Inner Truth: Yoga – Beyond Religion

Sadhguru, Isha Foundation

What religion you belong to has nothing to do with your ability to make use of the yogic systems, because yoga is a technology. Technology does not make any distinction as to what you believe in and what you do not believe in. Whatever you may believe in or not is purely a psychological process – it has got nothing to do with making use of a technology. 

Yoga is Hindu just the way gravity is Christian. Just because the law of gravity was propounded by Isaac Newton, who lived in a Christian culture, does it make gravity Christian? So, yoga is a technology. Anybody who is willing to make use of it can make use of it. It is ridiculous to even think that there could be a religious tinge to yoga. 

Why the yogic sciences have gotten labeled as Hindu by a few ignorant people is because this science and technology grew in this culture. And because this culture was dialectical in nature, naturally they delivered the science in a dialectical manner, involving the cultural strengths of the nation on the land, which is essentially the Hindu way of life. The word ‘Hindu’ has come from the word ‘Sindhu’, which is a river. Because this culture grew from the banks of the river Sindhu, or Indus, this culture got labeled as Hindu. We need to understand this – Hindu is not an ‘ism’; it is not a religion. You can worship a man God and be a Hindu; you can worship a woman God and be a Hindu; you can worship a cow and be a Hindu; you can give up all worship and still be a Hindu. It does not ascribe to any particular belief system. You can do whatever is best for you and still be a Hindu because it is a geographical and cultural identity, not a religious identity. 

So because this science and technology of yoga grew and prospered in this culture, naturally in some ways it has gotten associated with the Hindu way of life. The fundamental process of my work has been just to take away the cultural tinge from the yogic sciences and to present yoga as a pure science, as a technology that everybody can benefit from. 

The author is a yogi, mystic and founder of the Isha Foundation. www.ishafoundation.org
Have a spiritual message? Mail it to us at inbox@dnaindia.net in less than 250 words.