now and then I get questions about yoga and religion, both from people who are curious but also people who are a bit worried since they are within a certain religious tradition.

I have never been religous, and I have actually signed out from swedish church wich we are all automathicly signed into when borned and pay church tax etc.

but I think I have a long time feel drawn to religion and "ritual things" perhaps.
but if anything I consither my self to lean towards spirituality, and for me that is something everyone can be regardless of what religion you are into if any.
a journey towards learning about your real self your soul..
and you do this usually by practice self awarness, meditation and such things to develop a way to connect with a universal reality/cosmos etc, wich can be YOUR god I guess if you are religious.

the idea is commonly that you apply your god to your practice if you want to, so a lot of times yogis can talk about Divine but that can also be in generall for all Divine in your way of feeling & believing..

for example when many end classes with "namaste" - one sanscrit transaltion is:"I bow to the Divine in you, wich is also in me"

so.
yes, yoga can be used to deepend your religious practice, but yoga itself is not religion. sure it has a lot of symbolism from Hindu -buddhism etc, since it have developed from this area and probably many of the old great wise men who wrote the wise sanskrit texts that yoga has its background from were also within these religions.
but also have in mind that the yoga we do today "modern yoga" has got about 100 years on its shoulders only.
and most teachers do just few parts and actually only parts within the path "HathaYoga or some say HathaYoga is a branch of the path Raja Yoga".
so mostly we do asanas & pranayama.

then we do have the mantras, so the say is that a mantra is about the sound vibration, not the meaning of the actual words.
the words of sanscrit has also many translations, but some Hindus might also use the mantras more for the words since a lot of their gods are named in many mantras.
one branch of Yoga is BhaktiYoga - "yoga of devotion"
here you can find for example groups like "Hari Krishna devoties"
so they use yoga and its spiritual practice to deepen their faith towards Krishna, but it is not yoga it self that is their religion.

for me personally I use more of the peace mantras.
for one because I like the idea of peace within and around us.
but also just for the fact of not sing HinduGods names if people have other religions.

in my studio I have put Ganesha statues, and also AUM signs.
for me they are symbolic and also of course to get a nice feeling & athmosphere with a spiritual touch in my studio.
AUM stands for among other things "the sacred sound" the sound heard during creation "the big bang" etc
also the sound the monks chant in for example buddhism,
the sound vibration when chanting AUM [sometimes written as OM] has many theories but one is that if it is done correctly you connect with the ultimate vibration in cosmos.
some even say "Amen" is a kind of AUM : )
Ganesha for me symbolises the help since he is considered to be the "remover of all obstacles" and this in yoga perhaps mainly the obstacles in your spiritual practice..

so very generall things here and from the way I see it.
but all these things has so many meanings and there is a lot to read about them if anyone like to..

so anyway, all people are wellcome to my classes, and put what ever Ishvara / god symbol / lord into their practice.
but also have mutual respect to all others in the studio : )

from a mantra they use in Sivananda Ashram during Aarti Ceremony
"Jaya Jaya Arati Sadguru Natha, Sadguru Natha Sivananda
Jaya Jaya Arati Jesus Gurave, Moses Gurave, Buddha Gurave
Jaya Jaya Arati Mohammed Gurave, Laotse Gurave, Samasta Guru Bhyo Namah
Jaya Jaya Arati Venugopala"

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