Source: Outlook India
Is yoga Hindu?
The word Hindu comes from a geographical location. The people who lived within the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean or the Hindu Sagara were called Hindu. Anything born in this region is Hindu. An earthworm born here is Hindu, as an elephant born in Africa is African. If yoga is Hindu, then gravity is Christian.
Do you think World Yoga Day may make someone from some other faith uneasy?
Not at all. Yoga means union. It can only unite people. It is both a philosophy and a science. It is for people of any faith, or even no faith. If anything, the so-called staunch Hindus should be more worried about yoga getting popular because it is very scientific and goes against rituals. They may fear that if people really understood yoga, they may stop going to temples. It is the most intellectually active time we are living in. Everyone knows everything, so it is very difficult now to make people follow blindly. If you look at the chants and the mantras in yoga, they are all about the science of sound. Today there is research being done in Sheffield University on the science of Om, but we knew it all along. Why do you need proof of these things? The human body is the greatest gadget. If uttering a chant makes one feel composed and balanced, then that is the proof.
