UNITED STATES, January 2011, (by Chitra Raman): A recent essay by Wendy Doniger on the website of The Christian Post (December 30, 2010) is titled: Is Yoga a form of Hinduism? Is Hinduism a form of Yoga? More amazing to me than Doniger’s inventiveness is her reputation as an infallible authority on Hinduism. <\/p>\n
In discussing the origins and evolution of yoga, she says in this article: ‘The (yoga) postures developed much later … but more from nineteenth-century European traditions such as Swedish gymnastics, British body-building, Christian Science, and the YMCA.’ Doniger goes on to contend that ‘yoga is ‘not just Hinduism’; as we have seen, it has rich European (and Christian!) elements…’ She then adds ‘despite the historical evidence’ for those influences ‘many Hindus, such as those in the Hindu American Foundation, insist that meditational yoga-rather than temple rituals, the worship of images of the gods, or other, more passionate and communal forms of religion-has always been, and remains, the essence of Hinduism, their religion.’<\/p>\n
I don’t recall that the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) ever said Hinduism was about meditational yoga ‘rather than’ temple rituals and all the other practices of Hinduism that Doniger lists. What HAF did was to step forward and make a strong and unambiguous statement in the ‘On Faith’ blog of the Washington Post, about something that all Hindus know to be true — namely, that yoga is of Hindu origin and is part of Hindu spiritual practice. <\/p>\n