another reason not to practice yoga...

I know that yoga (discipline) is a popular thing in the U.S even among “Christians.”  If those Christians are true believers than they are hopelessly misinformed and misguided for I cannot espouse anything connected to the teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita.  Despite our usual qualms with eastern thought, pantheism and rebirth, I don’t think we realize the full implications of what karma, which is inseparably tied to the practice of yoga, really means in the Judeo-Christian worldview.  To an extent the Christian is an eternal being, they have a “treasure in jars of clay” as Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians, but even with our eternal nature housed in these decaying bodies, we were at some point created; for ONLY the Triune God is the great, I AM.  The only One who exists without Time or dimensions or beginning or end.  The Bhagavad-Gita would tell you differently saying we are in essence all “I am’s—“ this is not only heresy, it is frightful blasphemy.

 

You grieve for those beyond grief,

and you speak words of insight;

but learned men do not grieve

for the dead or the living.

 

Never have I not existed,

nor you, nor these kings;

and never in the future

shall we cease to exist. 

 

These words are spoken by Krishna to Arjuna at the battle in which he fears to fight, for killing will give him evil karma and thereby set him back on the rebirth scale.  Again, frightful blasphemy which as you read on in the Bhagavad-Gita you see it is inseparably tied to yoga and becoming a yogi (a disciplined man).

 I have one other reason not to practice yoga.  Not only are you to empty the mind (a frightful idea) and not only are you tied to a blasphemous, pantheistic religion, but if you follow it word for word, you will look STUPID.  This section of the text describes how a man should meditate in yoga to empty his mind and become one with the oneness…and yes, it made me laugh.

 

He should keep his body, head,

and neck aligned, immobile, steady;

he should gaze at the tip of his nose

and not let his glance wander.

 

Try gazing at the tip of your nose and see what happens.  No wonder it takes discipline.  Perhaps one day I should put this in a book on why I’m not a pantheist or a follower of Krishna, but for now I think it should be relegated to common sense.