Samasthiti

The title of the post, also a question, is actually a larger debate in the yoga community about religion. Whether yoga is linked to any religion, whether it promotes a certain religion, who does it include and more importantly who does it exclude? The question was actually posed to me by my teacher in a Bhagawad Gita study i am undertaking currently. All my previous yoga trainings and my practice has always had me believe that any scripture that has something to teach can not be contained within the rules of a specific society or culture and all of it's teaching can not be shackled to prevent it from benefitting the supposed "others". At the core of it, all religions even though they were meant to classify people into segments, teach love, patience, compassion and kindness. It has how we as humans have chosen to interpret these ancient texts that causes all this "us & them" sentiment in the world. Of course these words simplify the rifts we see around