Psalm 119 : 105
​Yoga – is it the way?
By Linda Horrocks
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Today Yoga has become very popular for people who want to use it as a keep fit exercise or perhaps because it is the “in” thing to do or for people who are searching for something which they feel is missing from their lives. I started Yoga because I needed confidence. Whatever the reason I don’t think the people who participate in it realise that it can be quite dangerous.
I always had believed in one God, that is until my father died when I was 12 years old. I found it hard to come to terms that God had taken him when I needed him. Some years later in my early 20’s my GP suggested I should try Yoga. Consequently, I started attending classes to help with my confidence. I began believing that there were many paths to God and began looking into Eastern religions with books on Yoga, Buddhism, Hinduism, Astrology etc. I did feel fitter and healthier and I never once suspected I was being drawn by evil influences into the occult and away from the God of the Bible.
In truth, Yoga cannot be separated from its Eastern origins – Hinduism. It is based on Hindu writings and practices. It is New Age consciousness and Eastern religion entwined. It is all part of the Hindu religion. It burst through to the West with the Beatles in the 60’s with transcendental meditation. It was marketed in the West as a non-religious practice and essentially was adapted for the West.
Unfortunately, the truth behind the Yoga posture is to "become one with God". But which God? You learn physical control, mental control and how to bring your mind into stillness. We supposedly become aware of "our own deity" - as everything is God and we can be one with God!? This is not what the Bible teaches. There is only one God – Psalm 86 v 10 For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God.
Most Hindus believe we have a coiled serpent spirit/power sleeping in us at the base of our spine. They call it the kundalini. Every Yoga posture derives from this serpent spirit. In fact, by doing Yoga postures, you are bowing to the serpent deity who wants to be like God. In the Bible this serpent is known as the dragon, the devil or Lucifer. This can open you up to psychic experiences. With the emphasis on the yoga postures, you cannot have the physical exercises without the spiritual. You cannot divorce the two.
I hear you say “well I do Christian Yoga”. Sorry, there is no such thing as Christian Yoga. Even if you quote a few Bible verses or meditate on God it is not enough to stop interference with your spiritual life. Colossians 2 v 6-1 “ Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude, see to it that no-one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.” God has done it all – He is the God of all gods and He is all we need. John 3 v 16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
When they practice Yoga, a Christian is having their mind oppressed by a false spirit. You are taught to empty your mind and become one with the universe and can trigger supernatural entrance into your mind/body. The Yoga postures are derived after animals and every-time you do a posture you are invoking that spirit. Physical workouts with spiritual practices can awaken the kundalini spirit – the wrong spirit and is opposed to Jesus’ teachings. Many Christians think they can cut off the eastern part of Yoga but this is not true. God has provided for men and women to get their spiritual food and growth from Christs teaching and the Bible.
Proverbs 14 v 12 says “There is a way which seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.” Beware and test the spirits God says. We have only one life to live and we should live it for Christ Jesus. We look only to God NOT anything else.
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My own testimony of Yoga which I started eventually came to an end after reaching a stage where I was considering teaching Yoga. During my journey with Yoga, I started feeling that something was wrong. I lived on my own at the time and suddenly started experiencing fear. Sometimes, I heard my name spoken, but no-one was there. I took to reading my school Bible. I didn’t understand it but it gave me comfort. I started questioning things. One day during my lunch break I went back to work a different way and passed a Christian bookshop. I felt compelled to go inside. This was alien to my lifestyle then.
One book stood out and I bought it. When the afternoon tea break came, I went to a private place and flicked through the book. It opened on a page which said that all world religions take a portion of Christianity but then they add their own message which ends in darkness. Only Christianity was the true way. My eyes were wide open, but I knew that Jesus was speaking to me, not in an audible voice but in my mind. I knew that He loved me and would never leave me. I had two desires – to read my Bible and to find a church. God led me to a Minister, who explained eternal life to me and took me through the scriptures.
After my conversion to Jesus, I repented of my involvement in Yoga and the occult and burned all my Yoga and occult books. I believe this was important in the spirit to do so. You cannot serve two masters.
God had lifted me out of darkness into the kingdom of light. I have never looked back – only forward, to when I will meet my Lord Jesus face to face.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through Me” John 14 v 6.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.