our-yoga

by Ram

Hanuman as Yogi

The terms Vanara, Markata, Khisha and Kapi all translate as: simian, monkey or ape. Hanuman, a vanara or ape-like humanoid, is one of the most important deities in Hindu mythology. Hanuman was an ardent devotee of Lord Rama and helped him by locating his wife Sita who was abducted by Ravana, the demon king.  Hanuman is an epitome of physical strength, perseverance and devotion, and his personality reveals the limitless but dormant power within each one of us. His name derives from the Sanskrit words Hanu ("killed" or "destroyed") and maan (pride); thus, the name implies one who is devoid of pride and ego or one who has killed his pride and ego. Ruin and destruction closely follow on the heels of pride and ego. Despite possessing heroic qualities and unswerving faith and devotion towards Lord Rama, Hanuma had no sense of pride, arrogance or ego.  \His exemplary qualities, including power, courage, humility, dedication, devotion and abject surrender to Lord Rama, are revered by one and all, earning him a pride of place among the numerous Hindu Gods. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika commemorates Hanuman with at least four poses (that I am aware of) dedicated to him. So today let’s explore not just Hanuman Asana but all the other poses dedicated to this ape-like-deity. 

Vanarasana

Most of us may not recognize this name even though we do this pose on a regular basis. In many yoga classes it is simply referred to as Lunge Pose (both high and low lunge constitute Vanarasana and the name primarily refers to the placement of the back leg). Vanarasana is done as a standalone pose or as part of the Sun Salutation series.
High Lunge-Vanarasana:  From Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) with your hands on the floor or on blocks, step your left foot back toward the back edge of your mat, with the ball of the foot on the floor. Bend your right knee so that is directly over the heel. You may choose to rest your right torso over your front thigh and lengthen it forward. Draw your right hip toward the floor and look forward. Firm the left thigh and knee and push it up toward the ceiling, and stretch your left heel toward the floor.

Low Lunge-Vanarasana: Without changing the placement of the hands and torso, lower your left leg and knee down towards the floor (resting your knee on a folded blanket, if needed). Keeping your right knee fixed in place and your torso over your front thigh, slide your left foot back until you feel a comfortable stretch in the left front thigh and groin. Turn the top of your left foot to the floor.

Repeat both versions of the pose on the other side.

Vanarsana opens the hips and chest and the pelvis, stretches the hip flexor muscles deep in the pelvis, strengthens the groin and legs and lengthens the spine. As you move into this pose, notice the pains that may accompany as you try to reach the maximum. If you feel physical pain at any time, modify the asana by backing off to the point where you do not experience any pain. This way, you can still get the benefit of the asana with suitable modifications. From Vanarasana, you can transition to Anjaneysana.

Anjaneyasana

As Hanuman was born to his mother Anjana, he is also known as Anjaneya (son of Anjana). This is also referred to as crescent moon pose. Like Vanarasana, Anjaneyasana is also done as a standalone pose or as part of the Sun Salutation series.  While there are lot of similarities between Vanarasana and Anjaneyasana, the difference between the two poses is subtle and is primarily differentiated by the arm placement and position of torso. In Vanarasana both hands (or finger tips) are placed on the floor with the front knee sandwiched between the arms. In Anjaneyasana the arms are raised overhead and the torso is in an upright position. The back knee is either on the floor (Low Lunge-Anjaneyasana) or straightened back completely with the knee and hamstrings directed up toward the ceiling (High Lunge-Anjaneyasana). Similar to Vanarasana, Anjaneyasana strengthens the hamstrings, quadriceps, gluteus muscles and knees, opens the psoas and hips, improves balance, concentration and awareness and builds mental focus.

Both Anjaneyasana and Vanarasana provide us with an opportunity to express at least four of the many attributes that Hanuman possessed:

• Balam = Strength. Being strong in body and mind as well.
• Dhairya = Courage. Courage to dispel pride and ego and surrender to the divine within.
• Nirbhayatvam = Fearlessness. Without any fear, you attempt these poses to the extent that is right for your body.
• Bhakti = Devotion. If you attempt the poses with complete devotion to self, you will notice that the poses are no longer a fight to open the hips, hamstrings, psoas and other parts of the body but a pleasant effort at beefing up your inner capabilities.

Hanuman Asana

This asana, in which your legs are split forward and back, requires significant physical flexibility. It stretches the hamstrings, groin and hip flexors, strengthens the pelvis and abdominal muscles. Those new to yoga or people with tight hips and hamstrings may find it difficult or impossible to get the legs and pelvis down on the floor. Use of suitable props is always advisable. Depending on how much support you need, try placing a block or thick bolster under the pelvis of your front leg. As you straighten your legs, slowly release your pelvis down onto the support. If the bolster is not comfortably supporting you, add a thickly folded blanket. If you have difficulty placing your hands on the floor, you may use blocks to support them.

You may experience two kinds of pain in Hanuman asana. If you experience physical pain, back off, and scale back temporarily or use the props I suggested. However, if you feel an emotional/mental pain building up either from your inability to do the splits or upon noticing that your neighbor is able to do it effortlessly, look inward, turn off the ego and close your eyes. In the yogic sense you are practicing pratyahara (using our senses with total/complete awareness). Wherever you are with this pose (partial, semi or full split), reign in your senses, turn your mind inward, use your breath to awaken the inner passion and notice how you are able to completely surrender into this pose, a quality that you can imbibe from Lord Hanuman.

