ASANAS

By
Savitri Devi,
Gitananda Yoga, Czech Republic

Asanas are mostly the first thing we meet and practice in field of yoga. For most of
people, asanas actually tally with yoga. When somebody hears I am doing yoga, his or her
first question is “Are you able to stand on your head?” It has not happen to me yet that
anybody would ask “Are you able to be aware of your breathing continually for ten
minutes?” Also boards on streets offering participation in various yoga courses are full of
photos, on which are some yoga asanas. From all these reasons, when somebody comes first
to a yoga course, he or she goes to take some physical exercise. They have some suitable
dress for it, they have a mat and they go to some gymnasium.
Mostly people (at least in this country) come to yoga courses from some healthy reasons.
Pains in back, bad body posture, obesity, digestive problems, states after some body
accident (not enabling further sporting activity), small mobility, inability to concentrate
oneself, need “to do something with own body” and distaste to common sports (or idea that
“I am too old to do aerobic etc.”), recommendation of a girl-friend, that she feels herself
so well with yoga, or simple feeling that there is time to change life, to do something
different than up to now – these are the most often reasons I can hear from new coming
people. Certainly, near all of them expect some physical activity. Their idea of what yoga
is, is very near to asanas. And I must admit that in the beginning, their expectations will
certainly be filled. Only after some time, they begin to anticipate and to find out that yoga
is more than asanas and that yoga can offer them more than a physical activity.
When we look at yoga as traditional spiritual path how to become “master of oneself”
(rajayoga), then we see that asanas are only the third part of it according to Patanjali and
his work Yoga sutra. There are still the first and the second parts, called yama and
niyama, or if we can stay with English terms, we could say ethics and morality. There is
certainly reason, why just these parts are on the first place and on the second one. This
has its importance. However, it is very difficult for yoga new comers really to start with
these parts nowadays. People are willing to be taught body activity, but not morality. They
feel to be adult, actually they are adult, so in their eyes there is nobody (maybe accept of
God) who has right to tell them what they do ethically bad. In the West, there is
different type of relation to teacher. Teacher is somebody who knows something better
and is able to teach it. But there is no such respect and devotion to the teacher like we
know it from Orient. People are coming to my courses with intention to do some exercises
and not to listen some sermon. This is another reason why I can speak about these things
even after some time of yoga practice with my students.
Yet in traditional yoga teachings, adept really started with yama and niyama. These were
the years, when student were spending with his Master, serving him, working according to
his commands. In this way Master prepared adept to be ready for being taught further
yoga. From outside it could look like anything else as yoga teaching, but it was teaching of
yama and niyama in practice. Student was put in situation where he or she had to prove
that rules of yama and niyama were natural part of his/her attitude, thinking and acting in
harmony with them. Even after that teacher was willing to start teach him/her asanas and
other parts of yoga. Each Master had different method and some could start with some
other parts of yoga. But always the solely being with Master was a hard school of yama and
niyama, and through any part of yoga they were able to reach the other parts, since yoga
is unity, oneness. No part of it can be practiced without touching the others.
In the west, sometimes we say ”physical exercise” instead of sanskrit word asana. Of
course, it is understandable effort to omit foreign term, but it also shows us how narrowly
we understand asana, how incomplete we see it. But asana is always very complete process
and state, because even if it really is some activity of our physical body, its effect is not
limited only on physical level. Old Indian wise men (rishis) saw and described human
personality very completely. They spoke about material, and thus mortal part, created by
five areas, levels or bodies (literary pancha koshas) and one immaterial, i.e. immortal part
that they called in different times with different names: purusha, jiva, atman. And they
knew quite well that asanas influenced more then our physical body, actually all these
bodies.
The first level, the roughest one, is our physical body, called in sanskrit annamayakosha.
