me, all ye that labour and ar heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and you learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:and ye shall find rest unto your souls

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.


To quote the Yoga Religion article of interest-
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But if one plunges with both feet into yogic spirituality while also pursuing a conventional faith, one risks what theologians call syncretism—or "riding two horses at once," as Needleman puts it. "It's very hard sometimes to try to be a deep Christian contemplative and at the same time be a Hindu—a Vedantan, let's say," he notes. "Not because they disagree but because the imagery sometimes is so conflicting."
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Christ and Krishna- imagery seems right on to me.

And so you are given permission to follow Yoga along with your current religion. It is an acceptance we all must have.

Please do not lose site of what is important about our Yoga Practice is that we practice Yoga. That practice and the peace and wonder it provides you and humanity is of most importance, so it has been told for thousands of years...

peace my brotha's and sista's

H~

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4 comments:

Darius said...

I'm with you re. Christianity. Although it has a contemplative tradition at least as old as its dogmatic traditions (what do they think Jesus was doing in the desert forty days...), it just hasn't been emphasized in the public mind over the centuries.

Today the scene strikes me as very weird and mixed. You have the dogmatists growing more and more dogmatic; at the same time, you have a smaller number of Christians looking at non dogmatic approaches. (For example, if you google Open Christianity.)

Tom Zatar Kay said...

"Gopi Krishna was a pioneer in the land of spirituality." - Deepak Chopra, M.D. http://kundalini-gopi-krishna.blogspot.com/

H~ said...

Ahh yes the 40 day desert time period. Plenty of time for yoga a meditation :-)

Open Christianity seems to be a step in an inclusive direction.

Tom- thanks for the post on Gopi Krishna. I find the revised theory of evolution very interesting. I have a hypothesis that is in line with this: http://observationsnperspectives.blogspot.com/2005/09/hypothesis-kundalini-yoga-to-raise.html

Anonymous said...

The 9th incarnation was Balaram, brother of Krishna. He abstained from fighting in the Mahabharata war and took liberation. I think Buddha was added to Hinduism with the rise of Buddhism in India.

The relation of Buddhism and Hinduism(Sanatan Dharma originally) is that of Judaism and Christianity

However, the 10 number is limited to just the Mahavataras. Some other schools in Hinduism give the number as 25. But I have a different opinion.

Bhagavad Gita, 4.7

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.

So it is not necessary that the coming down of VIshnu in a human form be predicted or the number. He could be somewhere in the world saving Africans, Iraqis or Europeans as a leader, as a fugitive or anything else. Or maybe even as Christ and Moses