This asana is of utmost spiritual significance, as well as requiring considerable physical flexibility. The pose alludes to Hanuman's famous leap from the mainland of India to the island of Sri Lanka to locate Rama’s wife Sita. The asana itself signifies the limitless power within us that helps to achieve even what may seem humanly impossible. More philosophically, it denotes complete openness and expansiveness of the heart, together with absolute faith and trust to succeed in our attempts. Whether you achieve the full split is not relevant; what is important is, can you let go of the pride and ego while attempting this pose? Thus, without the pride and ego and with full faith and devotion, you are able to go beyond your own capacity; this in itself is an act of submission to your own divinity.

Markatasana

This asana is reclined twist that is seldom described in books or magazines but it is commonly done especially after backbends. Lie on your back with your legs straight, toes and heels together and your arms in a T-position. Then, bend your knees, resting the soles of your feet on the ground, and draw your heels close to the buttocks. Now inhale and, keeping your legs stacked together, lower both legs over to the right. Drop your knees gently to the floor, keeping your pelvis on the floor, and twist your torso to left away from your legs (if it comfortable for you, you can also turn your head toward the left). Remain in this position for 4-5 breaths, exhale and come back to the starting position, keeping your legs together. Now repeat asana to the other side.  Let go of any pride and ego, fill your heart with devotion towards self and notice the relaxation happening in the mind and body.  The asana opens up the diaphragm, ribs and lungs. It stretches and strengthens the spinal cord and is thus helpful for backache and other spinal deformities.

While all of the above asanas dedicated to Lord Hanuman call for significant physical flexibility, they also remind us to perform to the best of our ability albeit letting go of any doubts and anticipation as to how it will be received. Judith Lasater said, “Yoga is not about touching your toes; it is about what you learn on the way down.” This adage applies to the monkey poses as well.

This morning, I got up quite a bit earlier than I usually do, and was done with my practice before 7 a.m. Why did I get up so early? Because I had to bring my car to the shop. The check engine light came on a couple of days ago, and the idling was really rough whenever the car came to a complete stop at a stop-light or stop sign: It's almost as if the car were rocking out to its own little tune while waiting for the light to change. Which may have been amusing and entertaining for the car (assuming, of course, that cars are the sort of thing that can get amused or entertained), but it scared the daylights out of me. But just a while ago, the mechanic called me, and told me that all that was needed was a spark plug change, which didn't cost nearly as much as I had imagined it would.

If you don't know what a spark plug is, you are not alone: I don't either... well, actually, let me look it up real quick on Wikipedia (what would I do without this all-knowing oracle of digital knowledge? Gosh, how did people even survive in the pre-wiki Dark Ages?!...). So according to Wikipedia, a spark plug is "a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air mixture by an electric spark, while containing combustion pressure within the engine."

Wow. I just realized that I still don't have much of an idea what a spark plug really is after reading this description like, five times. Oh, well. But let's change the subject a little: Let me try to explain the origin of my ignorance about cars. I only started driving after I moved to this country (about 11 years ago), and virtually everything (which is not much at all) of what I know about the insides of cars comes from all the times when my car broke down, and my mechanic had to explain things to me using words that I never even knew existed: transaxial, spark plug, head gasket, fuel injector, starter, timing belt, serpentine belt, struts... none of this means much of anything to me. If I had to pop open a hood right now and identify these various parts to save my life, I would be so totally dead.

And maybe it's just because I'm not mechanically inclined, but I get the sense that I'm not alone: I get the sense that many people (especially--pardon the stereotype--women and men of, uh, foreign origin...) also share my ignorance of car anatomy. Isn't it funny, though, how the inner operations of something that so many of us rely so heavily upon in our daily lives should be such a mystery to so many of us? Sometimes I think that the power that mechanics have over us is almost frightening: For many of us, they are, for all intents and purposes, a veritable priesthood, a select group of semi-divine beings that are privy to the inner secrets of these things called cars; things that more-or-less miraculously get us from point A to point B most of the time. Except for the times when they break down. And then we bring them to the neighborhood priest--I mean, mechanic--who then fixes it and makes it (almost) as good as new. And when we ask them what was wrong with our cars, they mumble some incomprehensible technical mumbo-jumbo made up of a combination of some or all of the words I mentioned above. Then we meekly nod our heads in agreement (are we in a position to disagree?), and obediently hand over the money to get our precious cars back.

And really, is all this really so far from the truth? I mean, what exactly do mechanics do to "fix" our cars? How many of us actually stand around and watch every single thing that our mechanics do while they are working on our cars? For all we know, they may just go into some secret room in the shop while we are away, mumble a series of secret chants that are shared only between mechanics/priests; chants which have the magical ability of getting our cars running again. And then they come back out and spin a whole story in technical mumbo-jumbo to make the whole thing sound scientifically legit to our scientific-explanation-attuned ears and minds. But really, if you think about it, we have no way of knowing what really happened in the shop while we were away, if the mechanics really did the mechanical things they say they did to our supposedly-mechanical chariots...

Hmm... this is supposed to be a yoga blog. But so far, I have practically written an entire post without even mentioning the word "yoga"! Well, let me try to see if I can somehow relate all this to yoga... Aha! Let's try this. Many of you who are reading this are probably familiar with the story of Hanuman: You know, the part in the Ramayana where he flew from Sri Lanka to the Himalayas in a single leap to try to find some special Himalayan herbs to try to heal the wounded Lakshman. He couldn't identify the required herbs (too many things growing on the Himalayas, I imagine), so he lifted the entire mountain and leapt back to Sri Lanka with it. As you probably know, the pose Hanumanasana is named after this famous leap.

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