Nevada, June 10, 2020
photo: akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com
Hindus are “disappointed” and “disheartened” by the Orthodox Church of Greece’s recent statement declaring yoga to be incompatible with Orthodox Christian spirituality.
Yoga can, in fact, be compatible with the practice of any religion, believes Rajan Zed, the head of the Universal Society of Hinduism in Nevada.
“Although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. One could still practice one’s respective faith and do yoga. Yoga would rather help one in achieving one’s spiritual goals in whatever religion/denomination one believed in. It was not at odds with any faith and rather made one spiritually healthier,” reads a statement on Zed’s website.
At its session on June 2, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece stated that yoga is a fundamental part of the Hindu religion and thus “is completely incompatible with our Orthodox Faith and has no place in the lives of Christians.”
The Synod took up the matter following Greek media reports about yoga’s ability to help people with stress during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Hindu leader is now calling on Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens to “rethink, revisit, and reevaluate yoga,” as many Greek Orthodox reportedly practice yoga. “Denying them the valuable opportunities the multi-beneficial yoga provided, would be clearly doing a disservice to them,” Zed argues.
However, Zed’s own statement unknowingly points to the incompatibility of yoga and Christianity. “According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature,” said the head of the Universal Society of Hinduism, while Orthodox Christianity teaches that so-called paths to perfection outside the teachings of Christ are demonic delusions, beginning with the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Moreover, this position has been consistently held by the Holy Synod for at least several years now, as the new statement is essentially a reiteration of the Synod’s press release of June 16, 2015.
Speaking on Greek television on June 5, Metropolitan Stefanos of Philippi explained that the Church does not condemn any form of exercise, but yoga is not simply exercise, despite this widespread misconception.
“This particular form of this philosophy, as it is manifested, refers to an impersonal God,” he said of the Hindu practice.
“Ignorance kills,” he also warned.
And not all Hindu teachers hold to Zed’s position. For example, to think of yoga as a mere physical movement is tantamount to “saying that baptism is just an underwater exercise,” said Swami Param of the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy and Dharma Yoga Ashram in Manahawkin, N.J.
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A number of saints and elders of the 20th century have also been known to speak out forcefully against yoga and other Far Eastern spiritual practices, including St. Paisios the Athonite, Elder Sophrony, Fr. Seraphim (Rose), and the martyred Fr. Daniel Sysoev.
See also our articles, “Hidden Fire: Orthodox Perspectives on Yoga,” and “On Christianity and Yoga from a Former Adherent of the Latter,” both by former practitioners of yoga.
See also the video, “Yoga is Not Gymnastics,” by Klaus Kenneth, a former practitioner who became a spiritual child of St. Sophrony (Sakharov).
