yoga

As an American of Indian descent, I have always been fascinated by the arcane depths of the Hindu culture to which I belong. I have been practicing Yoga and writing about Indian metaphysics, Buddhism and South Asian Art and Culture for a long time, and am fairly sensitive to how my native traditions are represented [...]

Scientists are getting close to proving what yogis have held to be true for centuries — yoga and meditation can ward off stress and disease. John Denninger, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, is leading a five-year study on how the ancient practices affect genes and brain activity in the chronically stressed. His latest work [...]

For many people, the main concern in a yoga class is whether they are breathing correctly or their legs are aligned. But for others, there are lingering doubts about whether they should be there at all, or whether they are betraying their religion.Farida Hamza, a Muslim woman living in the US (pictured above), had been [...]

iN HIS 1905 book, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, Max Weber credited the Protestant ethic with giving rise to capitalism. Now it sometimes seems as if it is the Buddhist ethic that is keeping capitalism going. The Protestants stressed rational calculation and self-restraint. The Buddhists stress the importance of “mindfulness”—taking time out [...]

A county judge in San Diego CA has ruled that yoga is not always religious (Washington Post, 2 July 2013). Parents in a San Diego school district had complained that yoga is intrinsically intertwined with the Hindu religion and that its practice in a public school setting violates the constitutional separation of church and state. [...]

Presently there are many in the west who have a copy of the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras, practice some form of Yoga and/or meditation, are vegetarian and believe in reincarnation and Karma. Yet they deny being affiliated with Hinduism or any other religious tradition because they think that all religions are corrupt, mundane [...]

Protesters who have been occupying Istanbul’s Gezi park for six days in an effort to save it from the bulldozers take to mass yoga as a new form of protest. Duration: 01:27 [...]

WASHINGTON: The White House has wholeheartedly embraced Yoga as a worthy physical activity at a time some schools in America are railing against the ancient Indian practice, saying it promotes Hinduism. The White House announced last week that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will include a ‘yoga garden’ for children and their [...]

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami ,confronting a long-standing misapprehension about our faith,showing us why Hinduism is more than a way of life. [...]

What’s up with the ‘dot’ on the forehead, the worshiping of cows, the worshiping of idols and the polytheism? Is Yoga a Hindu practice, is the word ‘Hindu’ a proper term, and what’s up with the caste system?” Individuals asking these questions are usually not used to a religious tradition that has been maturing for [...]