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Summary of Question:	Yoga
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Friday, 8/03/2001 12:12 AM MDT

Fateh,

To my knowledge Yoga has nothing to do with Sikhism. Are you guys emphasizing yoga in your "answers" because your teacher or whoever helped white Sikhs to become Sikhs was a yoga instructor or atleast introduced these Sikhs to Sikhism through yoga. I was talking to a white Sikh, dont mean to emphasize race but need to in order to make my point, she told me that the teacher went wrong by introducing Sikhism through yoga. Sikhism is about meditation, yoga is something that was never emphasized by any of the Gurus nor have I ever seen and Sikh talk about doing yoga. My parents nor any Gursikh has ever told me that I should do yoga because it is part of being a Gursikh. We belive in straight bhagti of Waheguru no special form like yoga is needed. Yoga is a hindu practice which western people find interesting, and it has NOTHING to do with Sikhism, if it does please tell me on which Gurbani or Shabad or scripture did any Guru Maharaj say or emphaize that we must do yoga to become more Sikhful like or more centered

?
also can you please tell "Guru Kirn" tp change her name. My friend was on this site the other day and she though that Guru Kirn was actually one of our Gurus. I know that it is "the name in its entirety" but that doesnt make it right. I hope you guys understand the wrong message that is being sent out with that name, I hope she understands that, that is very strong word.


Fateh
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REPLY
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Sat Siri Akaal Ji:

Really does it make any difference why we recommend yoga, what does it matter if we are ?white? or have a yoga teacher who is Sikh? Have you read the posts here? Do you realize how many youths ask US about yoga? Does it really matter if we recommend yoga to Sikh young people who are aspiring to better themselves?

Clearly you have never practiced yoga, probably because you interpret Gurbani to mean that ALL practice of yoga is against Gurbani. This is incorrect. Guru Nanak (see Sidh Gosht, SGGS ang 938-946) was against the practice of yoga and yogic austerities as an END in themselves, or told us it was NO MEANS of liberation. Guru Nanak threw out all the then-prevailing ideas about how to gain liberation, and said one thing and one thing only gets us liberated: practice of the Naam. In his time, yoga was practiced as a means of attaining liberation, among other things. But Guru Nanak did not speak against the physical and mental/emotional benefits of yoga. I might add that essentially, all the Gurus were yogis, because they had practiced the Naam and attained the ?yog? or union of mind with Waheguru.

There are a couple of Gurbani references I know of that reference in some form the practice of yogic meditation. First that comes to mind is shabd: ?Raj Jog Takt Dee-an, Guru Ram Das? ??Guru Ram Das has been blessed with the throne of Raj Yog.? (SGGS, ang 1399) Raj Yoga is the highest yoga. This shabd is saying that Guru Ram Das had attained the highest form of yoga possible.

Another is by bhagat Jai Dev (SGGS ang p. 1106), which describes a breath/silent meditation.
?The breath is drawn in through the left nostril; it is held in the central channel of the Sushmanaa, and exhaled through the right nostril, repeating the Lord's Name sixteen times. I am powerless; my power has been broken. My unstable mind has been stabliized, and my unadorned soul has been adorned. I drink in the Ambrosial Nectar. ||1|| Within my mind, I chant the Name of the Primal Lord God, the Source of virtue. My vision, that You are I are separate, has melted away. ||1||Pause. I worship the One who is worthy of being worshipped. I trust the One who is worthy of being trusted. Like water merging in water, I merge in the Lord. Says Jai Dayv, I meditate and contemplate the Luminous, Triumphant Lord. I am lovingly absorbed in the Nirvaanaa of God. ||2||1||?

Compare this, then, with ang 943 of Guru Nanak?s Sidh Gosht:
??..Giving voice to the Shabad, the moon of the mind is illuminated with infinity. When the sun dwells in the house of the moon, the darkness is dispelled. Pleasure and pain are just the same, when one takes the Support of the Naam, the Name of the Lord??.. The breath blows across the sky of the Tenth Gate and vibrates. O Nanak, the mortal then intuitively meets the eternal, unchanging Lord. ||50||?

In yogic science, the ?moon? is the left side of the body, and the ?sun? is the right side of the body, represented by the left & right nostrils. This indeed, is yogic science.

If you had practiced any kind of yoga, you would know that it strengthens the body and as pointed out above, can do wonders for stabilizing the whipsaws of the mind. If you had ever practiced yoga as many Moderators have, you would know that it INCLUDES meditation as part of the practice, which is a very Sikh thing. It doesn't matter if you ever practice yoga, but you are in a poor position to judge those of us Sikhs who do.

So when we Moderators see someone going on and on about this or that love or family problem, essentially freaking out or clearly looking for a tool for help, we cannot help but recommend yoga. We know its benefits from our own personal experience because yoga is a TECHNOLOGY, not just an exercise. It does not mean we are any less or more Sikh. We do it because of its benefits to mind and body. We do not practice because we think yoga will liberate us, nor do we practice it because we specifically associate it with being Sikh, and we don?t practice it because it is Hindu. (In the West, yoga has long disassociated from its Hindu origins, and many yoga centers say little about its Indian origins.)

Moreover, many of us who practice yoga also teach it. I am telling you this because I have seen how yoga has helped someone(non-Sikh) dying from AIDS accept his death. Other teachers will tell you about how the prisoners they teach find peace in themselves, or their youth offender students start thinking of themselves as more than scum., and as redeemable! So, you think we should not recommend a technology to Sikhs when we have had the privilege of seeing how it changes people's lives for the better?

I know a number of non-WHITE Amritdhari Punjabi Sikhs who have learned to appreciate the benefits of yoga, and who consider it an asset to living as Khalsa. Perhaps it is time for you to open your mind to other ways of thinking about the face and nature of Khalsa in today?s very diverse world.

As for Guru Kirn Kaur?s name and all the people I know of who have the WORD ?Guru? as part of their name, that is your/your friend?s problem. You may think they offend Guru and that it?s not right, but I don?t think they will change their names for you. Guru Gobind Singh told us to BOW to no one but Siri Guru Granth Sahib, but I never heard that he said we had to avoid NAMES with ?Guru? in them. The time to be offended is when any Sikh puts ?Guru? in front of/or as part of their name, and then expects people to BOW to them.

PS: Perhaps you could teach your friend the names of the 10 Gurus and explain that 10th Guru gave us the names Singh and Kaur, and none of the Gurus were female, so a Guru Kirn KAUR could hardly be confused with one of the 10 Sikh Gurus.

Guru ang sang,
-DKK