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.

Keeping your feet together, as you inhale, begin to raise your hands sideways and come up on the toes. While on the inhale, lifting the arms should make you realize how your chest opens up and the lungs expand. As your hands rise up, one can feel the lungs expand at the same level of the arm, as an indicator. The lungs go all the way up to the neck.  Or at least, internalize this and visualize the lungs expanding and the shoulders working. Towards the end of the inhale one can even clasp their palms and invert the clasped palms. This adds an additional movement on the arm joints. One is standing on the toes and hands clasped on the top. You can feel the toes, the ankles, the shins, the knees, hips, spine, shoulders, arm joints and more. You can feel the expansion of the chest and the lungs. This is a great exercise for ankles as well. This inhale when it is done in KYM style  is a minimum of 7 seconds or so. Seasoned yogis can inhale for longer. One should not try to do this in 7 seconds or longer if it is not naturally possible. This can be easily learnt over time. The idea is never to force, but observe.

No matter how long the inhale is, this sets the tone for the entire asana practice. It also teaches you how to breathe and coordinate your movements with the breath. You can really feel this work if you practice in the morning. The body gets to be more flexible in the later part of the day and the subtleties are harder to observe. Morning practice helps one feel what joints are brought into the equation and of course without music. The breath is the music. This seemingly easy asana gets very difficult when the mind is not focused. If there is a lot of turbulence in the mind, too many thoughts, the balance gets tricky. There is no need to feel bad if the balance is not happening in a particular session, just observe and notice the messy mind. One can induce some calmness artificially just by observing and make a decision to breathe better. Focus on the breath. There is so much to learn just from this basic of the asanas. And, this must be repeated a few times, 6 is a good number.

I could not come up on my toes for a long time when my knee was injured. I would practice it just with the arm movement. Now that I have gained some strength in my knee, I am back to the classic.

When I learnt this at KYM, I got to know that tāda in Sanskrit means palm tree. This pose looks like a palm tree when the arms are raised over. In Iyengar’s book, samasthithi (equally balanced) is termed tādasana. This is why most yogis mean tādasana to be mountain pose, but the actual Sanskrit meaning is palm tree pose.

I found an entire set of asanas that come under tādasana krama in Srivatsa Ramaswami’s “The complete book of Vinyasa Yoga“, which is one of my favorite books. This book is so awesome, it deserves a separate blog post.

So, how did they go about naming the asanas? Asana names are inspired from everywhere, keeping up with the evolution. Plants, animals- aquatic, amphibians, quadrupeds, birds,  insects, hindu gods, legendary heroes are helpful.

Some asanas named after plants like tree (vrksasana), palm tree (tadasana). I know tadasana in the west is usually interpreted as mountain. It actually means a palm tree.

Some are named after animals that live in water- fish (matsyasana). Some amphibians like frog (bhekasana, mandukasana) and other reptiles using both water and land like crocodile (makarasana), turtle (kurmasana), cobra (bhujangasana). A few others based on insect or something close – locust (salabhasana) and Scorpion (vrschika).

Birds that inpired yogis- peacock, rooster, pigeon, eagle, crane and swan. There are a few imaginary ones like cakravakasana, a bird that survives on moisture in the air. This is the bird dog pose.

There are other asanas named after quadrupeds – lion (simhasana), camel (ustrasana), dog (svanasana), cat (marjalasana), cow (gomukhasana), horse (vatayasana). Glaringly absent is the elephant, which breathes like a true yogi.

Hindu gods, heroes, geometry and furniture names have all made it to asanas. The criteria for making it to the yoga asana is that there must be a unique inspiring aspect about an animal or a thing that helps you in the journey of yoga. The next time you do bhujangasana, feel the spirit of the animal, get in the act and strike like a cobra. Hissss…I mean om.

I read in Light on Yoga that the yogi is not supposed to despise any creation however low they may be in the evolutionary totem pole, for it is the same universal spirit that resides in all. Ok then, I have to work really hard at liking the human species : )

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.

It expands the chest, strengthens the spine, helps blood circulate in the pelvic region.

Cobra has no drama or elegance. If upward facing dog can help the spine get stronger, I would like to avoid Cobra. I look up Yoga bible (Light on Yoga by BKS Iyengar) to shed more light on these two poses. I see they are listed one after the other. Lie on the floor, lift the body up from the trunk and throw the head back like a serpent about to strike. I like the description. Embody the spirit of the animal, like in Kalari.

Bhujangasan is listed as a pose that can help the spine, even an injured spine with slightly displaced discs. This pose helps replace the discs in their original position. How powerful is that! I am beginning to like Bhujangasan already. It is also a milder pose than upward facing dog, in terms of strength required to execute.

As I have tight hamstrings, I have to be very careful when I do the forward bends, as it puts tremendous pressure on these delicate joints of the spine. I do keep my knees slightly bent and am careful in forward bends. Now, I know Cobra can help me sort out the damage that I might have caused to the spine. So, I get the answer to my question. Even though the upward dog and cobra strengthen the spine, they do a few more things differently. Cobra and Dog are related, yet different in where the energy is initiated. Cobra starts at the pelvis and the lower spine. Upward dog’s energy lies in the chest, support of hands and feet.

Here’s a nice video that explains Cobra and Up dog.

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.

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!