Yoga: How is it related to religion?

I am a part time instructor, and I have been practising yoga for the last 18 years. My mum is full time instructor, and she has been having this practise for more than 30 years.. and now, my brother is also practising and he is going to get his certification as instructor soon too! For these years of practising, we are not even taught any element of religion! We are not even good enough to do meditation, as this is a level where a person has to be a free mind before a person can start meditating. I used to 'debate' this point with my fellow church members, as they think that practising yoga is against the religion, and I always explain to them that it's not. You may have to be involved in Yoga in order to understand further the elements, and I would say that it's not. We are a family of yoga practitioners (see, we can't even call ourselves yogi, as we are not the bear yet.. ) Anyway, the misunderstanding come when the yoga postures are made to be called in the common languages, and we have all those postures that assembles the animals, therefore we are being labelled as 'worshiping' the animals. Therefore, our master encourages us to practises in Sanskrit language, and therefore no conflict.

I do some Yoga in my spare time to keep my body healthy,I don't know much about it.but I know that Yoga stems from India,So I think it is probaliy have some relationship with religion. I like Yoga very much ,It is a suitable exercise for me,I don't concern about its religion ,however It is a good exercise for people around the world ! have a nice day!

Yoga, a long with other types of meditation, all take advantage of the enormous power of the brain. I have been reading a book recently, Why God Won't Go Away, and have found it very enlightening. It tells of an experiment was conducted that measured the blood flow to areas in the brain during mediation. It turns out, that during peak moments of meditation, the area of the brain that orients itself to the world has much reduced blood flow, so the brain gives the person a sense of feeling all one and connected with the world. I would really recommend reading the book.

I don't know much about Yoga, but I believe meditation is involved. Meditation in any religion is good for the soul. It centers you on the higher powers in your life, God, etc. You do have to be careful when you go to Meditation classes, to be sure they aren't expecting you to mediate on a God that you don't believe in, or some kind of religious experience that you don't agree with. That's why mediation at home is the best. You can then focus on what you feel comfortable in.

there are different levels of yoga, if you just want to do exercises, you can do hatha yoga. though the purpose of hatha yoga is to help you prepare your mind and body for meditation, its your choice if you want to do meditation or not to go deeper into the beliefs of yoga.

yoga helps us to maintain sound health and keeps the doctors at bay. regular practice of yoga cures certain diseases also.