Is it OK for a Christian to Practice Yoga?

NO.

If you are simply assuming physical positions for exercise purposes (fake yoga – yoga in name only), that is fine, but it isn’t real yoga, which has its roots in a deceptive Eastern religion.  Real yoga adherents do not even approve of classes where the physical aspects of yoga are implemented without the spiritual ones.  Such classes are more recent Western inventions.  The physical aspect of yoga is supposed to open the door for the spiritual aspect of yoga, which is decidedly anti-biblical.  Real yoga involves mind games, but not the renewing of your mind with the Word.

Given Scripture’s affirmation that physical exercise does have a little benefit (1 Timothy 4:7-8), it is good for you to do exercises with no Eastern spiritual overtones.  If that is really all a so-called yoga class is doing, you will benefit, but you need to find out whether such a class is Westernized fake physical-only “yoga” (OK) or real yoga (not OK).  The very word yoga comes from a Sanskrit word denoting union, and the yoga idea of union is union with the cosmos, not union with the God who created the cosmos.  Yoga, which originated in the East, was not conceived as a simple exercise method.  Yoga teaches that the mind, body and spirit are one, while Christianity teaches the opposite.  If they were one, being born again, which is a spiritual thing, would be impossible.  Of course, without being born again, no one goes to heaven, so this is no trivial matter.  Don’t be deceived!

It gets worse. People who buy into real Yoga concepts can end up believing the Hindu deception of past lives, which is clearly disproved by Hebrews 9:27.  They may also get into some of the original yoga texts that promote other Hindu concepts.  A quick online search will confirm to you that yoga has its roots in Hinduism, which is completely opposed to Christianity.  No Chirstian should have anything to do with real yoga.  If you don’t believe me, go online and find out what the actual yoga sites (not the so-called Christian yoga sites) teach.  Go to sites where yoga beliefs are defined by actual yoga teachers and practitioners.  Their weird beliefs should freak you out enough that you realize that real yoga is of the devil and you don’t want anything to do with it.

I can imagine the “Christian yoga” crowd being ready to send me critical emails, but I will tell you that “Christian yoga” is an oxymoron.  If it’s Christian, it isn’t real yoga, and if it’s real yoga, it isn’t Christian.  “Yes,” someone will say, “but our Christian yoga class has spiritual overtones – Christian ones!  We exercise our bodies and build up our spirits!”  In that case, what you really have could be a combination of an exercise class and some kind of a church service or Bible study, which would not be forbidden by Scripture, but that is not to be confused with actual yoga even if the exercise positions are the same.