Is Yoga a Religion?

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There are actually two questions to consider. One question is: “Is Yoga a religion?” The other question is: “Is Yoga a physical fitness program?” If we don’t consider both questions we will not likely grasp the subtler, more authentic meaning of Yoga. Yoga is neither “a religion” in the typical sense of the meaning, nor is it “a physical fitness program.”

The confusion over the word Yoga involves, in part, what logicians call the “fallacy of composition.” One version of the fallacy of composition is projecting a characteristic that is a “part” to be characteristic of the “whole.” The fact that a brick may be part of a house, does not mean that you refer to a brick as a house. A wheel is part of a car, but the wheel itself is not a car.

An example from “religion” should clarify the point. In Mark 12:30 of the Christian New Testament, Jesus is quoted as saying: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:31 (the next verse) includes “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That same verse goes on to say “There is no commandment greater than these.” It is very clear that “love” is a part of Christianity. However, it would surely not be correct to say that if a person practices “love” that he or she was necessarily practicing Christianity, or that she or he is therefore a Christian. It is not accurate to take the part (love) and, in effect, label it the whole by referring to “love” as being “a religion.”

Yoga systematically works with the senses, body, breath, and all of the levels of mind, so as to transcend all of those levels in direct experience. The fact that one may work with the physical body alone, or along side of breathing does not, in itself constitute Yoga. If you ignore the authentic goals of Yoga, you cannot truly call it Yoga. This is where we have run into the problem with the question “Is Yoga a Religion?”

Yoga rests somewhere in the middle, so to speak, between purely physical fitness and the practice of religion. However, it is not, in itself, one or the other.