Yoga is infiltrating schools. It has been doing so for many years. At the end of this article you will find a video produced by truthXchange. I highly recommend viewing it if you’re a Christian. The speaker is Mary Eady and the subject focuses on how Yoga devotees and organizations are successfully introducing yoga practices into public and private schools from the west to the east coasts of America. Their targets are the young and their goals are to be change-agents.
As a Christian, Mrs. Eady became alarmed when her son came home from kindergarten and announced that he was being taught yoga. She learned that several public schools in the Encinitas district had launched a yoga program. Eady was assured by the school that there was no religious or “cultural” component to the practice.
One of the things Eady noted was that the children were being taught the “Sun Salutations” or “Surya Namaskara.” They were being taught to be thankful to the sun. What is a Sun Salutation? Here’s what practitioners say:
Each Sun Salutation begins and ends with the joined-hands mudra (gesture) touched to the heart. This placement is no accident; only the heart can know the truth. Surya Namaskar, or sun salutation, is included in a regular morning ritual of prayer and worship. It is the prayer of Lord Surya, the god of health.
The ancient yogis taught that each of us replicates the world at large, embodying “rivers, seas, mountains, fields…stars and planets…the sun and moon” (Shiva Samhita, II.1-3). The outer sun, they asserted, is in reality a token of our own “inner sun,” which corresponds to our subtle, or spiritual, heart. Here is the seat of consciousness and higher wisdom (jnana) and, in some traditions, the domicile of the embodied self.
In yoga, the heart is said to correspond to the “sun” while the mind corresponds to the “moon.” Mrs. Eady observed that the teacher encouraged harmony between the two. But wherever there was irreconcilable conflict, students were instructed to follow their hearts. Why would a Christian mother be concerned about that? Because of what the Bible says of the heart:
The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9
At the end of the session the children placed their hands in lotus position and bowed to each other. They repeated the phrases “I see the light in me – I see the light in you.” Finally they all said “The light in all of us makes us one – namaste.” The teacher told the students that namaste means respect.
Namaste means more than respect. According to Yoga Journal:
The gesture Namaste represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us that is located in the heart chakra. The gesture is an acknowledgment of the soul in one by the soul in another.
As we’ve pointed out in a previous article, we’re not all children of God. We are only sons of God through faith in Christ (Gal 3:25). By nature, we are objects of wrath (Eph 2:1-3). Yoga philosophy is therefore not consistent with biblical teaching.
The incident led Eady to investigate how and why yoga was finding its way into schools. She discovered a network of organizations involved in that goal. One of them was the Encinitas based Jois Foundation, which has partnered with the wife of hedge-fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones. Initially, the Jois Foundation had paid school districts some $500,000 plus to promote their “curriculum. This was later followed up by an investment of several million dollars in order to gain access to over 6000 children over nine different schools.
Other organizations pushing the same agenda are the Sonima Foundation, and individuals such as Caroline Jones, Stedman Graham (linked to Oprah Winfrey) and Tara Guber (married to film producer Peter Guber).
It’s no coincidence that Deepak Chopra is a board member of Sonima which has an outreach to children in schools. According to their website:
We build partnerships with local communities, academic institutions, and government entities to influence the changes in public policy required to make health and wellness an essential component of the education system. (Emphasis ours)
Recall that Chopra denies the divinity of Jesus Christ. See our article New Age Jesus? Chopra not only denies the essential tenets of Christianity, he also promotes a hybrid form of New Age Hindu philosophy.
Musician Caroline Jones and Stedman Graham have partnered to promote their Heart is Smart initiative and school tour. Does the heart is smart concept ring a bell at all? This is an allusion to the Sun Salutation. In part it reads:
When you feel your heart, You can sense its power. Your power. You know that it is strong & wise. You know that it is worth listening to. Your thoughts will then follow. Your beliefs will then follow. Your actions will then follow. Everything you do will be inspired, Because your heart is leading, And your heart is smart.
This should be a concern to all Christians, yet on her website we find a glowing recommendation from the headmaster of a Presbyterian Day School who writes:
Caroline Jones is an incredibly talented & versatile musician whose songs are soulful, passionate & thoughtful. Not only were our students and teachers enthralled with her amazing music, they loved connecting with such a warm, witty & wise woman so gracious & engaging.
We mentioned Tara Guber. When “fundamentalists” complained she was teaching her Yoga Ed in Colorado schools, she was eventually portrayed as the victim. Guber insisted she was only teaching a physical discipline which had nothing to do with “spirituality.” The media believed her story, as did many Christians. Notably, she changed the names of the yogic postures (e.g. Bunny Pose) but refused to change the actual poses. This is an important and telling point.
If these “stretching” poses only have physically beneficial properties then one can derive the same benefits from any other stretches. In fact I have a stretching manual which does just that. But that Gruber was being deliberately deceptive is affirmed from an interview she gave to Hinduism Today. It was called Tara’s Yoga for Kids- One noble soul takes on the public school system and wins a Vedic victory
Guber recalls:
They [fundamentalists] wanted us to take out every single word that was even vaguely religious or spiritual. But we didn’t take out the word yoga…I said, “No, the word yoga holds thousands of years of teachings.” I told them I would be happy to take out any other word, but not yoga. So in three days, we did indeed take out every word but yoga. Samadhi was replaced with “oneness.” Meditation was replaced with “time in.” On it went like that. It was on the front page of the local newspapers. But you know, when we actually started implementing our program, we found that many people were desperate to find somebody who would teach their kids yoga.
When asked what passion drives her, Guber responded that this was in line with her destiny. She came here to help solve the nation’s problems. How could this be accomplished by teaching yoga? According to Guber:
I’ve learned from my own experience what a powerful tool it [yoga] is. I have learned from yoga that we can go within, shift consciousness and alter beliefs. If we can get even a little of this kind of teaching into the minds of our young people, all kinds of other problems will be also solved in the process. It’s all about consciousness, which is fundamental to everything. I am very familiar with the weaknesses of public education. Believe me, yoga is just the thing that is needed. (Emphasis ours)
Can someone achieve all this solely from exotic stretching exercises? This isn’t what the yogis believe at all. The truth is rarely admitted except among themselves when they are away from the media. Read what Manju Jois the son of the founder of the Jois Foundation told The Aspiring Yogi:
The Western world has a tendency to focus only on the physical side. This is NOT yoga. You are only practicing yoga and getting the complete benefit when you combine the physical with the spiritual. You can’t do one without the other because it causes confusion. If you only practice the physical side you become physically strong but spiritually weak. (Capitalization his)
Yet this is the same Foundation which assured Mrs. Eady that spirituality wasn’t a component of their curriculum. Are Jois and Guber following their hearts? If this is the case then their hearts are directing them to be deceptive. They have been lying to the parents.
Christians are naïve if they assume yoga is just another way to get fit. It isn’t. Yoga is the antithesis of Christianity. It affirms the goodness of the heart and no need for Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. If there is no sin there is no need for salvation – only enlightenment.
In short it is the wide road to hell. It is the lie which began in Eden:
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
Recommended Resources:
I strongly recommend Dr. Paul M. Henebury’s series on Apologetics and Your Kids
Yoga For Children: Not Child’s Play
Yoga Training: Not Just exercise
Also don’t forget to watch the video below:
https://vimeo.com/112824380
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