Sorry, Sadhguru, Yoga is Hindu but Gravity is not Christian

Image Credit: Isha Foundation website

Background

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is one of the most popular Yoga Gurus today. His style of discourse is rational and his point of view is Dharmic. He is sharp in his arguments and brings a refreshingly different perspective on all subjects. Overall, he is quite impressive.

On the eve of the first International Yoga Day celebration, Sadhguru made a statement in the course of answering an interview question [1]:

“If yoga is Hindu, then gravity is Christian.”

In other words, Sadhguru rejected the idea that Yoga is Hindu. This is an important statement, coming from a Yoga Guru of his fame and stature, so much so, that this quote was chosen as the subject of the cover story interview published by Outlook magazine. I believe, like many others, that the exalted Yoga Guru erred in so observing. Sadhguru uses an analogy to make his point, which on being subjected to rational scrutiny, is found false and hence misleading.

Just to be clear, Yoga being Hindu could have mainly two meanings:

1. The DNA of Yoga is Hindu: This means that the characteristics of Yoga are essentially Hindu and that therefore Yoga cannot be separated from Hinduism.

2. The applicability and/or right to practice of Yoga is restricted to Hindus: This means only Hindus can practice and benefit from Yoga, and not others.

It is important to distinguish the two. Not distinguishing the two will invariably lead to incorrect conclusions, as has been the case with Sadhguru.

The second assertion is illogical at the face of it; how could a technique or discipline apply to some and not to others! Of course like any other scientific discipline, Yoga is applicable to whoever practices it diligently, regardless of their faith [2]. In that sense, the analogy with Gravity is perfect: even if someone does not believe in Gravity, they will fall to the ground, nonetheless, in case they decide to jump out of a window. People who say, “Yoga belongs to the world; not to one religion (viz., Hinduism),” meaning it in this respect are right in their assertion. The universal applicability of Yoga, regardless of one’s faith, is only too obvious and does not need much discussion. However, they miss the point that “Yoga is Hindu” means that the very DNA of Yoga is Hindu and that Hinduism deserves complete credit for it and hence also has a valid claim to ownership of its intellectual/spiritual capital. Hence in claiming “Yoga belongs to the world,” in response to “Yoga is Hindu” one is simply attacking the proverbial straw man, confusing one position for the other, and therefore not addressing the real issue.

Gravity is not Christian

Paraphrasing Sadhguru, if Hinduism can lay claim to Yoga since its formulators were Hindu, then Christianity can well lay claim to Gravity since the formulator of its principles, Isaac Newton, was a Christian. In other words, he was analogically rejecting Hinduism’s claim to Yoga using the absurdity of the premise that Gravity is Christian.

No sane person will dispute the ridiculousness of the very idea of a Christian claim to Gravity. The reason is that just because Isaac Newton happened to be a Christian, it does not follow that Christianity had any contribution to the discovery of its principle. It was not that Newton was following some Christian principles that led him to formulate the law of gravitation. For instance, was Gravity revealed to Newton through decipherment of some Biblical text? Did Newton build upon some Christian Creed to formulate the law? Did God the Father send a messenger to Newton to give away the hitherto secret laws of the universe? No. Newton’s work was in complete independence of his Christian faith. Any Christian claim to Gravity is thus out of question and no credit is due to it. On the contrary, as one reads the mediaeval history of Europe – cf. The Galileo Affair and Inquisition in general – the Church was a great hindrance to free thought and scientific spirit. The history-centric [3] framework of Christianity – that God intervened in history through an absolutely unique event, which being non-replicable, is open to neither verification nor disproof – is abhorrent to the most basic principles of science and scientific knowledge building. It is therefore understandable if Sadhguru uses the absurd “Gravity is Christian” assertion to draw his point home. However, its analogy with Yoga being Hindu is fallacious.

Yoga is Hindu – Sadhguru’s analogy is false

Unlike the incidental relationship of Newton’s work with his religion, Hinduism – whatever name one may use for it, like Dharma or Sanātana Dharma – was fundamental to the discovery and development of the Yogic principles. It was, as it were, in and through Hinduism that Yogic principles were understood and codified over centuries and millennia. It was based on the Hindu framework of self-discovery and bold, unfettered quest for Truth, bereft of any dogma or creed and independent of what any Book might say or might not, that Yogic principles were discovered and developed. Yoga was not worked out in seclusion of Hinduism. Yoga receives from and contributes to the Hindu metaphysics, including epistemology, ontology, cosmology and eschatology. Yoga is closely related to the Samkhya school and forms part of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, all of which have enjoyed constant cross-pollination over millennia. Yoga has at its basis the most fundamental principles of Hinduism like eternity and immortality of Atma, the law of karma, reincarnation, inherent divinity of man and integral unity between the diverse manifestations of Reality; without these principles, Yoga cannot exist. To indicate, therefore, that Hinduism is as accidental to the discovery of Yoga as Christianity is to that of Gravity is far from the truth. It is distortion of truth. Yoga is built on and is part of the central principles of Hinduism. The very DNA of Yoga is Hindu and the two cannot be separated.

