Yoga: religious practice or lifestyle?
only in the United States, there are 15 million people practicing yoga for years, forming an industrial chain with a value of billions of dollars. Although the motivations behind the practitioner are different, there are people who are physically strong and some people are trained, but in most cases yoga and religion seem to have little to do with them. However, a recent "Yoga home" campaign launched by the India foundation has pushed the religious problems of yoga to the cusp. The focus of debate is whether yoga is a Hinduism or a way of life.
at first, the "Yoga home" movement was not held in a big way, but an article was posted on the India foundation website in January, pointing out that the philosophy of Yoga first appeared in the Hindu scriptures, and has always been one of the core contents of Hinduism; however, In the western world, Hinduism has always been categorized as a polytheism that worships the "caste system, cattle and curry", so the vast majority of Americans prefer to see yoga as the inheritance of a spiritual "India wisdom" that transcends time and space rather than religion. A few months later, Dr. Aseem Shukla, founder of the foundation, wrote in the Washington Post and put forward a more sharp point: Hinduism became the victim of "blatant intellectual property theft", the first generation of India yoga teachers who were "the altars of mercenary and money supremacy". A valuable religious spiritual wealth has been offered. This article provoke the refutation of Dr. Deepak Chopra, who was born in India and now residing in the United States. Dipak Chopra Chopra, who has long been devoted to popularizing the traditional culture of India medicine and yoga in western society, believes that this movement is the product of the combination of the wrong historical view and the narrow nationalism, and points out that the limitations of the "self closure" of India teaching aids are not sufficient to monopolize the right to belong to yoga.
the controversy between the two people has been transmitted viral in the narrow network world of Yoga lovers, American Indians and religious scholars. The world's largest issue of Yoga magazine, "Yoga magazine", on September this year, also mentioned the sports debate in the dark, dubiously saying "the true history of yoga is a mystery". Soon, the question of compatibility between Christianity and yoga has also emerged. As you know, there is a lot of Christian content that is now popular in the teaching of yoga. It is not the traditional yoga class that does not make a long "om" sound like the traditional yoga class, but begins with the simple prayer of Francis. Albert Moeller, Dean of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, R.Albert Mohler Jr. He agrees that yoga is Hindu, so practice yoga is not compatible with Christian faith. "Christians are not asked to empty their minds, and they are not required to see their bodies as a means of connecting to God, and what Christians do is to meditate on the words of God." Many Christians who practise Yoga do not agree with him. Instead, they believe that yoga can achieve peace of mind and better understand Christian belief. However, the Vatican obviously disagrees, and in 1989, they issued a document declaring that the eastern tradition of yoga, such as yoga, "decadored and degraded into a heresy worship of the body." The debate on
rose to the tit for tat of all sides. The second generation, a urologist, said it was far beyond what he had expected in the US Indian Dr. Shukla. "When we started the Yoga right of belonging movement, it was really just for our children's consideration. Children go to school, tell others that they are Indians, and no one will say to them, "ah, great, Indians bring yoga to the whole world". They would only ask him, 'what kind of caste do you belong to' or 'do you pray to the God monkey', because that's the full understanding of Hinduism in the eyes of the American mind. "
supporting the campaign is undoubtedly the leader of the American Indian community like Dr. Uma V. Mysorekar. She led a North American India Temple Association in Queens, New York. The main task is to help Indian communities in all parts of the United States build temples. As a India emigrant, she prefers to look at this debate from another angle. "Our generation, busy with life. The second and third generation of immigrants are now trying to make a voice that belongs to us, telling people that our civilization has made a great contribution to the world, and this must be recognized. " In the basement of the Ganesha Temple of the association, there is also a yoga class with 60 students. At the beginning of class and after the end of the course, the teacher will lead the cadets in a India style prayer, and many students say they have begun to practice Hinduism in their lives. Not everyone, however, is the 35 year old community leader, Shweta Parmar, who is in charge of a health and meditation group. She grew up in an Indian community. "Yoga is part of our tradition, yes, but yoga is only in India." I dared not say that, and I wouldn't say that.
is most puzzled by the dispute over the brand and right of ownership of yoga, and undoubtedly many yogi practitioners. Desmond, 27, a yoga teacher from Williams Berg, Brook, said, "Yoga is not a person. Yoga is not a religion. It is a way of life and a way to cultivate a body." The teacher told us that the root of yoga can be traced back to the time when the Hinduism was not born. " Like some religious history researchers, Desmond also believes that Yoga originated from the Vedic Civilization that was created by the Aryan people who came to India in 3000 B.C., far earlier than Hinduism. Some historians also pointed out that the earliest description of Yoga did appear in the "mahhagavan song" in the Hindu classic mahahashi, but it could not prove that Yoga originated from Hinduism, because the India teaching was born out of the Brahman religion created by the Aryan invading India.
the New York Times published a long essay about the religious controversy of yoga, which triggered more than 100 threads on the Internet. Iris Padgett, a North Carolina yoga teacher, also wrote a letter to the newspaper editor, and was supported by many ordinary yoga practitioners: "Yoga 'belongs to' Hinduism, which is the same as saying 'belong to' Christianity. Yoga is a practice, a tool for growth and pursuit of peace. Given that it was originally an Indian practice, we may express our courtesy gratitude, but now the benefits of it have long gone beyond the category of a certain group. As a yoga teacher, I like to teach inclusiveness and acceptance of others in class. In my view, trying to put yoga into a certain religious category, instead of missing the essence of yoga, the beauty of yoga, it is large enough to accept all belief systems. In the United States, a country so strongly believed in personal rights and freedoms, including religious freedom, and often paid a lot of time to find a common religious basis, I think yoga is a perfect opportunity to bring together many different religious beliefs to form one. A good environment for common values such as health, good wishes, gratitude, acceptance of others and personal and spiritual growth. "