Yogis in church. Bringing Hinduism into churches. Have yogis received salvation?

Yogis in church

Yogis in church. Bringing Hinduism into churches. Have yogis received salvation?

The following is a message I sent to a few representatives of the Hiljaisuuden jooga-movement. Their activities within the church were reported in the ”Kirkon Seutu”- newspaper (9 / 2024, Jaana Kosunen: "Kehollista rukousta hiljaisuuden äärellä"). I didn't think about it at first and skipped the article, but an acquaintance urged me to contact these yogis, because I am somewhat familiar with the subject. That's why the following message was born. I hope that the writing will make yogis think about the roots of their practice, and even more important is the question of saving people. Are yogis really saved, or have they only adopted the shells of Christianity? I believe that there are many people in the church circle who are religious but are still outside of salvation.

Hello! I happened to see an article in the Kirkon seutu magazine about practicing yoga at the Renkomäki parish home. I understand that you must have received all kinds of feedback on this matter, some of it perhaps very negative and it may provoke a backlash in you. We humans are such that we easily reject feedback from others, especially if it is shown in a negative way. We defend our views, even if we might be wrong.

So why am I writing about this topic? I myself have researched this topic quite a lot. My background is a former atheist who studied parapsychology and other such topics. Now I consider my former views to be lies that I believed. I thought I was smart, even though I didn't really know much about things.

So, as far as this yoga thing is concerned, yes it is entirely about the Hindu religion, not the Christian faith. This is not just my opinion, but yoga is really central to the practice of Hinduism. Yoga is not only gymnastics, relaxation or breathing exercises, but the purpose of yoga is to connect a person with the Hindu god Brahman through physical exercises - the word yoga means connecting. There are no neutral techniques in yoga, but yoga practices are designed to cause a trance state in which the mind is emptied and thus a connection is made with the universe, Brahman:

"All yogic paths ultimately lead to the same destination - union with Brahman, or God - and the teachings of all must be assimilated to achieve true wisdom." (The Sivanda Companion to YOGA, by Lucy Lindell, Fireside Books, 1983, p. 18)

I ask, why try to bring Hinduism into the Christian faith? The fact that some Bible verses or spiritual songs are included does not make this method Christian.

To make it clearer, I will quote from Rabindranath R. Maharaj's book Death of a Guru . In it, he tells how yoga belongs to the core of Hinduism and how he himself practiced it until he increasingly felt the presence of spirits and experienced supernatural experiences. His goal was to unite with the Hindu god Brahman, i.e. realize that he is God, through yoga and meditation. This is the main doctrine of Hinduism, where yoga with its breathing exercises, postures and passive meditation play a key role:

Krishna had taught Arjuna that nothing was more important than the diligent practice of yoga. On this "divine raft" one could cross ignorance and even the most disgusting sins and reach eternal Bliss. From about the age of ten, in addition to my daily meditation, I practiced yoga—postures, breathing exercises, and meditation—on the balcony outside my room from midnight to half past two in the morning when everyone else was asleep. I performed either Brumadhya Drishti or Madhyama Drishti. This concentration and breathing exercises transported me to such worlds of consciousness that did not at all resemble my usual world.

With the help of yoga, I felt the presence of spirits more and more. They guided me and gave me psychic powers. Gods were real... If only I could get Deonarine and other Hindus to practice yoga and meditation - then they too would know the truth about their own religion. I was not to enter nirvana alone. A Guru is a teacher who leads others to eternal Bliss. (1)

My only hope was yoga, which Krishna promised in the Gita would dispel all ignorance by making it clear to me that I myself was God. At times this inner vision had delighted and excited me—I had felt so close to realizing the Self that I might almost have seen myself as Brahman, the Lord of all. Almost, but not quite. I had told myself it was true and believed I was God, but the inner conflict had always been there…but I had never fully been able to cross the chasm that separated me and other creatures from the Creator. (2)

What amazed me the most was the discovery that the entire philosophy of the protest culture of drugs, rebellion and rock music was fundamentally Hindu: the same lies about the unity of all life, vegetarianism, upward evolution towards oneness with the universe, and that everyone could choose any path. I noticed that thousands of young people weren't just falling off and turning to drugs: they were practicing Transcendental Meditation and various other forms of yoga. Their entire world of thought was obscured by the mysticism of the East. Almost everyone began to accept the incarnation, which killed all belief in the resurrection of Christ. These two are absolute opposites of each other. Slowly and more and more convinced of the danger, I became convinced that Satan had come up with a very clever plot: he was infiltrating the West with the mysticism of the East. I could see that few Christians understood his plan and were prepared to oppose it. Was God preparing me, a former Hindu, to sound the alarm to the millions in the West who were falling for an Eastern philosophy that I knew to be wrong? I began to pray seriously to find out. (3)

Why then are yoga or, for example, TM harmful? The main reason is that they open the door to spirit realms. You don't notice it at the beginning, but if a person actively practices yoga, passive meditation and the like, it will happen at some point. Sometimes it can take years. If people get directly involved in witchcraft, everything happens much faster.