This is what we can touch, our skeletal system covered by muscles and stimulated by
nerves, blood and lymphatic systems with inner organs. Besides this body, yoga speaks
about other four fine (sukshma) bodies, that we are not able to reach by our senses, and
these begin with the second level called in sanskrit pranamayakosha. This is area we call
living energies that are hidden in all processes of our lower material body; in sanskrit we
call these energies prana. In fact, it is not only one energy, but group of energies that
vary by their functions and manifestations. Manomayakosha is second fine body that
represents lower aspect of our mind. These are our rational thinking, reason, intellect,
brains, contents of our mind (in sanskrit called manas) – i.e. this part of our mind that is
able to collect information, to sort them, to analyze. In comparison, vijnanamayakosha,
the next level, represents higher aspect of our mind. This mind (in sanskrit called buddhi)
is tool characterized by synthesis and perception of unity, integrity and mutual
connections. Here we involve perception, emotions, intuition, so everything we generally call
“unreasonable”, that is why we sometimes speak about emotional body in comparison with
the previous one, called thought body. The last level is anandamayakosha, level of
consciousness, joy and awareness of unity, cause and consequence. That is why we call it
sometimes causal body.
Asanas influence all these levels – we work naturally with our physical system, by proper
breathing and awareness we work also with energies – so with energetic body; with our
mind or generally with our psychic – we involve our thought and emotional bodies; and
through awareness of oneness and connections we can reach also the last level,
anandamayakosha. This is also figure that proves my previous claim that each part of yoga
is able to lead us to other parts, or in other words, that in each part of yoga there are
hidden also the other ones: yama, niyama, working with energy – pranayama, working with
your senses – pratyahara, working with mind – dharana, awareness of consciousness –
dhyana. In this sense of meaning we can afford to start with people in courses with asanas,
since we know that sooner or later we will come to all the rules of yama and niyama and
that they will probably be able better to understand most of these rules through their
body and their experience of conscious activity with it.
So what is actually asana? Generally, we understand (here in West) that it is some special
type of physical activity. Activity that is quite different from common sportive physical
activity. In old Indian text there are several definitions of asana. In Patanjali´s Yoga
sutra we can find in several verses following characteristics of yoga asana, creating its
definition: static body posture, that is enough stable, but also pleasant and relaxed
(to be able to stay in it longer time); conscious posture with controlled breathing.
It may seem that this is very broad definition. It is obvious that such definition is filled
not only by a limited group of classical yoga asanas (however big one it is), but principally
any body posture that will match all terms of this definition can be called asana (even if we
don´t find it in any old scripture and it has no sanskrit name). On the other side with all
these conditions, this definition is very strict and strongly limiting. It narrows the
selection by all these conditions that must be matched and we must admit that sometimes
something that looks like yoga asana, not yet need to be it at all – since some condition
does not match and that cannot be seen from outside (example – young and sportive people
have enough flexible bodies and thus “are able to do nearly any asana”, but it will hardly be
conscious body posture with controlled breathing etc. – i.e. asana).
Concurrently the definition prompts us the former mentioned connection with other parts
of yoga. It is said controlled breathing and enough relaxed posture – the connection with
pranayama and relaxation (extrapolated up to whole pratyahara) can already be seen quite
clearly here from the very definition. It may seem to our reason that two further
demands go against: posture should be stable and it should be also relaxed. How to
understand this? Of course, every posture will lead to a certain level of tension in muscles
(to be able to keep body for example in standing or sitting position). But important is to
limit this tension only on these muscles that really keep the body in such a posture.
Sometimes we transmit muscle tension also in other muscles that are not at all necessary
for holding body in position (for example gritting of teeth or tension in face in any asana).
So these two demands are no counter-demands, they complete each other. We must
understand them well. The demand of relaxed asana is here to guarantee, that asana will
be comfortable and thus we will be able to stay in it long enough. Why long enough? Since
we need time for working in asana, we must give opportunity to asana to influence us. And
this is not well possible in several short seconds.
Let us stop with rules of yama and niyama and their connections with practicing asanas.
