Christian yoga: A contradiction or meditation that can deepen Christian faith?

Many Christians are practicing what is called "Christian yoga," but others are saying that, among other things, it goes against Christian theology, and it even has racial understones.

"Christian yoga sits alongside this real disdain and xenophobic views towards people in countries like India or south Asia and Eastern philosophies, but at the same time feeling like it's OK to take practices from those people," said Kamna Muddagouni, a Hindu writer based in Melbourne, Australia, as quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald.

In an article on Daily Life, Muddagouni explained that yoga is a spiritual practice and is a part of what is considered as a philosophical school in Hinduism, which also includes meditation, liberation, and abstention. Yoga is "a multifaceted philosophy, medicine system and way of life," she said, and it is something more than how many people view it -- as physical exercise.

In an interview with ABC, Dr. Shameem Black of the Australian National University said that many people in and from India feel that their country has "in some sense given rise to this really fascinating and wonderful practice," yet they are not given recognition for it.

However, Shyamala Benakovic of Yoga Australia said, according to SMH, that no one owns yoga and even if one looks at its traditional practice, it's not related to a religion; rather, it's "a lifestyle" and is more about "a scientific system."

"It's more cultural rather than religious," she was quoted as saying.

Fitness ministry PraiseMoves, on the other hand, says that yoga postures are offerings to Hindu gods, and the ministry's founder, Laurette Willis, says they don't want to call what they practice as "Christian yoga," rather it is "the Christian alternative to yoga."

A non-profit ministry called Holy Yoga, meanwhile, describes their practice as "an experiential worship created to deepen people's connection to Christ."

Josephine Lau, Australia's first certified Holy Yoga instructor, told SMH that she has felt that her connection to God is much closer eversince she started practising Holy Yoga. This is particularly because one learns to put time for "that spiritual growth, the quiet time, the meditation."

"There's an awareness of your own being," she said "I'm just trying to use yoga as a tool or a platform to share what I believe in. I find that it really grounds me."

Holy Yoga diverts its teachings from Hindu philosophies to biblical teachings. They reportedly replace the names of poses with those more in line the Bible, and these are matched with verses. 

A group who calls themselves Christians Practicing Yoga says that their members are drawn together through their own experience -- individually and collectively -- "that yoga and meditation deepens our Christian faith."