The correct analogy

It seems Sadhguru made the statement casually and had not given the matter much thought. In order to present the universality of Yoga, he ended up distorting the truth of it and – given his celebrity and authority – doing Yoga a grand disservice in effectively alienating it from the Mother Tradition. It also gives legitimacy to appropriation of Yoga by non-Dharma powers, part of a systematic and widespread phenomenon that today's foremost strategic Hindu thinker, Rajiv Malhotra, has brilliantly expounded as digestion – "the widespread dismantling, rearrangement and assimilation of a less powerful civilization into a dominant one" [4].

On the other hand, Sadhguru would have done a great service to Yoga – his field of lifework – if he had used a valid analogy. Not only would it have not distorted the truth of Yoga being Hindu, but it would have very well clarified the concomitant relationship of Yoga and Hinduism. An apposite analogy would have been:

“Yoga is just as Hindu as Gravity is scientific.”

The relationship between Yoga and Hinduism is perfectly analogous to one between Gravity and science. Just as Yogic principles were formulated upon the framework of Hinduism and through making use of the existing Hindu knowledge and resources, Newton formulated the law of gravitation working upon the framework of science and using existing scientific knowledge and resources. He followed a valid scientific methodology to arrive at the law of gravitation, which in turn submits itself to empirical verification, just as science demands. It was Newton the scientist – not Newton the Christian – that formulated the law of Gravity. He did that in and through science just as Yoga was formulated in and through Hinduism. If scientific paradigm was absent, the law of gravitation would not have been discovered, just as laws of Yoga would not have been discovered had the Hindu paradigm been absent. Newton’s work on Gravity has simultaneously shared and enriched the body of scientific knowledge just as, for instance, Patanjali’s work on Yoga has simultaneously shared and enriched the body of Hindu knowledge. (On the other hand, the law of gravitation neither took anything from nor gave anything to Christianity.) Do we not owe it to science to have created the intellectual asset called the law of gravitation? Similarly, we owe it to Hinduism to have created the intellectual/spiritual asset called Yoga. The analogy is complete and perfect. Saying “Yoga belongs to the world and not to Hinduism alone,” is analogously as ridiculous as saying “Gravity belongs to the world and not to science alone.” It is through and as being parts of Science and Hinduism that the world must benefit from the knowledge of Gravity and Yoga respectively. Can one take out science from the law of gravitation and still retain the law? Of course not; it is absurd to say so. Similarly, one cannot take out Hinduism from Yoga. In other words, Science is the very existential basis of the law of gravitation and similarly Hinduism is the very existential basis of Yoga.

In conclusion, while Gravity is not Christian, Yoga is unmistakably Hindu.

My request to Sadhguru

I would request Sadhguru to reconsider his statement in the light of my discussion. I am confident he will readily realise the gross fallacy of it. I would request him then to retract it and explain in his own style why his statement was incorrect. It will achieve two things:

1. It will undo the distortion he has inadvertently created, misrepresenting the nature and purpose of Hinduism as being “religious” rather than being “scientific”

2. It will help Hinduism reclaim Yoga, which is fast being digested by the West

Sadhguru’s erroneous statement will prove to be a blessing in disguise if only he takes this opportunity to retract it and explain the retraction in detail. A tall Dharmaguru like Sadhguru will, I am sure, be only too pleased to admit his mistake, especially so, when he would be serving Dharma in so doing.

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[1] The question was: “Is yoga Hindu,” to which Sadhguru replied, “The word Hindu comes from a geographical location. The people who lived within the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean or the Hindu Sagara were called Hindu. Anything born in this region is Hindu. An earthworm born here is Hindu, as an elephant born in Africa is African. If yoga is Hindu, then gravity is Christian.” The complete interview can be seen at: http://www.outlookindia.com/article/if-yoga-is-hindu-then-gravity-is-christian/294535 [2] It is not the purpose of this discussion to go into how the metaphysical framework of Yoga/Hinduism is inconsistent with, rather antithetic to, the Abrahamic one and how therefore the followers of Abrahamic religions will have to battle a very fundamental contradiction if they adopt Yoga. It is a separate topic – and an important one – which has been discussed at length in an article by Rajiv Malhotra, “A Hindu View of 'Christian Yoga'”: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/hindu-view-of-christian-yoga_b_778501.html [3] The problematic aspect of history-centrism has been discussed in this article by Rajiv Malhotra, “Problematizing God’s Interventions In History”: http://creative.sulekha.com/problematizing-god-s-interventions-in-history_103442_blog [4] Rajiv Malhotra further explains: “Like the food consumed by a host: what is useful gets assimilated into the host while what does not fit the host’s structure gets eliminated as waste. The West superimposes its concepts, aesthetics, language, paradigms, historical template and philosophy, positioning these as universal. The corresponding elements of the digested civilization get domesticated into the West, ceasing to exist in their own right. The result is that the consumed tradition, similar to the food, ceases to exist whereas the host gets strengthened. In harvesting the fruits of other civilizations, the West has often destroyed their roots, thereby killing their ability to produce more bountiful harvests. Native Americans and European pagans are among numerous examples of such previous digestions into the modern West.” Complete article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/the-importance-of-debatin_b_861789.html