It’s amazing what comes to light as you read God’s Word and what children can teach you.  Being a mother and watching my children grow I totally get Matthew 18:3 when Jesus says we must become as little children to enter heaven.  They have an unshakeable faith and when you read the Bible to them they just get it.  It’s hard to explain they just have a way of not complicating the simple truths.

Anyhow, at the time this happended, my daughters were 7 and 5 years of age when I was reading Deuteronomy 18: 9-14 to my girls and discussing how it applies today and that Deuteronomy 5: 9 tells us that we must never worship or bow down to false idols/gods.

Deuteronomy 18:9
When you arrive in the land the LORD your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there.

Deuteronomy 5:9
Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish.  You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god!

After I said this my oldest immediately spoke up saying that they do yoga in class and they fold their hands and bow down saying namaste.  My youngest also piped up that she also does yoga in her class on a regular basis.

Since I didn’t know that much about yoga at the time, but now concerned, the girls and I jumped on the computer and started researching about yoga.  I was totally shocked.

I did a study awhile back on world religions and I’m amazed at how indoctrinated we’ve become to false religious ideas and teachings.  And the worst part is that they have infiltrated our Churches.

So in this post I want to go over my findings and the top 7 reasons why I believe a Christian should never do yoga.

1) Hindu Spiritualism

Yoga is a part of Hindu spiritualism.  The word yoga was first documented in Hinduism’s sacred texts called the Vedas.  Hindus believe in the divinity of the Vedas.   The Vedas contain mantras, mystical interpretation, explanation of verses and reflections of verses.  They are used as rituals by the Vedic priests.

Yoga masters, or yogis, fully admit that yoga is a way to gain spiritual enlightenment.  They openly admit that there is a direct correlation between the individual poses and Hindu deity worship.

2) All Postures Have Spiritual Significance

Don’t believe me?  Just Google spiritual meaning of yoga postures and a whole wack of articles will come up.

Just to give you an example the sun salutation posture, usually done at the beginning of most classes, is a posture that prostrates you to the sun, in which you are expressing "reverence" for the life-giving solar energy as did the ancient yogis.  Some yogis practice that the sun salutation is a prayer in motion to the sun, which they call Surya, as both the physical and spiritual heart of our world and the creator of all life itself.  WHAT?

As Christians we should already be sensing a huge problem here.

3) The Meaning of Yoga

The word Yoga means "union" or "to yoke" - well you're definitely NOT yoking yourself to Jesus when you’re doing Hindu spiritualism!

4) Idol Worship

Deuteronomy 5:8-9
Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish.  You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god!

So far I hope you can already see how participating in yoga is dangerous for Christians. Yoga is used to worship the different Hindu gods so when Christians participate in yoga we are in effect worshipping false gods.  But that’s not all…

Have you noticed the trend in today’s culture?  We might not bow down to a physical object as a form of worship but in today’s world is all about worshipping yourself.  This is what all these false religions are teaching – that you can become your own god, you have the power within you to reach enlightenment.   It’s a “selfie” world.

God has forbidden us to bow down to anything or anyone, except him.  What happens in yoga classes?  One yoga instruction has participants bowing down to themselves, bowing to the space where they practice yoga and finally to each other.  That’s a lot of bowing down but even if your yoga class only has you bowing down to each other that’s just once too many in God’s eyes.

1 Corinthians 10: 19-21
What am I trying to say?  Am I saying that the idols to whom the pagans bring sacrifices are real gods and that these sacrifices are of some value?  No, not at all.  What I am saying is that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God.  And I don’t want any of you to be partners with demons.  You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too.  You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too. 

5) Namaste

The word "namaste" is broken down into two words; nama which means, “I” and te meaning “you”.  So namaste literally means “I bow to you”.  And since we already know that bowing down is a form of idol worship when you put namaste with the bow you’re basically saying I bow to the god within you.

But it doesn’t stop there the actual namaste gesture represents the Hindu belief that there is a divine spark within each of us and it’s located in the heart chakra.  That’s right – that’s why you fold your hands where your heart it.  This gesture they believe is an acknowledgment of the one another’s souls and divine nature.

6) Chanting

It’s not unusual for a yoga class to begin and end the class with the “om” chant.  Again this is based in Hinduism.  When pronounced correctly it actually consists of 4 syllables; A, U, M and then the last syllable is silent.  The three letters symbolically embody the divine nature of Shakti (the ultimate power inherent in all Creation) and its 3 main characteristics: 1) creation, 2) preservation, 3) liberation.  The silent syllable at the end is representative of the deep silence of the infinite.

But again there’s more…

Hindus and yoga instructors along with a lot of participants believe that by chanting the om or aum sound you’re symbolically and physically tuning in to the universe’s sound and acknowledging their connection to all other livings beings, both in nature and in the universe.

Hmmm, sounds to me like you’re worshipping the creation instead of the Creator!

7) Meditation  

Meditation is huge in today’s culture but not everyone understands what mediation is about.  One yoga website says that mediation is a technique not just for resting the mind but also to attain an alternate state of consciousness.  To in essence let go of everything around you and allow your mind to become silent.

Yoga sometimes even promotes astral projecting oneself if you’re in more advanced classes.

The only reason you need, to say “heck no” to mediation:

Mediating where you empty your mind or make your mind become silent is contrary to what the Bible tells us.  Here are a few verses;

Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV) – Pray without ceasing.

Ephesians 6:18 - Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.

Psalm 1: 2 - But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.

Our goal as a Christian is to always be in communion with God.  Mediation where they want you to "empty your mind" or have your “mind be silent” is disconnecting you from God and when we disconnect from God who do you think you’re opening yourself up to?

For that matter we have to realize that although our bodies are in the physical we are also spirit and that physical acts can have spiritual consequences.  Satan is real and he’s looking for some victim to devour (1 Peter 5:8).  When you participate in false religious practices (whether you are aware of it or not) you’re giving satan the legal right to mess around in your life.

In summary going through all this, hopefully, you can see why EVEN Christian yoga is something we need to stay away from.  Yoga is rooted in Hinduism and the physical act cannot be separated from the spiritual aspect of it.

God tells us in His Word that we are not to imitate other customs and practices from other nations aka false religions.

Deuteronomy 18:9
When you arrive in the land the LORD your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there.

There is one more concern.  Most people are not aware of just how inundated and indoctrinated we are with eastern religions.  If we fall for one we are easily led astray and more susceptible to falling for the next lie.  We must stay in the Word of God!

As author Doug Groothuis said,

"There's nothing wrong with stretching and calming down one's breathing. But yoga isn't really about that; it's aimed at transforming human consciousness to experience the Hindu god, which is a false god."

If you or your children are currently participating in yoga please ask the Holy Spirit for truth!

As for me I spoke to both my daughter's teachers telling them that they will no longer be participating in yoga and why.  I explained to my girls why we need to be careful and the girls did a prayer of forgiveness and renouncing yoga - closing the door that their teachers had unknowingly opened to the enemy.

Praise Report!!  Once I took that step for God, He took one for me and I’m joyful to say that neither teacher did another yoga session in either one of my children’s classes for the rest of the year!

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Your Sister in Christ,

Angela

I bless you with God’s wisdom that is more profitable than silver and gold and more precious than rubies. (Proverbs 3:13-20)