Is yoga/meditation a religious practice?!!?

Answer 1

An Indian professor says it is getting in tune with one's self. It is finding your inner self and using the hidden powers to cause your body to do strange and remarkable things. The Chinese call it getting in touch with your chi (qi). I can't use the Chinese Character; an uneducated boy will report me, since he is jealous of my education level and the fact I am a professor.

Answer 2

Yoga is a means of acquiring a better health mainly through proper breathing techniques. As such, it does not constitute a religious practice. Meditation is a broad word, for instance you can meditate on the Holy Bible which is an amazingly good thing to do.......but things like transcendental meditation and those which focus on self-suggestion is a variant of atheism in a sense.

Answer 3

Not necessarily. One may practice the physical postures and movements in Yoga purely as an exercise regime for keeping fit. The meditation can help one to improve mental abilities such as attention span. However, the traditional philosophical system from which Yoga came viewed Yoga as a means to connect to the divine. So, the answer to your question is: it depends.

Answer 4

Yoga is the biggest gift of hinduism to the mankind. Yoga is a special way of meditation which has many objectives like keeping your body fit, or to keep your mind fit, or get enlightened.

Yoga does not need any conversion, and any one from any religion or even an atheist can do yoga.

Yoga mainly consists of certain postures, breath control and mind discipline.

With yoga, one can make his mind so analytical that he not only understands his own religion clearly...he can see truth of others too

Yoga is next step towards spirituality...away from the narrow bundaries of religions and cults

Answer 5

Yoga is more of an exercise to center your body and mind.

I practice Hatha Yoga which dealt with the purification of body and mind.

One of the things I found interesting was that the people that started Yoga believed that each person was only allowed a certain number of breaths and then no more. So the teaching of slowing your breathing was important to lengthen your life.

Answer 6

hehe, the first few respondents almost never read the question.

yoga is both philosohy and religion. yoga stems from samkhya, indeed the difference between the two is that yoga teaches that the supreme--ultimate reality--is God, Brahman, One Without a Second. Samkhya did not deify the supreme.

namaste ♥

Answer 7

It's both religious and exercise. If you work on meditating while getting the exercise, it can become a very religious experience.

Answer 8

Yoga/meditation is a philosophy, it can't be a religion.

Answer 9

No. Yoga classes are even held at many fitness centers nowadays.

Answer 10

Yoga is not a religion. Who is the prophet and its holy book?