Patanjali Yoga Sutra - 48

Transcending the primordial disease

Tato Dwandwa Anabhigataha|

Perfection and practice of Asana turns the mind inward to the presence of one truth. When the mind is turned outward, there is duality or dwandwa - day-night, heat-cold, high-low, rich-poor, happy and sad. But when the mind is turned inward - there is only the seer of every action, word and thought. This seer is the same in everyone. Practice of a steady and comfortable posture helps you to transcend duality. Duality is the Adi Vyadhi or the primordial disease of the sense of separatedness from the rest of the Universe. - Swahilya Shambhavi (Pic. Teachers at Vasantham Home for Special Children doing the Surya Namaskar.)

Patanjali Yoga Sutra - II - 46

Steady and comfortable

Sthira Sukham Aasanam|

Asana is seat. It means posture. It is from the root word As - means to Be. It is from this word that Asti or Is in Sanskrit is derived. Asana is the posture that helps to keep the body, breath, mind and intellect in a state of being. This state is naturally calm, tranquil and quiet. Today we have people recommending Asanas for this disease or that. Ultimately, all that the Asana or meditative posture does is to keep the body and mind still and steady in a meditative state. In that state, all healing happens. The Yoga Sutra states the only meaning for Asana here as a posture of way of keeping yourself steady yet comfortable all the time. (Pix: Teachers at the Vasantham Home for Special Children being in Prashanthasana or Shavasana, befor the beginning of the other asana practices. Text and Pix by Swahilya Shambhavi.)

Patanjali Yoga Sutra 2: 29

Eight steps to liberation

Yama Niyama Asana Pranayama Pratyahara Dharana Dhyana Samadhayoshtavangani||

The eight limbs or parts of yoga are yama or self-restraints, niyamas or following certain regulations, asana or a steady posture, pranayama or regulation of the flow of prana by regulating the breathing pattern, Pratyahara or withdrawing the sense organs of smell, touch, taste, hearing, vision and the mind from going outwardly into objects of the world and turning within towards the supreme consciousness, dharana or the one-pointed concentration as an uplifting symbol, person or thought, dhyana or meditation. The eighth part, Samadhi is a natural outcome or the terrace space of emptiness after you climb the other seven steps. Of these eight parts, practice of the first five constitute Bahiranga Sadhana or outward practice while the last three amount to internal practice or Antaranga Sadhana. This can happen well within the mind unknown to other onlookers.
- Swahilya Shambhavi. (Pic. by Swahilya Shambhavi taken of a step farming in Ukhimath, Himalayas.)