From the time I hear someone say,’ But Yoga comes from India, therefore it is something “foreign” and I don’t see how we can make use of it.’ Of course this is foolishness. It is like saying, ‘I don’t want to listen to the music of Bach because he was German,’ or it’s like someone in India declaring, ‘We don’t want to use electricity, because Thomas Edison was an American’. Yoga is universal, it is a priceless gift from the East and its benefits are available to all of us who would accept them.
It is very tragic that many of us, not knowing the facts, have for many years confused Yogis (a person who practices ‘Yoga’ is a ‘Yogi’) with a certain class of people in India who are known as Fakirs. Fakirs have gained extra-ordinary control of their senses, but use this control to subject their bodies to abnormal condition. For example, they sit on the famous ‘bed of nails’, stick pins and swords into their bodies, allow themselves to be ‘buried alive’ and perform such supernatural feats. They are generally persons of low mentality, and they perform these supernatural things for money, food, favours and so forth. These fakirs should never be confused with Yogis: nor do snake charmer or India rope trick practitioners have nothing to do with Yoga. Yoga is a method of natural development for body and mind and a true Yogi will never permit anything harmful or unnatural to be done to his/her body or mind.
Finally, there is the question of ‘religion’. I am often asked, ‘is Yoga a religion?’ My answer is, ‘Definitely not!’ For us, Yoga is a dynamic system of physical exercise and a practical and valuable philosophy to apply to everyday life, in short, Yoga is a way of life and everyone, regardless of his religion, can benefit greatly from anyone or all aspects of Yoga.
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