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How Authentic Yoga is Different from Popular Christianity and Hinduism

Authentic Yoga and Popular Religion

To someone who asked why some Indian teachers insist that the only thing needed is to be devoted to the form of God they worship–just love that form of God, worship him and go to his world after death and adore him forever–which is not really different from the evangelical Christian “get saved” view.

It is sad that those who like to cite selected passages from the Bhagavad Gita in their lectures or writings usually overlook the summation of the Gita: “Therefore be a yogi” (6:46).

Authentic yoga postulates that the aspirant must liberate himself by realizing his own true nature as the ever-free Atman-Self. Just as we have bound ourselves to the wheel of birth and death through ignorance and the karmas created by (and perpetuating) that ignorance we must liberate ourselves by attaining true knowledge and wisdom (jnana). And the way is simple: Be A Yogi.

Those who are not yogis have no understanding of this, for yoga is both a philosophy and a practice. If someone does not hold the philosophy he will have no way to evaluate a practice, much less teach it. And if he does not have a true yogic practice, he will never gain the experience which leads to and validates the philosophy.

Further Reading:

Discover authentic yoga in our our e-Library, with PDFs of full books and articles available from OCOY.org.

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