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| WHAT IS AN ASANA ? |
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The Asanas are yoga postures. Traditionally asanas are positions which are held still for a certain amount of time - from a few seconds to a few hours! Usually the asanas will be held for an average of two to three minutes. Besides being held steadily they should also be held comfortably. No pain should be experienced while holding the posture or in the hours or days that follow. |
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| THREE TYPES OF ASANAS |
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| The scriptures recognize three types of asanas: the Meditative, Relaxing and Cultural Postures. |
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| MEDITATIVE ASANAS |
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| The Meditative postures are ordinarily used for the practice of meditation and pranayama |
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These are cross-legged sitting postures which allow you to sit upright and relaxed for a longer time. They provide a stable seat for meditation. The aim is to train your body so you can sit a long time without moving any part of your body. This is important if you are practicing meditation or pranayama and want to come to a deep concentration. |
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You should choose the posture that is most comfortable for you and start practicing it for 15 minutes. You can increase the length gradually. |
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| In the raja yoga sutras the asana is defined as a steady, firm, and comfortable posture. |
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| THERE ARE FIVE MAIN MEDITATIVE POSTURES: |
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Padmasana or lotus |
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Siddhasana or adept's pose |
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Swastikasana or locked-ankles pose |
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Sukhasana or easy pose |
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Vajrasana for people who cannot sit cross-legged |
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The first asana of this type, savasana, is also used for yoga nidra, the powerful system of deep relaxation, visualization and self transformation. |
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| CULTURAL ASANAS |
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The cultural postures are practiced with more intensity. While doing asanas the hatha yogi is aware that there are three groups of muscles in the body. For each asana, some muscles are relaxing, some are stretching and some are contracting. The art consists in relaxing deeply the first two groups while contracting forcefully the last group. During the practice, the stretched muscles should be lengthened to the limit. The limit is the pain and one should stop the stretching just before feeling any pain. One should feel a good, intense stretch. During the practice the breath should always be kept under control. |
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There are three important phases in the practice of cultural asanas — each of them equally important and should be paid equal attention: |
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Coming into the position |
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Holding the position |
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Getting out of the position |
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This group contains by far the largest amount of asanas. It is said that there are 84 lakhs (8.4 million) yoga postures. Of these, 84 are more important and 12 of them constitute the structure of the Rishikesh sequence sometimes called Sivananda series or Yoga Vidya series. |
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| THE CULTURAL ASANAS CAN BE DIVIDED IN SEVEN GROUPS: |
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Dynamic sequences - such as the sun saltuation |
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Inverted postures - such as the headstand or the shoulderstand |
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Forward bending postures - such as the sitting forward bend aka Paschimottanasana |
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Backward bending postures - such as the cobra , locust , or bow poses |
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Twisting postures - such as the half spinal twist |
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Side ward bending postures - such as the triangle pose |
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Standing postures including balancing poses - such as the tree pose |
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| HOW MANY ASANAS ? |
The shastras tell us of 84 lakhs asanas. A lakh being equal to 100,000, this brings the number of yoga postures to 8,400,000. The tradition says that there are 84 lakhs species in the world and there is one asana for each, capturing the life experience and qualities of each species in a relaxing position. Obviously nobody could learn, not mentioning practicing regularly, all of them. Therefore the hatha yoga texts present us with 84 more important asanas. |
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