I will again quote from the book Death of a Guru. In it, Rabindranath R. Maharaj tells a startling incident, how he lifted a heavy weight when he got angry, which he could not lift in a normal state. As a result of years of yoga and meditation, he had received demon spirits in his life that gave him these powers (cf. the Gospel of Mark's description of the possessed man from Gerasa who had supernatural powers, 5:1-4: And they came over to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.)

"What a lazy creature!" he muttered. "As lazy as his father!"

Like my father? I cried out in such pain that I was scared myself. No one would talk about him in that tone! Years of hidden anger erupted like a volcano from inside me. I noticed the heavy plate weights that Nana had been using for muscle training. They were in their familiar place just a step away. Blinded by rage, barely aware of what I was doing, I ducked down… and when I straightened my back, I was gripping the weight bar at one end like a cricket bat. I swung it from behind my shoulder towards my aunt's head. As the weights swung up in an arc, Krishna desperately lunged behind me and grabbed the other end of the bar. As if the enchantment had been broken, the supernatural power disappeared, and the weights fell with a disgusting thump to the thick concrete floor. The floor went to pieces.

It felt like I stood there for an eternity, staring into my aunt's ashen face. His mouth was frozen half open in a wordless scream. I was shaking like a leaf in the wind. I looked at the weights embedded in the concrete, then at Krishna, stupidly standing behind me heavily breathing fear in his eyes, then back at my aunt's frozen expression.

… At midnight, when everyone was asleep and I should have been on the porch seeking Bliss through yoga, I quietly crept out of my room into the kitchen and down the stairs to the patio. I fumbled along the wall in the dark and found the weights where I had dropped them. I had to make sure of one thing. I bent over the weights, grabbed the bar with both hands - this time in the middle -, tensed my back and grabbed with all my might. I couldn't get the weights to move an inch! I sobbed convulsively as I climbed the stairs.

… I was horrified by what had happened. But how could I guarantee that this evil force wouldn't take control of me again – this time with perhaps more fatal consequences?
The question tortured me. Who were these gods and spirits and powers that I was calling to me through the practice of nyasa and yoga and meditation? Were they bad or good or both – or was it all Maya, and I going crazy trying to make sense of it. (4)

Later, when Rabindranath R. Maharaj turned to Jesus, he encountered drug addicts in the West who had similar experiences to his as a result of meditation and yoga. He saw that behind both experiences were false spirits that get hold of a person.

In this way I began to meet even more drug users and made an astonishing discovery: Some of them had similar experiences when under drug influence, as I had in my day of doing yoga and meditation! I was astounded listening to them describing the “beautiful and peaceful world” they were able to enter with the help of LSD; a world which’ psychedelic visions and colors I was all too familiar with. Of course, many of them also had had bad experiences, but most drug users seemed as reluctant to take into consideration these warnings as I was, when practicing yoga.

“I did not need substances to see visions of other worlds or supernatural beings or to feel unity with the universe or to feel that I am “God”, I told them. “I achieved all that through transcendental meditation. But it was a lie, a trick of evil spirits to gain the upper hand over me when I freed my mind from my own control. You are being deceived. The only way to the peace and satisfaction that you are looking for is through Christ.” Since I knew what I was talking about and had experienced it myself without drugs, many of these drug users took my words seriously. (5)

When I read the magazine article, it also mentioned "open spirituality". I don't know what this means exactly, but I often get the impression that it is a similar view to that of neo-spirituality: "all paths and forms of religion are equal. It doesn't matter what form of religiosity you practice". These people want to appear open-minded, progressive, and tolerant, but when asked to consider turning to Jesus Christ, the response is usually irritation or resistance. Their open-mindedness ends there.

This "open-mindedness" is also characteristic of Hinduism. In that, all paths are equal, as one Hindu book ( Bhagavadagita IV:11) says:

Oh Paartha, no matter how the people approach me, I will receive them; whatever way they use, it is also my way.

