We all know that Yoga is good for us. The South African team knows it too. They are pictured here doing a modified Vasistasana. They all have sthiram, but sukham is completely missing.  Here’s Boston’s Big Picture on World cup 2010.

Definitely comes easier when you are 7 years old. I love the Sanskrit name Poorna Bhujangasana. In English, it is translated as King Cobra pose, somehow it loses a lot of beauty in the English version. Poorna means full, complete and it is never captured in the English name of the pose. So lost in translation.

I love the Sanskrit names of asanas and the Indian names of Indian people. Most people in the West want to shorten my already short name, so it gets easy for them to say my name. I have never agreed to that and it is always my full name that I ask people to refer me by. There is so much beauty in the name when it is said the right way. I was definitely cross, when someone wanted to call me “S”, as my name was too complex for that person. I said no way, I cannot be called S. That’s a huge loss for my name.

Imagine teaching a yoga class, come to the top of the mat. Come into U, then U, then A, then B. Just because someone found it too much to handle.

This is a fabulous pose to start an asana practice. It looks so simple but quite works the entire body and wakes it in a gentle but conscious way. I love to start with this and I can feel how it works on my body. I also have to add that I have not seen this sequence in any other “style” of hatha yoga, except at Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. This is the asana that made me realize how a mild and easy looking asana can work so well.

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A non-yogi friend of mine asked me if there is an asana named after donkey or a rat.  I thought the question was funny and thought about it more. Most of the animal stretches that have been copied to yoga are animals that are inspiring. The animal that we adore the most and copy is the svana or the dog. Upward facing and downward facing dog poses, probably the only animal that inspired two asanas. It is another matter that the poor dogs have to learn yoga from humans in the US of A. I guess why we do not have a donkey or rat asana is that they don’t inspire us so much.

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I was quite surprised to find that my Bhujangasana has improved so much, all of a sudden. I was not even working on it. Then I figured out it is a side effect. I have been practicing a lot of upward facing dog in the Surya namaskar. So it made me wonder if I need to practice both. Can I avoid the somewhat boring Cobra?

One of my teachers had mentioned that upward facing dog was like Golden Gate bridge.  You balance only with your hands and the tops of the feet. The rest of your body is suspended between this strong support of the hands and the feet. What a great visual! This image stuck with me forever, for there are not too many things more beautiful than GG bridge.

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It translates to being alert and comfortable. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra says that every asana practiced should have both these qualities. There must be alertness without tension and relaxation without dullness or lethargy.

The Yoga Sutra’s purpose of this verse is to explain how one can practice the asanas to reach the goal of Yoga (the asanas by themselves are just a means to Yoga), which is to still the mind, to observe, to prepare for meditation. Asanas have to be practiced with Sthiram Sukhamasanam.

If the breath is labored then there is no point in being in an asana. It is better to back off and do the pose to a degree that a person is capable of doing. If an already existing pain is stopping us to perform a pose, we can explore why such a pain exists. This leads to examining our habits to understand our habit patterns and ourselves.

On the other hand, one might feel the need to be in hanumanasana (full split) when one is not ready for the pose. Not paying attention to the phrase Sthiram Sukhamasanam can easily lead to yoga injuries. There should be ease, grace and beauty in the practice. There is a saying in yoga – no pain, no pain. There is definitely a world of difference between advancing step by step versus forcing to be in a pose which may lead to an injury eventually.

I read about Patanjali’s Sthiram Sukhamasanam in Heart of Yoga by TKV Desikachar.

Yoga Sutra refers to a beautiful image from Indian mythology to illustrate the concept. The story tells of Ananta, the king of snakes, floating on the ocean, his long snake body coiled to form a comfortable couch on which Vishnu lies. The snake’s thousand heads reach up and out like a protective umbrella over Vishnu. On the umbrella rests our earth.

The snake’s body is soft and gentle enough (sukha) to serve as a couch for a god and at the same time is firm and steady enough (sthira) to support the whole earth. We should endeavor to bring those same qualities of gentleness and steadiness to our asana practice, all the while making sure that we exert progressively less effort in developing them. The asana practice needs to be sensible and well structured, advancing step by step, developing our practice in accordance with our abilities.

Every time I go to a vinyasa class, I can’t help but wonder why we do so many Chaturangas, the yoga push ups. This pose requires so much upper body, arm and core strength, it does not feel easy. So, naturally Chaturanga is one of the poses that I need to just get done to move on to the next pose. I know it is not the yogic state of mind to wait for a pose to get over, but to be in the moment and to know what is going on in this pose felt out of reach.

The appreciation for this pose came on way later after I read the article on push ups in New York Times. The push up is a symbol of health and wellness; I did not know that until this article came along. The yoga push up is slightly different from the western push up, but the idea that such a pose is integral to one’s health was a revelation to me.

I needed to find ways to make this pose enjoyable. I come across what is known as bandhas (translated from Sanskrit to English as locks). When a pose is done with such an awareness of the uddiyana bandha which involves using the core muscles that are close to the spine, the pose feels completely different. Pulling in the belly is pretty close to what uddiyana bandha is. Along with this, using the feet also comes in handy. Chaturanga feels completely different when the arms, feet and the bandhas all come to play together. It even feels like a fun pose.

To do the Chaturanga, come into a plank pose, hands directly below the shoulders, palms on the floor with fingers splayed wide. On an exhale, engage your arms, feet (toes in the floor and heels pressing back) and lift from the abdomen upward (which is pretty close to the idea of uddiyana bandha) while preventing the back from rounding until the upper body is at the height of the shoulder joint. The hands do not splay out; instead they stay close to the body. Stay here for a few breaths before moving on to upward facing dog pose or child’s pose.

Do a few Chaturangas every day in your practice and there will come a day where you will actually be looking forward to Chaturangaaah!