On the Separation of Church and Yoga

June 2006
by Linda McGrath

In our day and age, when you start practicing yoga, there's always going to be that one person around you who'll think you've joined a spiritual cult. You'll be having a perfectly good conversation with them and then you'll shift the subject to last night's class and you'll see this glaze over their eyes – a mixture of concern for the friend they've lost and a personal fear that you might ask them to join you. Then eventually you'll come across some other person who practices, say, Kundalini yoga and you'll be all excited to have someone in front of you who shares your passion and you'll mention you practice Bikram or Power and you'll hear a sudden “oh!” , as in “oh, I didn't know you like setting small animals on fire for entertainment!” And just when you thought you're going to have an interesting exchange, you find yourself agreeing about the weather.

I was at a party the other evening when we discovered that the couple at our table had practiced yoga for a long time. We started talking about meditation and all of a sudden I heard it: “You know, that's what yoga is about…that new thing where they crank the heat to a 100, that's not yoga…” He kept going: “That's not what Patanjali intended; for thousands of years people practiced postures just to prepare for meditation, using mudra and chant…Today, all this heated stuff, you might as well go running, or go to the gym…” His wife knew that I taught those same evil forms of yoga and she eventually broke it to him. In the interest of preserving the good spirits of the party, he tried to patch it up: “Well, that must be your path, then…in this life your yoga practice is preparing you for a true yoga practice in your next life… ” He said it like he had just solved a very serious problem of mine. Seeing he wasn't getting any reaction, he asked “ Because you do believe in the cycles of reincarnation of course?”

As yoga becomes more and more mainstream in the West, it is a good question to ask just how connected should yoga be to its Hindu roots? Bikram, in particular, has always been taught without reference to Hinduism. There's no chanting, no gods and goddesses, not even an om and the reason was: the founder wanted this yoga to spread and it sure did. Then there are styles, where Hindu chanting is an integral part of the class, as in Anusara or Viniyoga or Kundalini. And then there are the styles in the middle where it's really on a teacher by teacher basis. Depending on whose class you take, Power can be very straight forward or it can also come with a few oms, or it can come with a supersized order of mantras.

So when I started teaching Power, I knew I had a decision to make. I believe that even though science is providing us with more and more answers, we still live in a world full of uncertainty. Even though most of our basic needs are met, this economic prosperity has come at a price. We have nicer houses and nicer cars and better jobs and we are more lonely than ever before. For this and more, we all need a mirror to reflect us and provide an anchor for our soul. And for a number of reasons, different people are going to be attracted to a different mirror.  

Whether they define themselves as “religious” or not, over seventy percent of Americans today find their truths reflected in an established religion, such as Christianity or Islam or Hinduism. An established religion provides a specific system for ritual and worship, specific deities, symbols, and a moral code of conduct which, if followed, ensures the well being of one's soul today and through eternity. That means 70 percent of people have a specific image or name in mind when they say “God”. Of the thirty percent of Americans remaining, some find their spirituality in a medium that is less specific, whether it is a higher force or just a certain connectedness to nature, so while it's not God as defined in the Bible or the Torah or the Koran, these are the people who believe that, surely, there must be something… Then there's those, humanitarians, agnostics and atheists for who the spiritual mirror is to be found inside themselves. According to Carl Jung who studied yoga extensively, the journey to the center of the self and the journey to God are one and the same… The options are endless and they should be. History has proven over and over that forcing someone to adopt your mirror only leads to trouble. It is the most private expression of the soul and it is an inalienable right for every human being.

There are many purists, both here and in India, who cry that by teaching yoga without chanting, we are robbing the practice of its spiritual essence. Before we even examine the accuracy of this statement, it is first important to understand that by tying yoga to Hinduism, you're tying it to very specific names and symbols. By delving to such depth of specificity, you'll enrich some but you're also bound to alienate others. Others who also happen to be over 70% of the US population. If you sing one of the most popular mantras –“Om Namah Shivaya” – you are in fact saying “I bow to Shiva”, a famous god in the Hindu pantheon. Even “om”, which is the most common of all chants, stems from “aum”, where the “A” stands for Brahma (the Hindu god of creation), the “U” stands for Vishnu (the Hindu god of protection) and the M stands for Shiva (the lord of Destruction, Yoga, Dance etc). Some non-Hindus are perfectly cool with that. But many are the Westerners who are going to feel anything from a slight discomfort to a serious internal conflict. And how many times would you partake in an activity that makes you feel uncomfortable? Think about your reaction when you go to the coffee shop to find a moment alone and someone comes and sits next to you to ask you about your relationship with Jesus/Krishna/Mohammed?

Now let's think about this “robbing the spiritual essence” business. Is chanting Hindu mantras the only way to infuse the practice with a deeper meaning? Or is it possible that we can we extract from this thousands of years old practice a wisdom that is without face or color which can alienate those who have differing spiritual preferences or those who just want to be left alone? I believe so. I believe yoga is universal. It is bigger than a time or a place or a religion. Like a language, yoga must be able to change with times to stay relevant and to provide value. Even Krishnamacharya, one of the most influential figures of yoga history said that for yoga to spread to the West, practitioners will have to use their own language, imagery and names. And in my opinion, a physical practice will be much more effective in the end because it “preaches” experientially.

Thousands of people, myself included, first come to yoga looking for a physical solution, whether it's to stay in shape, or heal an injury or lose weight or sleep better. And over time they discover so much more! Ask anyone who's practiced for a while, and they'll tell you. It's not an earth shattering spiritual revelation that happens suddenly but a very subtle progression that starts to take place inside. You become more patient, less reactive, more aware and accepting of yourself and others and increasingly more thirsty for the truth. These are attributes that any spiritual tradition will strive to teach you. I don't think there's any great secret in the poses themselves or in their sequencing; it's all about the way they are taught. Every teacher from here to Rishikesh will tell you not to push too hard, to stay focused inside your body and to place form before depth and to always, always breathe. Some do it better than others but in the end it is this attitude and the fact that your body will be quick to reinforce these concepts that begin to turn the light bulb on for you. When you don't abide by them, say you push too hard, you quickly learn your lesson because you physically hurt yourself. But when you do listen, the rewards are endless: your body feels stronger, you sleep better, you don't hurt where you used to and because you've gained this knowledge though a very real, direct experience, these concepts all begin to sink in at a much greater speed and with much better understanding than if you were to only study them. Before long, you start to apply these philosophies to your life outside the yoga mat.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have studied with many instructors who infuse their teaching with Hindu spirituality in a very authentic way and I have a great appreciation for them. I would only encourage a teacher to stay true to what they believe in because in the end, yoga can only benefit from a diverse pool of instructors. But I can't agree that avoiding Hindu references condemns you to a spiritually sterile practice. Not only that, but I'd like to think that in the future humanity will practice a spirituality that does more good than suffering, a spirituality that unites more than it divides. And I think yoga can have a huge part in that. That probably won't happen if we expect everybody to embrace Hinduism. But if you just let the practice do its job, you might find that one day, even your friend, the one who thinks you're weird, sets a mat down next to you.