Nothing religious about yoga, says US court
Devout Christian parents in the US should have ideally taken comfort from a recent California court ruling that the yoga classes their children were taking at school won't turn them into little Hindus, but that seems unlikely. Already, Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock, who sued the Encinitas Union School District in southern California last year for incorporating yoga lessons in the Physical Exercise curriculum, because they believe yoga is illegal religious indoctrination, have vowed to appeal against the San Diego County Superior Court's verdict. Issued earlier this week, the ruling made clear that yoga, as it was being taught to elementary students in the school, did not tantamount to religious instruction; was not in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution which lays down ‘separation of church and state’; and did not infringe upon California State laws that prohibit the Government from promoting one religion over others. At the crux of the debate is the question: Does the practice of yoga constitute a religious activityIJ On the one side are the likes of the Sedlocks who believe it does, because the practice of yoga cannot be divorced from the Hindu philosophy that informs it.
They also point to the fact that the programme in contention is a product of the Jois Foundation — which they say is a religious organisation — which gave the Encinitas Union School District a $5,33,000 grant to implement its Ashtanga Yoga course. This, the petitioners believe, is religious interference. But those on the other side of the debate argue that it is essentially a mind-body wellness programme, stripped of any religious symbols, aimed solely at helping students improve their concentration, deal with academic stress, bullying, etc. This is particularly true for the Encinitas programme where, for instance, Hindu names for yoga postures have been replaced by child-friendly labels (the lotus position is known as the crisscross applesauce position).
The last legal word on this debate is yet to be heard, but yoga remains popular. Of the more than 5,000 students in Encinitas taking yoga classes at school, less than 50 were pulled out by their parents. Many argue that, for much of America, the debate on yoga is settled. Notwithstanding its “quasi-religious trappings”, as one columnist put it and which most acknowledge, yoga is essentially an exercise regime. Its many benefits are well-established and enjoyed by more than 20 million Americans today. Even the US military has a yoga programme for its veterans (especially those who suffer from extreme Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), who almost unanimously agree that practising yoga has helped them deal with the burden of war.