My question is, have the people who brought yoga to church adopted the Hindu worldview (at least this is true of bringing yoga, the most important aspect of the Hindu way of life, into churches)? Does open-mindedness mean that all paths and beliefs are equal, as taught in Hinduism? I don't know this, but Jesus Himself taught that only He is the only way to salvation and to God. Jesus was not open-minded in this matter, although he was certainly more loving than any other man on earth:

- (Matt 7:13,14) Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be that find it.

- (John 14:6) Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.

It is also worth considering God's judgment against those people who lead others astray. Aren't such people the very ones who teach people to practice yoga, which if practiced for a long time leads to possession of evil spirits, as happened in the life of Rabindranath R. Maharaj? Of course, God decides the judgment of each person, and luckily we are not the judges of our fellow man. However, I personally understand that practicing yoga and being led to it only takes people further away from God.

- (Matt 18:6,7) But whoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

7 Woe to the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!

- (James 3:1) My brothers, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

From here it is good to move on to the issue of salvation. Are yogis within the church really saved or are they outside the kingdom of God and salvation? I don't know yogis personally, so I don't dare to say anything for sure about it. However, I believe that there are many within the church who can acknowledge the existence of God, pray, sing hymns and participate in spiritual activities, but still have never been truly saved. They have embraced Christianity, but Jesus is outside the door of their hearts (Revelation 3:20 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. ). Oswald J. Smith wrote about such people:

Everywhere I go I meet people living in a false experience and leaning on a false foundation, believing they are saved when they are not. Thousands and thousands of church members, hundreds of professing Christians are unable to state the basis of their heavenly hope. They think that everything is fine with them; they think they are ready to meet God, but when they are asked a few simple questions, their answers reveal that they are as ignorant of God's way of salvation as the heathens of Africa. Satan has blinded their eyes, stopped their ears, and darkened their understanding so that they would not see their error and turn. An almost pitch-black night envelops their souls, and it is the enemy's job to keep them in this state. Many of them are active workers of the church, faithful members of its boards and associations, good, chaste and honest in their lives, but - unsaved. (6)

The following personal descriptions tell more about the subject. People can have a theoretical faith where they believe in the existence of God, believe that Jesus died on the cross and that he has risen, and confess the basic doctrines of the Christian faith, but still not be saved. Simply adopting articles of faith is different from turning to Jesus, surrendering your life to Him and trusting him alone for salvation:

Charles G. Finney: I’ve been faced with this faulty view of Christian belief’s nature often after I have received permission to preach. I noted, especially during my earlier years of service, that believing in “articles of faith” were heavily emphasized, and it was claimed that the belief was believing doctrines related to the Christ with firm conviction. Therefore, as a prerequisite for faith, the acceptance of the doctrines, DOCTRINES, doctrines of the Gospels was required. But I had been led to accept these doctrines intellectually and steadily before my conversion. And when I was told that I needed to believe, I replied that I believe—and no argument or assurance could convince me that I did not believe the gospel. And until the moment of my conversion, I was not, and could not be convinced, of my mistake.

At the moment of my conversion or when I first time practiced faith, I saw my disastrous mistake. I noticed that faith is not a rational conviction of that the truths about Christ in the Bible are true but it is trust of heart in the person of Christ. I learned that God’s witness of Christ had to lead me to trust in Christ, to believe in Him as my Saviour, and that mere believing in the doctrines of Christ was a fateful mistake, which unavoidably left me to my sins. (...) Besides firm rational conviction being directed to His willingness and abilities, it would also be of utmost importance to go to Him, turn to Him and trust Him… (13)

Niilo Yli-Vainio: I came to salvation at the age of 25, but as far as I can remember, I had believed in God. I had believed everything that was said about Him. I believed that Jesus had died on the cross and that He had risen. I believed there was a heaven and a hell. On top of that, I had belonged to the church for 25 years and attended communion and even tried to be serious. I respected God more than anything else. And despite all this "faith" I was unsaved, just like the demons.

What was wrong with this "faith of mine"? It was a rational, intellectual belief that was in my head but not in my heart. (8)

Niilo Yli-Vainio: In the course of my spiritual work, I must have asked thousands of people if they were believers. An ordinary sinner admits, “Not yet.” But the convert goes round and round and does not give a direct answer to a direct question. He wants to be a Christian but he lacks the internal experience. That is why he cannot really even lie properly. He does not want to deny – or admit – that something in his innermost being says that there is no assurance of what has been talked about. (9)

Participating in mass, singing hymns, praying or going to church does not make anyone a child of God. This could be compared to the fact that if someone is in a garage, he does not turn into a car. Both things are equally impossible.

