Is yoga a religion? Some people seem to think so.

Many feel very strongly that yoga is a religious practice for Hinduism or a religion within itself. According to Syracuse.com, a local publication’s website, in October 2008, the parents of Massena High School in upstate New York petitioned that students not be taught yoga at the school because they felt it was a Hindu spiritual practice. The school later brought the class back under the name of Raider Relaxation with approval from the parental community.

Dr. Rebecca Taylor, a English teacher at Clayton High, has been doing yoga for nine years. Taylor feels that the parents of Massena high school may have overreacted and that a yoga program at Clayton might be better received.

“I think it would be a wonderful idea to have a yoga class at Clayton,” Taylor said. “I think it would be met with less opposition.”

In a recent debate, Missouri legislators have tried to tax yoga studios as fitness studios would be taxed according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Missouri’s yoga community disagrees with tax saying that yoga is a spiritual practice and thus exempt from the same taxes applied to gyms and fitness studios.

Gabe De la Paz, a CHS physics teacher, who has been practicing yoga for two months, feels that the yoga studio should still have to pay the tax.

“Some people are more into it religiously than others, but I’m not sure I agree with the tax exemption,” De la Paz said.

Rebeccah Bennett, who teaches free yoga classes at the West End Community Center, believes that the yoga studios are correct, if they are specific.

“They would be correct if the primary form of yoga they taught was one that emphasized spirituality,” Bennett said. “There are five different kinds of yoga and only one is physical. There are people that devote their lives to the spiritual practice of yoga, it has its own holy book or verses called the Yoga Sutras.”

The five types of yoga are Raja Yoga which has emphasis on meditation; Jnana Yoga which puts emphasis on self-enquiry; Bhakti Yoga which emphasizes worship; Karma Yoga which emphasizes community service; and lastly Hatha Yoga which emphasizes physical health and is what most westerners associate with the word Yoga.

The majority of people who practice Yoga within the United States practice for health benefits.

“I think that the benefits of yoga are multiple and they include a sense of well being and relaxation,” Kristie Skor, a Clayton resident who practices yoga regularly at D’s Home Yoga, said.

Yoga has many benefits. It can increase memory and concentration, while reducing stress and even blood pressure. Yoga can relieve the symptoms of some chronic diseases like asthma, back pain, and arthritis. Yoga also increases lung capacity, strength, balance, and posture. The yoga poses called asanas safely stretch the body releasing lactic acid in the muscles which reduces fatigue creating a sense of bodily harmony.

“Yoga is very calming,” Taylor said. “Big Bend Yoga, where I take classes, is very quiet. Even the people in the lobby are whispering.”

De la Paz highlighted the physical benefits he got from doing yoga.

“My joints are sore all the time,” De la Paz said. “I’m not very good to them. Yoga increases my core strength, and improves my flexibility, which frees up tension in my joints.”

Regardless of recent controversy, most people will continue to do yoga because they enjoy it and its health benefits. Each person takes from yoga something different.

“The thing I enjoy most about yoga is the stretch,” Bennett said. “I love the stretch, it is a great metaphor for life. If you live long enough on this planet life gives you many opportunities to extend beyond your perceived limitations of yourself. In essence life gives you many opportunities to stretch, to push the boundaries of yourself, the perception of yourself and the world.”