At the age of 15, I was saved, became a Born-Again Christian and devoted my soul to The One True God. I believe in The Holy Trinity of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit but by the time I was 21, I had been burned by Christianity and decided that I would not be labeling myself as such.
Around the age of 25, I started to have stiffness in my body. My friend recommended yoga and though I was a bit skeptical, I did some research and all results came back that it was good for physical health. I started practicing with a YouTube instructor for about a year and before you know it, I felt like it was my calling to become an instructor and open a studio.
I practiced yoga for about 8 years, became certified, and obtained my BSBA in order to learn how to run a yoga business and have a degree to fall back on if my yoga studio took a bit of time to get up and running. During this time, I got married, pregnant three times (one baby in Heaven-miscarriage at 7 weeks), and started working at KU Medical Center while hosting classes in a rental space.
I called myself a “Christian Yoga Teacher” and proclaimed that I was Kansas City’s Black Yoga Teacher. I joined the Yoga Green Book which is now called the BLK Yoga Collective and I was a registered yoga teach with the Yoga Alliance. I also taught virtually for various organizations and made my online presence all about yoga. I named by business and all social media handles “Ocia’s Yoga House of Inner Peace” or “OYHIP” for short. I prided myself on practicing yoga with Christian principles and was very intentional on reading which poses were dedicated to Hindu deities and either not practicing those poses or modifying them to avoid conflict with Christ. My understanding was that the poses could be dedicated toward Hindu gods but not the yogic practice itself.
My third pregnancy was nothing like my second. It was very difficult for me to teach, pose, or even cross my legs in a seated position. I felt my whole purpose was in yoga and I became extremely sad when I was no longer able to practice. I begged God to show me what my purpose was if it wasn’t yoga. I prayed endlessly and something kept nudging me about yoga. I continued to look it up in various ways using keywords like “What is yoga?” “Should Christian’s practice yoga?” “What are the downsides of yoga?” None of these results came back contradictory to Christianity or Jesus.
Yoga was marketed as being a practice created outside of religion and for the purpose of physical and spiritual health as if it were reading scripture or fasting. If you search these terms today, you will find that it’s association with Hinduism, Shiva, Vishnu, or any of the sages takes some deep diving before you come across these things as the language used in the search results is very vague and open. This explains why there are so many channels devoted to Christian Yoga.
I kept believing that yoga was my purpose in life. That by teaching yoga, I could help to lead women and others toward God and assist them in their healing journey. That was my true intention and being unable to practice felt like my identity had been taken away from me. I believed this was my purpose in life and without it, who was I?
By the time my daughter was around 6 months, I stumbled upon a YouTube video about abortions which led to a testimonial from a woman who had denounced her sorority because of the practice of hidden idol worship. I started to wonder if I was practicing idol worship with yoga. The Holy Spirit prompted me to search “What are the origins of Yoga?” What came back made my heart drop. Yoga was not just a physical practice of stretching and reaching connection with any god of your choosing i.e whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish etc., in fact, it was a Hindu worship practice attributed to Shiva, one of 330 million Hindu gods.
When “Yoga” Was First Used
The first historical mention of the word yoga is in the Rigveda or Rig Veda. The Rigveda is one of the four sacred texts of Hinduism as well as the oldest and outlines the most ancient forms of yoga dedicated to the Rigvedic deities.
RV 1.18.7 reads: Without whom the sacrifice of even the wise is not perfected; he (Sadasaspati) directs/promotes yoga (yoking) of thoughts (dhi).”
This text is one of the earliest and purely spiritual references to yoga in the Rigveda.
Another reading of the earliest mention of the word yoga goes as follows:
RV 1.30.7: In every need (yoga) and in every battle (vaja), we, your friends, call upon the mighty Indra for his protection.
There are an estimated 50 gods referenced in the Rigvedas with the most prominent being Indra, Surya, Agni, and Soma. These gods are invoked over 60 times in the text.
Another Hindu text yoga is mentioned in is the Bhagavad Gita in which reference to yuj/yoking/yoga is in union with the soul and the divine. The Bhagavad Gita’s are dedicated to Krishna, as the central supreme deity, narrator, and avatar for Vishnu who reveals himself as the ultimate, universal form of the absolute truth. The text also references the “Hindu Trinity” as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
Shiva is said to be the first to practice yoga and is considered the lord of yoga as he learned it and taught it to his seven “disciples” who later became known as the Saptarshis or seven sages. He then gave them the instructions to go out and teach it to all the world.