They are connected also with this part of yoga and as I mentioned above, asanas, kriyas
and other physical exercises are one possibility how to insert these rules into practice of
our students; how to let them understand well these rules in practice – and later, still later
we can expand them on the whole living. The first rule of yama - ahimsa (nonviolence) - is
the most important one. It is something what teacher must repeat, especially to new,
students again and again from the very beginning. People coming to yoga courses are
naturally oriented on external effect. Now they are faced with quite different type of
physical activity then they are used to. They come and they are curious (How will my
neighbor able to do it?), they have need of comparison (Am I better then the person lying
next door to me?) and of competitiveness (I must be better than my neighbor!). It is
teacher who must tell them that they cannot practice yoga at all in this way. It is
necessary to speak about nonviolence to own body (and to distinguish well between violence
on one side and chaos on the other side). It is very difficult especially for people who were
sportsmen (–women), since they are used that they cannot reach anything for nothing, that
they cannot have something without body pain, sweat and grind. Yes, they have one
advantage compared with others – strong will; but they must learn to use it differently
than they are used to do it in sportive activities. Even here in yoga is true that nothing is
for nothing. But not pain, not sweat, not grind, but endurance, fine effort, full awareness,
controlled breathing, presence in NOW, departure from external side of things – these
are qualities with which they “pay” for progress; these qualities they must grow with help
of the strong will. Departure of external side of things – what does it mean? It means that
the important happens inside and we cannot see, touch, smell it – we cannot capture it by
our senses. Saint Exupery in his Small Prince says: “The important things cannot be seen
by eyes, but they can be seen by your heart.”
This first rule can show us the way, how to “impose” yama and niyama upon daily practise of
our students. Since, if they want really correctly to practice asanas, they must be quite
honest to themselves in this activity (satyam), they cannot grab anything in it (asteya),
they must follow moderation, for example of hard effort on one side and quite no effort
on the other side (brahmacharya) and they must not assume themselves merits, since
things more happen than are done (aparigraha). We can see clearly that practicing asanas
is some type of inner (and very hard) discipline (tapas), it is certain way how to understand
to own body and its functioning (svadhyaya); we can see that one needs to cultivate certain
contentment and harmony between demands and possibilities of own body (santosha), that
the body (and the whole organism) is purified by these physical activities (saucha) and,
finally, that the experience of real asana may lead an adept to learn of his/her genuine
essence, to his/her humble bowing to the will of it, of God (Ishvara pranidhana).
From these rules of yama and niyama, and especially of the most important one: ahimsa, we
got to one important fact in the whole yoga, not only asanas: We should go from outside
to inside. We should not stay with form and miss its content. Of course we must start
with form – i.e. with asanas we must pay attention to external form of our body in posture
(where we have arms, how our spine is stretched or relaxed, if some muscles are stretched
and other ones relaxed etc.), but all the time we should have in our mind that the form is
the mean how to reach content, how to reach some inner state of being, called bhava. This
is goal, not only stretching of shorted muscles, strengthening of atrophied ones and making
joints more flexible and movable. The goal is bhava or inner asana or inner nature of asana.
There are many ways how to call it. To get to this bottom, this real essence of asana
means again to be true to oneself, to follow restraint, to purge from obstacles on level of
body, breathing, mind, emotions, to get to know oneself, to be able to follow some order
and to be able to sacrifice something to it etc. Again, all the rules of yama and niyama are
hidden here.
To experience and to witness this bhava, one must give up separation, feeling of duality
(dvaita). There is no more asana and body that is practicing it; it is here only asana and we
open ourselves to it, we merge with it and we become one with it, with its inner nature, we
are the bhava, we are unity, not duality (advaita). In this process practice of asanas must
be high level of concentration; and even then, in any moment, experience of an asana may
become even meditation and as experience of unity with it even samadhi. In this way we
can really find in asanas also the higher parts of eight-limbed yoga. And this is goal to
practice all these parts to be able to live the whole path. To go deeper and deeper and not
only flatly in distance.
Let us look now on concrete process of practicing asana. We will be able to see on it the
differences between yogic activity and common sportive activity. Of course, there are
very various asanas, so not for all types of asana you will be able to go trough all the
described stages; but generally we can establish some sequence of stages. Knowledge of
these stages can help us understand well that even if asana is static body posture, it has
its own development and we should be all the time aware of it. These stages can help us
also better understand the role of form and its content - both have their important place,
both have to be followed.
