Yoga Exposed-Part 1

By Dr. Scott Johnson | August 31, 2008

Yoga Exposed-Part 1
8/31/2008

Yoga is from the Sankrit word Yug, meaning ‘union’ (with the Divine, your higher ‘SELF’). Yoga is supposedly a path for transcending the ordinary mind (who you think you are) in order to merge with your ‘higher SELF’ or ‘God SELF.’ Yoga means ‘to yoke’ — to yoke with Brahman (i.e., the ‘Infinite,’ the ‘Universal Spirit,’ the impersonal force that the Hindus call ‘God’) via the realization of an altered state of consciousness, thereby theoretically releasing oneself from the bondage of endless reincarnation. Yoga comes out of the Hindu Vedas. It can be traced back to Patanjali, who was a religious leader. Shiva, one of Hinduism’s three most powerful gods, was known as ‘The Destroyer’ — he’s called Yogi Swara or the ‘Lord of Yoga.’

Yoga is clearly a New Age concept that is deeply religious and pantheistic in its origin. It is widely practiced and supported by New Age proponents. The New Age movement denies the reality of sin and total depravity, and believes that man is generally good and is divine. They teach that there is a god within us, and we are to harness that and develop it through meditation and other metaphysical techniques. They teach that the only thing people need is enlightenment regarding their divinity. Sadly, even professing Christians have bought into this lie. Every yoga teacher is, in effect, a Hindu or Buddhist missionary, even though ‘he or she may wear a cross, insist that Jesus was a great Yogi, and protest that Yoga is not a religion, but science’. This is the most blatant of lies as we will see.