ON THE HISTORY OF ASANA

Siva. Photo by form PxHere

ON THE HISTORY OF ASANA Movement for Millenia

BY JAMES BOAG

The Lord of Yoga, Siva is represented in many ways: as Yogisvara, he is usually sitting in a radiant example of a steady, easy classic yogasana such as siddhasana or padmasana. His spine is tall, spacious, erect. His aspect serene as he demonstrates his mastery over the tremendous powers of incarnation. He holds Ganga, the river of consciousness, so she can flow smoothly, gently, easily, to nourish the whole body of life.

In this form, Siva Yogisvara can be seen to represent dynamism in stillness. Another way Siva is represented is as Namaraja, stillness in dynamism. Nataraja is the Lord of the Dance, the five act dance-drama of Creation: the expansion of consciousness, the sowing of life, srsti in Sanskrt; of sthithi, the sustenance of existence, holding the galaxies in their dance; of samahara, the drawing back in to its source of the universe; of tirodhana bhava, of the concealing or veiling of the real deeper nature of existence

28 NAMASKAR and consciousness; and of anugraha, grace, or the revelation and remembering of who we really are.

As Nataraja, Siva is shown as a slenderwaisted, androgynously beautiful and graceful dancer. He is four-armed. In one hand he holds the damaru, the twin-headed drum that symbolises the beat, the rhythm, the pulsation of life, the sound of the creation of existence: srsti. Another hand is in abhaya mudra, the gesture signifying ‘have no fear’ - sustenance/sthiti. The third hand wields fire. The circle of flames symbolises the ever-turning, ever-changing wheel of existence. This is the circle of life, in which he is constantly dancing. The fourth arm makes the shape of an elephant’s trunk. This symbolises the unifying power of yoga as incarnated by Siva’s elephant-headed son Ganesa. The fourth hand is pointing to the junction point of Nataraja’s lifted, bent knee. This reminds us it is through yoga, through

gathering and harmonising all the members of the group of our being that we can remember our true selves. Nataraja’s standing foot is on top of a dwarf called Apasmara - forgetfulness. When we reconcile all of who we really are, when we incarnate the integrated Ganesa energy that is our innate potential, we can remember ourselves. We too can come into rhythm, so we can stay steady and balanced, attuned to our constant, conscious essence, amidst the whirling wonder of life.

Siva Nataraja is also depicted with the locks of his jama flying out horizontally: for the worlds whirl so quickly, he dances so quickly, yet he is serene, graceful, poised and in rhythm.

Sometimes at temples dedicated to Siva Nataraja, there are sculptures or depictions of the 108 karana-s of Siva as the great dancer, the 108 ‘instrumental positions’ that can be deployed to invite a deepening of yoga in our systems.

These postures are graceful, often curved. They include spinal extension and flexion (backward and forward bends), rotations, side bends and various combinations thereof. They move the limbs and orient the physical structure in space so as to activate the innate hatha technology of our pulsating bodies.

Ha is the sun, the solar channel, heating and contracting; tha is the moon, the lunar channel, cooling and relaxing. Life is pulsation, a breath cycle, a heartbeat. But these are not the only ways in which our miraculous bodies pulsate. For example, if while standing we lift our right leg upwards in front of us, the front of the leg contracts, ha, while the back lengthens and relaxes, tha. Just by the way we move and orient ourselves in space we can influence profoundly the way energy and information pulsates and flows in and through our systems.

Traditionally, within the Yoga Tradition, Siva himself, Yogisvara, the Lord or Master of yogi-s, Nataraja, the greatest dancer, is said to have bequeathed yogasana to human beings. Siva of course also means the kind, benevolent one. And Siva means consciousness, the container in which all the sakti - the power of consciousness to become manifest as nature for example - exists.

The yogasana, like all yoga techniques and teachings, are all based on the observation of nature. It is a fruit of the application of consciousness in focused inquiry. This, as far as I can see, is the real origin of yogasana.

It was not the British colonisers or the American branders who recognised the way we move our body can have profound impacts on our overall experience and awareness. This is something people have known since the beginning of time.

The 108 karana-s of Siva Nataraja, the plentiful evidence in ancient texts of dance and martial arts that harness the innate hatha capacities of the body are to my mind adequate evidence that India, just like China, has an ancient system of health that includes movement technologies. Indeed, the 108 karana-s of Nataraja are very akin to many postures in Chinese martial arts and dance.

Humans have been harnessing this in-built hatha technology for millennia. Call it dance, call it hatha yoga, call it tai chi, chi gung, subtle or internal martial arts, the aim is the same: to harmonise the bodily vehicle and optimise its capacities so that energy can flow in a cohesive, efficient way, so we can more easily stay in rhythm through the ups, downs and tempo changes of life, and we are more empowered to access the subtler dimensions of our conscious potential.

Asana and hamha yoga, ‘somatic yoga practice’ is nothing new. The absence of texts with pictures or descriptions of people performing asana-s, or the dearth on Youtube of footage of people’s morning practice from before the Common Era is not evidence people had no physical or bodybased practices.

After all, these practices are things one does, they are best learned by doing, they are known by the cells and channels of one’s body, not by their descriptions in a book.

Physical practices are part of our human heritage. We have a body, it can move in so many ways. It is a storehouse and circuit of energy. The way we move can affect our physical, mental, sensory capacities. The Ancients knew this. I feel pretty sure people have been harnessing and developing the technologies (tantra-s) of hatha yoga in posture and movement for millennia.

This is an excerpt. To read the full article visit http://www.jamesboagyoga.com/blogarticles/on-the-history-of-yoga-Asana

consciousness in focused inquiry... is the origin of yogasana