The first stage we could call mental prototype. Here we create perfect picture of body
shape in given asana in our mind. It is something like sankalpa, this time devoted to our
physical body. By it we insert our intention into mind. This prototype should be always
perfect, even if we know that our body has some limitations and we will not be able to
practice the asana so perfectly. That does not mind. Important is intention, goal, and that
is perfection. This mental prototype is something that already has its own effect – it is
really part of practicing asana. That is why it is valid to practice yoga at least mentally,
when from some reason we are not able to practice it so well or at all (in case of accident,
illness etc.). Already mental practicing is worth.
The second stage is setting out on asana. This is movement with which we are able to take
up asana. Here we must encompass different type of movement in comparison with sports.
It is yoga movement. This movement should be always conscious, controlled movement
made in harmony with breathing. From this it follows that it will be very slow movement,
we will be aware of it and in any moment we will be able to stop it, to change it, to make it
still slower etc. Some people do not yet feel this stage of process as part of asana. Asana
starts for them in the moment, when their body has shape of asana and they are without
any motion. But it is important how we are able to get into asana. First, it is test (and
exercise) of our muscle condition; second, by slow movement we are really able to take up
asana correctly and what is important consciously. Many women for example have problem
to get their buttocks in halasana, so they help themselves with some swing to lift body
from the floor. But in such a case, they have no more control over this movement, since
such a movement is quite different type of movement then the controlled one. In this way
they can even injure themselves, since they cannot control the body position and their
feelings. The movement is rapid and suddenly they are in position that need not to be
suitable in such extent for them.
Already here, we should have in mind the goal – bhava, inner state. The whole process of
asana should be done in calm and balanced way. The first stage, mental prototype,
commences with it and any quick and not controlled movement will disturb this inner state
of calmness and balance. (That is why, all the movements done during yoga lesson should be
controlled ones. Even if they are such movements like scratching, pulling out handkerchief,
blowing one´s nose etc.)
Naturally it is good to connect movement with breathing. If we lift arms, legs or the whole
body, so do it during in breath (important is really during in breath and not after in breath,
actually during hold in, like many do it); and if we lean downwards, it is reasonable to do it
during out breath.
The next stage is working in asana. Now our body has really shape of an asana; we have
finally reached it. From outside, no activity can be seen. Body is without visible movement.
But it does not mean that nothing happens. Exactly the opposite. It is stage when we
consciously are working and trying change body posture in real asana. When we take up
some yoga asana, it is important to stay aware of our feelings that are coming from body.
These feelings (especially the negative ones) are signs, where to concentrate, where to
lead our awareness, our breath and what to try to relax. Our efforts should also be
devoted to reaching of fluent flow of breathing. This is also the moment when we are
looking for some compromise between total relaxation (but then will body probably fall
from the asana) and total firmness of asana (when muscles of the body are tensioned).
Finding of this compromise guarantees ability to stay in asana with some comfort, to feel
stability of body in it and to have to some extent balance in body feelings. These all are
conditions for being able to stay in asana for longer time – and that is part of definition of
asana and that is also a must, if we want to reach next stage. During this “working” in asana
we have several helpers. Number one is our breath – this was already mentioned. Out
breath helps us relax what need not to be stretched. In breath helps us energize single
parts of body. And – hold breath, these calm moments of our breathing activity, help as to
go deeper in asana. The second helper is our awareness – similarly with breath, this follows
already from definition of asana. Only then, body posture may become asana, if we are
aware of our body, its shape, its feelings etc. Besides these two known helpers, there are
still another two. Two helpers that are present all the time, and that is why we forget
them. They are: power of gravity and time itself. We are living in field of gravity and we
are not able to imagine being it otherwise. But power of gravity is all the time acting power
and we can make use it in asanas. For example in halasana, one does not need to pull feet
down to the bottom, it is enough to realize power of gravity and submit to it. It always
works in cooperation with time, because it works in time. That is why the time itself is
another our helper. When occupying an asana we need time to let it influence us. In the
first moment after occupying it, our body probably is not source of blissful feelings. Body
must settle in. The muscles must prolong, joints must relax, changed pressure and blood
system conditions must consolidate etc. And all this needs time. It is enough to stay and
be aware and we will feel how time helps us really to enter in asana and further in next
stage of asana.
