I refer to the Malaysiakini report Bouquets, brickbats for yoga fatwa

The National Fatwa Council is right to ban yoga for Muslims. And this is caused by the Malaysian Hindu Sangam and Malaysian Association of Yoga Instructors’ (Mayi) failure to keep a proper check on this ancient esoteric practise.

Mayi instead has been churning out yoga instructors for the purpose of commercialisation. Now this is the problem.

The National Fatwa Council says yoga involves certain aspects of Hindusim and ultimately the goal is a union with God. I must say they have better understanding of the meaning of yoga than many Indians worldwide.

Yoga means ‘union’, a merging, the meeting of the ‘yin’ and ‘yang’. Yoga and meditation are India's contribution to the world. Just like how physical science in the West, India has explored and experimented with the deeper esoteric meanings of life for thousands of years.

Excavations in the ancient city of Harappa have found many artefacts and coins with the symbol of ‘Shiva’ in the padmasana (lotus position). Also, the source of all meditations is contained in the Vigyan Bhairava Tantra in which Shiva reveals the 112 techniques of meditation.

Four of them concern breathing and these are known as the Buddhist techniques as Gautama Buddha's enlightenment is based on the first technique. That is why Hindus revere the figure 108 though it actually concerns the meditation techniques for centering of the mind.

Many cultures and masters worldwide have adopted their meditation techniques from these 112. The Sufi's ‘Whirling Dervish’, Attar's ‘Seven Valleys of Love’, Zen's ‘No-Mind’ meditation, Lao Tzu's enlightenment based on watching the leaves withering away; the source of all these is of the Tantra.

And the Tantra is approximately 10,000 years old. Hinduism came later. The Hinduism practised by the majority of the people is actually ‘Brahminism’ which revolves around rituals rather than meditation.

About 5,000 years ago, Patanjali, the Indian spiritual scientist had carefully categorised and arranged the yoga system in a very scientific manner known as the ‘Yoga Sutra’. He recorded the body movements of deeply meditating yogis which unconsciously took different postures as the ‘Kundalini’ rose through each chakra .

There are seven chakras, hence the seven heavenly bodies and the seven stages of love. These postures were recorded and intricately labelled. That is why yoga has different postures for different levels of advancement and different types of yoga for different individuals.

Hence it is suffice to say that yoga is a discovery and not an invention. The laws of gravity would still exist even if Newton did not discover it or if the whole of humanity forgot it.

Yoga has been further watered down by practitioners down the century. And now yoga has become simply an exercise of bending the body here and there more like that of a gymnast. It has far deviated from its true and beautiful purpose.

Yoga has to be practised with reverence and discipline as any other Indian art such as Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music. Deep understanding of Yoga Sutra is a must and often the student will also master Sanskrit. It is normally for very strict vegetarians (no onions also). There are no shortcuts.

If one wants to learn chemistry one has to know the Periodic Table. Yoga is a science that has complex laws and if wrongfully practised can be fatal. It has to be carried out under the observation of a well-trained master.

I thank the National Fatwa Council for bringing up this issue. Though many non-Muslims object to it, I would say that not many non-Muslims know or have practised yoga.There is no reason for Indians to be upset with the word haram as the ban is meant only for the Muslims.

It is surprising to see our Hindu leaders getting so easily flared up by small things - perhaps they are not meditating enough.

One writer has dared the non-Muslims to read the Quran and find out what is not right. These are not wise words. As you may not indulge in other religious scriptures, you should not challenge others to do the same.