How then can you recognize that a person has only adopted a religion, but is not in salvation? I see it manifested in at least the following ways:

• The person is not worried about the salvation of others and does not pray that they would be saved. This is one of the most important signs. Instead, Paul wrote: 1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh: (Romans 9:1-3) Similarly, Paul wrote: Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. (Romans 10:1).

• When a person is not concerned about the salvation of others, the same applies to himself. He has never been with his whole being before God's law and holiness, and has not seen his lost state. He can compare himself to others, e.g. alcoholics and criminals, and think he is reasonably good, but superiority over others does not take anyone to heaven.

Only when a person realizes that he with his own actions is lost and on his way to hell, he starts to be on the right track. It is good for him to understand that he has committed the greatest sin when he has not loved God and his neighbor at every moment. Because the greatest commandment is to love God and one's neighbor with all one's heart (Matt 22:36-40), the greatest sin must be that a person has not followed this every moment. God must condemn such a person to hell if he goes before God relying on his own goodness and comparisons.

• He rejects the word ("Has God said?" - Genesis 3:1) like the Pharisees of Jesus' time (Mark 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which you have delivered: and many such like things do you.). In modern times, it appears e.g. in attitude towards marriage and sex. The teaching of Jesus and the apostles that sex is right only in the marriage of a man and a wife, not elsewhere (Matt 19:4,5 / 1 Cor 7:1-5) is not respected. Likewise, such a person rejects the Bible's teaching that practicing homosexuality is a sin that separates a person from God (Rom 1:24-28, 1 Cor 6:9-10, 1 Tim 1:8-10, Jude 1:7, Leviticus 18 :22, Leviticus 20:13).

• He does not want holiness in his life and freedom from all sins and wrong attitudes. He is ready in his relationship with God and may be living in his past conversion. Instead, Jesus taught: Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6).

So there were a few examples of how religiosity without Jesus Christ and salvation can appear.

So what must a person do to be saved? The most important thing is that a person opens the door to Jesus and welcomes Him as the Lord and Savior of his life, surrendering his life to Him and trusting Him alone in the matter of salvation. The question is not about the goodness and deeds of any person, but about the relationship with Jesus. Has a person really accepted Him into their life and then wants to follow Jesus with all their heart? It is possible that Jesus stands outside of all human religiosity, but man is constantly separated from Him. That is why we must welcome Jesus as Lord and Savior of all life. Jesus Himself taught how we must turn to Him and welcome Him into our lives:

- (Joh 5:39,40) You study the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life in them, and they just testify about me;

40 and you do not want to come to me that you may have life .

- (John 1:12) But to all who received him, he gave power to become children of God , to those who believe in his name,

I really hope that no one, practiced yoga, or anyone else would reject Jesus. Then man will pay for his sins in hell. Jesus has borne the sins of all the people in the world, but if a person rejects Jesus and the forgiveness of sins that comes through Him, this will happen. Therefore, no one should be indifferent to this issue. God has a good plan and will for each person, but we can reject His love, which is manifest through Jesus Christ.

The prayer of salvation. Lord, Jesus, I turn to You. I confess that I have sinned against You and have not lived according to Your will. However, I want to turn from my sins and follow You with all my heart. I also believe that my sins have been forgiven by Your atonement and I have received eternal life through You. I thank You for the salvation that You have given me. Amen.

Hello! If you want to study more, for example, the teaching about whether a person is really saved, I have written about it on my homepage ( www.jariiivanainen.net ) in a few articles (e.g. Are you a foolish virgin, Theoretical belief, Religiousness or faith?). In addition, I have written about many other things such as new age, religions, evolution theory, etc. My homepage can also be found in search engines under my name Jari Iivanainen. Wishing you all the best. Best regards:

Jari Iivanainen

REFERENCES:

1. Rabindranath R. Maharaj: Gurun kuolema (Death of a Guru), p. 87,88

2. Rabindranath R. Maharaj: Gurun kuolema (Death of a Guru), p. 97

3. Rabindranath R. Maharaj: Gurun kuolema (Death of a Guru), p. 162,163

4. Rabindranath R. Maharaj: Gurun kuolema (Death of a Guru), p. 99,100

5. Rabindranath R. Maharaj: Gurun kuolema (Death of a Guru), p. 160-162

6. Oswald J. Smith: Maa johon kaipaan, p. 26,27

7. Charles G. Finney: Voima korkeudesta (Power from on High), p. 126, 127

8. Niilo Yli-Vainio: Miten voisin pelastua, p. 34

9. Niilo Yli-Vainio: Kristitty vai käännynnäinen, p. 21