Hindu leaders slam yoga for Christians

Hindu religious leaders have strongly criticized a Catholic spiritual teacher for encouraging her pupils to find God through yoga.

Winnie Young, 96, who studied yoga under one of the world's leading yogis, Yogacharya BKS Iyengar, claims to have spent most of her life teaching yoga.

The founder of a national yoga institute in 1975, Young said, her institute practices Hatha yoga, which advocates controlled breathing to calm the body and cleanse the mind in an effort to achieve nirvana, an elevated mental state.

She questioned, why people have a misconception of Yoga, thinking it as a religion?

Explaining how yoga helped her draw closer to Christ Young said, “I have been led by my Christian beliefs, but I don’t do indoctrination. I teach as a Christian, my Christian principles guide me.”

In her book 'Yoga for the Christian', Young concedes that she knows yoga is based on an Eastern philosophy but suggests, “Christians don’t have to accept the Hindu beliefs incorporated in yoga, but can learn the techniques and use it in a better way.”

However, head of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha, Ashwn Trikamjee, criticizing Young's teaching said, "Its hypocrisy of the highest order. I don’t understand how anyone can teach yoga from a Christian background

He further added that if Christians want to teach yoga, they should teach the true form and not be guided by any religion.

Argues yoga teacher Kanchana Moodliar who feels teaching yoga from a specific perspective or background cannot be considered incorrect, “Yoga does form part of the Hindu religion, but does that mean we need to own it and not share it? Are we not about sharing, tolerance, embracing all and about making better people, no matter what their religion is?”

“Yoga is a philosophy, and the practice is an exact science aimed at reaching a higher consciousness, so it can be adopted by anyone who has a yearning to connect with the Divine.”

“So, whether yoga is taught from a Christian point of view or Hindu, as long as it enables the yogi to get into their bodies and through the body reach a higher consciousness, who are we to stop that?” she said.

Last year, a church’s ban on yoga classes calling it a sham and un–Christian sparked uproar in the United Kingdom.

According to Yoga Journal, about 15 million Americans practiced yoga in 2004, and more than 12 percent of United States residents are "very interested" or "extremely interested" in yoga.