The patron deity for all yogis is said to be Yogeshwara or lord of yoga referencing both Shiva and Krishna.
The Hindu Roots of Yoga or HAF have a campaign called “Take Back Yoga Campaign” in which they air their grievances on the West’s persistence on omitting “Hinduism” in publications due to it “carrying too much baggage.” Instead, they insist on using terms such as “Yogic” or “Ancient Indian”. This prompted the HAF to write articles giving clear references back to yoga’s Hindu roots stating that Krishna speaks of four types of yoga: Bhakti (devotion), Jnana (knowledge), Karma (action), and Dhyana (concentration) as the pathways to achieve Moksha.
Moksha is the ultimate goal of Hinduism in that it liberates one from Samsara or the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The Western World may identify this more readily by the term reincarnation.
Shiva and Krishna
Shiva and Krishna can be viewed as one or one in the same with different personhood. For any Christian who has studied the Holy Trinity, you will note that this is similar to God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit as they too are distinct in personhood but are One God.
Shiva and Krishna are very deceptive as searches will be very kind to their overall character. Search results and Hinduism will teach that Shiva and Krishna only acted in vengeance in a kind or benevolent manner. Please note that these two are part of the chief deities in Hinduism which is the foundation of yoga.
Sati, Shiva’s first wife, burned herself alive in a yogic fire because her father did not invite her and Shiva to a fire sacrifice. Shiva becomes angry, bangs one of his locks on the ground and creates two gods. All three of them decapitate his father in law, and after Shiva’s anger dies down, he restores his father in law back to life but replaces his head with that of a goat to humiliate him. Shiva then goes around the world with Sati’s dead body performing the celestial dance of destruction in which Vishnu stops him using the Sudarshana Chakra which scatters her body in 51 different places.
Shiva also created demons from his own sweat and beheaded his son, replacing his head with that of an elephant and making him a god.
Krishna healed a hunchback woman, Kubja, who was a demon in her past life, liberating her from her sins. She invited him back to her house where they consummated their relationship making them spiritual spouses. Krishna also orchestrated the death of Jarasandha because he imprisoned numerous kings who practiced human sacrifice. Krishna vowed to forgive his cousin for up to 100 sins; once his cousin committed the 101 sin, he decapitated him.
Christians Cannot Practice Yoga
I have heard the majority of the arguments for Christians practicing yoga because I was one of the ignorant people who made them. I believed that yoga could be separated from Hinduism/false gods, but I was heavily deceived. It wasn’t until the power of the Holy Spirit guided me, that I was able to research properly and find the information I needed to see the truth, the scales were removed from my eyes.
Upon the revelation of the truth of this idol worship I was practicing, I rid myself and my home of all yoga books, and mats with yoga poses/depictions on them. I denounced yoga over my life, my home, and all who I taught it to and deleted every picture, profile, and so forth that held a yoga likeness on or in it. I opened up my whole being in deep repentance toward the Only True God and asked for deep forgiveness in which he dropped into my spirit:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land-2 Chronicles 7:14
One day, I was making a video about how I was no longer associating myself with the idea that all religions have the same god and that I no longer believed in all ways lead to God; that Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. In doing so, God asked me “What will you call yourself?” in which I replied, “A believer in God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit”, to which He said “What will you call yourself where any place you go, they would know what all that means?” I replied back “Christian.”
God showed me that my life’s purpose was not in the folly of yoga idolatry but in motherhood. I may also add that my life’s purpose is in the undeserving gift of having a personal relationship with The Most High and Only True God. He has made my crooked paths straight and blessed me with an inheritance from the Lord, children. He has made me a wife to a blessed husband and a sister to a blessed family. My purpose, just as yours, was never in yoga, but in the almighty, loving, eternal God who sacrificed His Son, so that we might all be saved.
Deuteronomy 12:30-31
Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
Romans 1:21-23
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and bird and animals and creeping things.
1 Corinthians 10:14
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
With Love,
Mother Ocia💕🌹