yoga AND religion

[Guest guest]

Dear Maria,

 

> I'm Roman Catholic, will Kundalini yoga interfere with my beliefs?

 

No, not at all. A modern Indian saint said that religion is how you choose

to worship divinity and yoga is the path to the personal experience of that

divinity. Yoga teaches that divinity dwells within you. So does Christianity

if you really pay attention: "The Kingdom of God is within", said Jesus. So

does Islam: "You can break a mosque, you can break a temple, but never break

a human heart, for that is where God lives", said Rumi. So does Buddhism: "I

bow to you, for you are a Buddha to be", said Avalokiteshvara. So does

Hinduism: "I live in the human heart", said Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. So

does Sikhism: "Your identity is Truth", said Guru Nanak. So, what is there

to interfere with anything?

 

Beliefs are fine. But beliefs are beliefs and experience is something else.

Yoga is about experience. I was an agnostic for most of my life. I have

always been very much science and logic-oriented, and I just found it

strange to believe in anything "on faith". Yoga does not require you to

believe in anything, nor to change your beliefs, because it is not about

beliefs. It gives you the experience of what IS. And the experience,

ultimately, is that yes, truly, divinity dwells within you at every moment,

and there was never a time when it was far from you. It is the experience

that might change some of your beliefs. If you think God is "up there" and

we are "down here", that might change.

 

The Vedas put the whole of reality into one short sentence: "You are That".

This is not a belief. You can't even believe that until one day you have the

actual experience. What name you want to give "That" is up to you. God,

Spirit, Allah, the Void, Universal Consciousness, Shakti, Siva, Energy - all

names for just one reality. All names and all religions belong to the same

reality, because there is only one. Your religion and the experience of

reality can never interfere. So keep up, and the experience will be yours.

 

Many blessings,

Satsang Kaur