Where You're at Yoga

[My friends, born and raised in India] informed me that Hinduism isn’t Hinduism. The religion [they] practiced was Brahmanism. Hindu, in their language, just meant “anyone with a religious belief.”

I throw around a word a lot of people in North America dislike: “ethnocentrism.” The word means that we base our assumptions, expectations, and values on the culture we live in. Everyone ever thinks they’re the default human, with the default experience, until they find out otherwise. It’s not a bad thing – except when it comes to our interactions with cultures besides our own. Humans are guilty of it worldwide, and no one can be faulted for working with what they know until they do something awful like colonize Africa and act or oppress indigenous people.

Those of us who are descendants of the original English speakers like making up names for cultures and things happening within cultures that aren’t ours to begin with. It’s no surprise that we generally get it wrong.

For those, who because of your cultural context and beliefs worry that you might be going against your religion by practicing yoga, it’s possible but unlikely, especially in the average US American yoga class. Why is it unlikely? Because yoga is not a religion, it is a spirituality. While it’s frowned on by some, I don’t require people in my classes to engage in the spiritual aspects with me.

Why is it possible you might brush up against a religious practice outside of your own? Because yoga is a practice that intersects with a swathe of religions, and that does mean that honoring deities is a possibility depending on the yoga instructor and whether they are aligned with yoga as a spiritual practice.

What religions does yoga intersect with?

• Brahmanism

• Buddhism

• Zorastrianism

• Sikhism

• Jainism

Likely I am missing a few.

My understanding of Hinduism as a word comes directly from some women from India I met when I was in graduate school. I worked for an International Student Office and part of my job was learning what these students were willing to teach me. One set of siblings would sometimes take me with them to a temple in Northeast Minneapolis, where we would don flip-flops in winter and bring bananas and oranges along with a small monetary donation. One sister was especially vocal about some of the condescending comments she got about her practice. “We aren’t worshipping the statue – we aren’t idiots! We are worshipping the force behind the statue!”

They thought my yoga practice was weird and silly. In their world, only the elderly went to ashrams for an asana practice.

For me, understanding their perspective wasn’t a stretch. I’m an animist and a Pagan, working in symbols to help our brains understand forces is part of the deal. However, the people around us didn’t quite get it, or were coached by certain butts-in-pews-ambitions not to get it.

At the time I was around these women I was also volunteering for Twin Cities Pagan Pride and I had been asked to float an invitation for someone from the Hindu community to attend a panel. My friends had been waiting for the conversation with me, because we were at dinner and they set their forks down. It was time for the talk.

The talk did give me food for thought, and brought me around to looking at my own ethnocentric understanding. Because a lot of North American Pagans think we can’t be ethnocentric because we ourselves are part of marginalized culture – and we are wrong about that.

They informed me that Hinduism isn’t Hinduism. The religion the sisters practiced was Brahmanism. Hindu, in their language, just meant “anyone with a religious belief.” Christians, from their view, are Hindus. As a Pagan I was a Hindu. Muslim, Jain, Buddhist, that Amish farmer down the road – they are all Hindu.

For now, understand that yoga is an intersectional practice that crosses between undefined belief and defined belief. Can an atheist practice yoga? Yes, and there are even parts of the spiritual aspect that might be nourishing, depending on the type of atheist.

Yoga is not Hinduism. If you practice a religion that demands spiritual monogamy, unless the practice explicitly brings in worship or is part of a worship service, you are unlikely to encounter a conflict – and no, you aren’t practicing Hinduism.

I know there are certain religions that heartily object to yoga. I can respect the objections based on personal boundaries, but I draw the line at allowing these groups to set boundaries for me. I’m not knocking on your church door with a yoga mat and a copy of the Bhagavad Ghita in my hand. Staying off the lawns of people not bothering you is a hallmark of decent humanhood.