Is Yoga a Religion?

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Yoga is in religion. Religion is not in Yoga. While Yoga may be in religions, the many Yoga practices with body, breath and mind, along with their transcendent goal of direct experience, are generally neither characteristic of religions, nor typically practiced by the adherents of religions.

Yoga means “union.” It is the joining together the aspects of ourselves which were never divided in the first place. To say that the word “Yoga” itself is a religion makes as much sense as saying that the words “union” or “holistic” refer to, or are religions.

What’s missing with Yoga? Here are a few of the things that are typically part of religions, but which are missing with Yoga:

Yoga has no deity to worship.
Yoga has no worship services to attend.
Yoga has no rituals to perform.
Yoga has no sacred icons.
Yoga has no creed or formal statement of religious belief.
Yoga has no requirement for a confession of faith.
Yoga has no ordained clergy or priests to lead religious services.
Yoga has no institutional structure, leader or group of overseers.
Yoga has no membership procedure.
Yoga has no congregation of members or followers.
Yoga has no system of temples or churches.

Clearly, many religious people practice the stabilizing and purifying practices of Yoga within the context of their own religions, but Yoga stands alone as separate from those religions.