Yoga is part of Hindu worship. The same is true of meditation.
Just as we Orthodox Christians have kneeling and prostrations as part of our worship and spiritual life, Hindus, who do not believe in the divinity of Christ, have yoga. Is it appropriate for an Orthodox Christian to adopt practices of worship from another religion? Does Christianity not provide for our spiritual needs?
Someone might say that Christians practice yoga simply as physical exercise. But yoga is more than that. The Bihar School of Yoga describes yoga as a practice that concerns the body, mind, and emotions, as well as meditation and inner spiritual experiences (Bihar School of Yoga, accessed September 22, 2026). Let us look more closely at this.
In a press release dated June 16, 2015, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece stated: “Yoga is a fundamental component of the Hindu religion. It has a variety of schools, branches, applications, and trends, and does not constitute a form of exercise. Consequently, yoga is wholly incompatible with our Orthodox Christian faith and has no place in the lives of Christians.”
On June 3, 2020, when yoga was being recommended as a way to relieve anxiety during the coronavirus pandemic, the Holy Synod reiterated that yoga “is wholly incompatible with our Orthodox Christian faith and has no place in the lives of Christians.”
Archpriest Antonios Alevizopoulos served as secretary of the Church of Greece’s Synodal Committee on Heresies from 1980 to 1996. He studied yoga closely and wrote the book Occultism, Guruism, “New Age” (Athens, 1993). In this book, he argues that yoga poses risks to a person’s physical and mental well-being.
In a letter to his mother dated February 7, 1898, Vladimir Lenin recalled an exercise he had done while in prison. He would stand, bend over without bending his legs, and touch the floor with his fingers fifty times. He recommended that another prisoner “bow to the ground 50 times.” A guard who saw Lenin doing this thought, to Lenin’s amusement, that he had suddenly become devout. Lenin did the exercise to relax and strengthen his body. In other words, he used a practice resembling the prostrations of the Orthodox Church and found it so beneficial that he recommended it to someone else.
“You may feel better after doing yoga exercises.” Lenin felt better after doing prostrations. Walking and swimming can make you feel better, too, as can washing the dishes or cleaning the kitchen. Why, then, should an Orthodox Christian turn to yoga?
Could the evil one be hiding behind yoga and meditation, appearing to us as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14)? He fights fiercely to destroy us: “Like a roaring lion, he prowls around, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). It is through God’s providence that he has not devoured us physically. Yet he will not rest in his efforts to destroy us spiritually. That is why the Apostle Peter warns us: “Be sober-minded; be watchful” (1 Peter 5:8).
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Νext in this series: What Exactly Are Yoga and Meditation from a Biblical Perspective?
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