Why yoga has nothing against your religion.

Several people I have spoken to won't do yoga for "religious reasons." This is also why some people don't stay for Savasana and meditation at the end of a class. Is yoga a religion? Does yoga conflict with other religious (or non-religious) beliefs? Well, it depends who you ask.

Some people argue that to do yoga properly, you must accept that there is a Divine Personality, known by many names, but most commonly, God. This chap features prominently in a lot of major religions, giving sometimes vague, sometimes oddly specific advice for life on earth.

In the myriad ways yoga has been adapted (read: watered down for general consumption and capitalised upon), the first key to its modern success was to remove the spiritual God-is-a-person component. Luckily, some yogis already did that a couple of thousand years ago. They did it so well that Richard Dawkins didn't even consider Buddhism or Yoga as having a god to disprove in his controversial book, The God Delusion.

There have been many interpretations of the Vedic texts, the philosophy from which yoga is derived; some schools lean towards a God-head personality, and others accept a more abstract notion of Consciousness as an impersonal energy that is present in all things.

The good news is, it doesn't really matter, and not just because much of the yoga practised today is a very secular fitness endeavour, with a few breathing techniques on the side. Even if you find yourself in a studio that practices the "spiritual stuff", Yoga is perfectly happy for you to venerate your own God during your practice. Or no god at all. There is no blasphemy in yoga. Yoga is about uniting mind and body, spiritual and material. Every part of the process is about becoming aware of and grateful for every aspect of God's (or The Universe's) creation. Yoga is simply a practical approach to a spiritual aspect. It is a guide - how to live your life well and best connect with God. And that's not some weird other yogi God - it's your God.

But what about the people who consider themselves of a more scientific nature, and reject the notion of religion? Some of you have already dismissed yoga as a particularly tenacious form of Eastern-themed "woo." As a society, we really are starting to understand that de-stressing is as important as exercising and eating well. Many rational and non-religious folk enjoy going to a yoga class at the gym for a good stretch, and find the meditation at the end is quite nice too, very relaxing. Yoga approached with zero attention to spirituality still offers a zillion health benefits - but scientific research still shows us that people who maintain a religious or spiritual practice are still generally happier.

So science has a lot of good things to say about yoga, which brings me to my next point: yoga IS a science. The first time I heard this, I thought: well now, I've heard of "soft sciences" but this is surely stepping over some line. The system of yoga is a scientific approach to something that isn't quite quantifiable in the scientific terms we are used to. Science demands material evidence as proof, but the elusive element of life itself cannot be created materially, so how should it be discovered materially? What Vedic knowledge suggests, is that only by learning to engage our own consciousness will we have any hope of understanding the greater consciousness. Side note: After a certain point of immersion in yoga, the words God & Consciousness become fairly interchangeable - at least to me. Yoga was originally intended to be a tool to meet with God - or to explore Consciousness - with reverent respect for this mysterious phenomenon that apparently causes us to be.

Disclaimer: It's highly unlikely that your local gym or even dedicated yoga studio will be offering you much in the way of spiritual enlightenment, so fear not, if you are still worried that downward dog is a gateway to the occult. What you will more than likely experience is a sequence of exercises designed to effectively stretch, tone and strengthen the body. If the instructor is feeling adventurous, you might do a breathing exercise. Oh, and that meditation at the end is really just about helping you to relax.