Yoga teachers in America would say yoga is not a religion. It is a philosophy. It can be paired with any religion. I have studied yoga philosophy, though, and found beliefs and practices I could not embrace. They did not coincide with my religious faith. Yet I still embrace the general standards of yoga philosophy.
Yoga teaches you to love all beings the same.
It teaches to “show compassion in the place of judgment” as stated by Beth Shaw (Yogafit).
It teaches to not compare your own self to others, steal, lie, or form addictions, among many other things.
But can yoga save? For some, it does, in their own mind. They embrace the philosophy. They embrace the disciplines. And they find their salvation within themselves. Yet we cannot save ourselves.
We can develop tools to find contentment with the state of our lives, but I have to believe that a part of us is always searching.
A part of us is always reaching out to touch the face of God. We realize at some point in our lives that we have no control over the makings of our day and can only look to the Creator of that day. Yoga may call it the Divine but I think we search for a little deeper relationship.
