Yoga + Christianity = Holy Yoga, but is it really Holy?

Obviously I wouldn’t be teaching Holy Yoga if I didn’t truly believe it is blessed by God’s will; however, you may have friends who question if Christians should be participating in yoga.  I am not writing this to persuade anyone one way or another, but offer some background information about yoga most people are not aware of, as well as some thoughts to ponder.  Each person should examine the scriptures, background of yoga, pray about it, and come to their own conclusion.

• Most people do not realize yoga pre-dates Hinduism and Christianity.  Early cave pictographs show yoga poses dating back over 5,000 years ago.
• Yoga is a spiritual discipline, similar to prayer, fasting, and meditation.  No religion “owns” yoga.
• Holy Yoga’s intention or focus is on Jesus Christ as God’s son, the Father God and the Holy Spirit.  Our SON salutations honor Jesus.
• People do not realize Holy Yoga is a ministry, drawing people in through the modality of yoga to share Christ’s love.  People are coming to Christ through Holy Yoga around the world! It is so exciting to read the numerous stories on our HY Instructors FaceBook site of students coming to Christ.  As Jesus said in Luke 9:49-50 when the apostles reported to Jesus,

“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”

⁵⁰ “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”

• I have heard people say that every yoga posture is worship to some other god.  My training consists of both traditional Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) and Holy Yoga Teacher training.  Even in the traditional YTT, I never heard mention of this.  In fact, studying traditional yoga as a Christian since I was 7 years old, just re-confirmed my belief in the Bible, even though some of the instructors were Hindu.  After studying yoga for the past 4 years, the only yoga I personally avoid is Kundalini Yoga because it does not resonate with me.
• If our intention/focus is on Christ, and we have the Holy Spirit, and if we truly believe the power of the Holy Spirit is greater than all other powers on earth, what do we have to fear?

Food for thought.  Personally I would not be surprised when we all get to Heaven to learn that Jesus himself was a yogi. Mark 1:35 says “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”  We know He was either an early bird, or couldn’t sleep.  Perhaps he was also doing the spiritual practice of meditation and yoga while praying?

Your questions and comments are welcome.  When confronted by those who bad-mouth the practice of this beautiful spiritual discipline, I only share the facts above.  Most critics of Holy Yoga have never experienced a Holy Yoga class, and know not what they are judging.  How can a person judge something they know nothing about?  Perhaps they need to review Matthew 7:1.  If they continue to be argumentative, as Brooke Boon (founder of Holy Yoga) stated in an email recently to all instructors, we do not need to defend yoga because God is our defender.   As 2 Timothy 2:23 says, “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.”  Christians need to learn to agree to disagree.