This stage of asana we could call simple state. It is perseverance, staying in reached state
of comfort and stability of body and certain balance of feelings (this is very important,
since it enables us to feel body in asana as a whole, not as legs and trunk and head and
arms.). This stage represents really the meaning of the word asana. Here we finally can go
from the form towards the contents. Here we can experience inner asana, its inner nature
or if we use the classical term – bhava. This is goal of asana, its genuine essence. However,
even this state is not stationary, it has its own development in time. What is important,
that here, in this stage, we must after some moment remove any effort (even effort to be
aware), since actually here we enter from concentration (even in this way we could
characterize the previous stage) up to meditation (that characterizes this stage). That
does not mean that we are no more aware. In opposite, we are highly aware of anything
what happens, but this level of awareness is no more kept by our effort, it is natural flow
of awareness. This has also its impact on breathing. Also breath is naturally flowing
without any violent or rapid changes, without any irregularities. That is why we had to work
also with breathing in previous stage. Experience of this state, this bhava, is
characterized also by something what we could call “synthesis of senses”. Senses are by
previous stages turned inside (pratyahara) and calmed. Now, they start to merge. Our
perceiving of this state cannot be described like seeing or hearing or touching, it is
everything this all together. This type of uniting of senses help us our merging with asana.
It is shift from duality (me and asana practiced by me) towards unity (only asana), then
from dvaita to advaita, oneness.
As I mentioned above, even this state has its own development, in other words it is
changing in time and naturally it will once reach its end. We fall again from advaita to
dvaita, and our unified feeling of body will split again in feelings of single parts of body,
where one is felt more than other etc. This is moment for change to the next stage.
This stage we could call return from asana. Here is valid everything that was said in
paragraph devoted to setting out on asana, because it is again yoga movement, this time
from asana back to starting position, that itself is a relaxation one, or from which we lie
down for relaxation. This return should be again slow, conscious and all the time controlled,
done in harmony with breathing. This time, the reason for it, is the effort not to disturb
processes of body and mind (and any other part of our personality) that was started by
the previous stage. Such type of movement helps us to keep awareness, too.
Finally, the last, but not least important stage is fading away or relaxation. But the term
relaxation leads us more to see the situation only from point of view physical body. Let us
stay better with term fading away. The asana induced some processes on all these five
levels (koshas), so not only on level of physical body. And these processes have some
persistence. They do not end immediately after change of position of our body. If we do
not disturb or cancel them by some quick and not controlled movement (of body, but also
of mind), they can slowly fade away. And in case we are able to stay aware even in this
stage (pleasantly positioned in some relaxation position with feeling of relief), we can
experience it (and by our awareness to make these processes still deeper and more
effective). We can and should stay still present in NOW.
To stay present in this moment, in now – is something we can find in whole process of
asana, actually in whole yoga. But, asana as the third level of Patanjali´s rajayoga, teaches
us this being in now through awareness of body. And even if body is only one of five parts
of our personality, most people feel to be their body; this part of their personality is the
closest one and that is why to be aware of it is easier for them then to be aware of their
emotions, for example. Awareness of body and breathing (so of two parts of these five
ones) is basement of asanas and in this way asanas are very good mean how to teach us to
live really in this moment. Our mind has mostly tendency to be in the past (our memories)
or in the future (our plans, worries and hopes). But if we are able to be aware of our body
and breathing, we force also our mind (and our senses) to be in present. In this way we
prepare it for next parts of yoga: for pratyahara and the whole samyama yoga. Well, we
are back in knowledge, mentioned in the beginning of my contribution: yoga is union and
even if it has eight parts according to Patanjali’s Yoga sutra, any of these parts leads us to
other ones to be able to create wholeness and holiness of yoga as unity, oneness.