Tuesday 6.30p Intro: Week 4 (Mar 24, 2009)

Focus: Review and refine prior three weeks and add Chair Sarvangasana. Multiple quick repetitions to disarm the resistance and achieve greater range of motion. Add navel back and lift up, with pubic plate lifting, in all poses.

1. Rope 1 and Tadasana arm poses to facilitate Vrksasana, Virabhadrasana I, and Sarvangasana arm actions
2. Virabhadrasana II, Trikonasana, and Parsvakonasana to open right hip in Vrksasana
3. Parsvottanasana left calf stretch to prepare for Virabhadrasana I left leg.
4. Prayatna saithilya: Effortless effort means not grinding the jaw or holding the breath when you do the pose.
5. ananta samapattibhyam: Make space in the joints and open the chest so that the mind goes to the vastness within.

Note new poses for this week are in bold face.

Discussion: Patanjali Yoga Sutra II.47, the effects of asana.
See Tuesday 4.30p MS: Week 3 (Mar 17, 2009), Tuesday 6.30p Intro: Week 3 (Mar 17, 2009), and Thursday 6.30p Intro: Week 3 (Mar 19, 2009) for first three parts of the discussion.


PYS II.47 Perfection in asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached.

Prayatna saithilya ananta samapattibhyam
effort - relaxation - infinite - assuming original form

Perfection in asana is achieved when the effort ceases, instilling infinite poise, and allowing the finite vehicle, the body, to merge in the seer.

Ananta samapatti
The term ananta samapatti embodies three important aspects:

1. return to the original unalloyed pure state
2. merging with endlessness
3. stabilizing the mind

Return to original unalloyed pure state
The last word, samapatti, indicates the balanced state of consciousness that comes in samadhi, wherein the seer radiates in his own pure state. “Pure state” refers back to svarupa avastha, the seer dwelling in his own state, of PYS I.3, wherein the buddhi is capable of directly perceiving the soul without the coloration and prejudices of the mind. Once the yogin rests in his own true splendor, or svarupa avastha, spiritual ignorance ceases to exist, and the causes of suffering are completely eradicated.

Merging with endlessness
What does the buddhi perceive in samapatti? It perceives ananta. Ananta means ana (never) - anta (end) or “endlessness.” I prefer “endlessness” to “infinite” because it stresses the lack of boundary more than just an immeasurable amount. BKS Iyengar described it as “immersed in the boundless state of oneness which is indivisible and universal.”

While teaching in class BKS Iyengar sometimes refers to ananta as “the vastness within.” The yogin concerns himself with mastery of internal space, akasa. Yoga views the vast cosmic images of the universe as projections arising from the experiences of the internal universe. Ananta samapatti occurs when “projection into cosmic form and assimilation into interior awareness become indistinct.”

In BKS Iyengar’s recapitulation of this sutra, he artfully juxtaposes infinite mind with finite body. The term “poise”, short for “equipoise”, suggests samatvam, or the eveness of mind that comes with the mastery of yoga (Bhagavad Gita II.48).

The mythological Ananta is the serpent of omniscient knowledge, and the lord of endless forms. According to the commentators, his vastness is such that he holds not only the earth but each astronomical orbit of the entire universe on one of his thousand heads.

Ananta has a special significance in regard to Patanjali. The hood of the snake god Adisesa (an incarnation of Ananta) protects Patanjali in his surrender to God with his hands in namaskar. As the hood turns inward, so does the ahamkara, the ego, to concentrate only on the sight of the Soul (atma darsana).

Stabilizing the mind
Patanjali’s emphasis on firmness of body in PYS II.46 is reiterated here: The multi-headed Ananta is given the task of upholding the world. Ananta is tamasic because he gives mass to energy, stabilizing form. The bhakta, or devotee, becomes absorbed in the form of Ananta, to stabilize the mind and steady his intelligence. Ananta’s thousand heads represent the multitude of thoughts directed into a single pointed meditation. When the mind ceases to “fluctuate” (the definition of yoga in PYS I.2), it returns to its pure, unalloyed state.


Invocation in Swastikasana

1. Rope 1
a. Roll upper arms out to open shoulders. Added to prepare for Sarvangasana.
b. Belted Shoulder Jacket to help open shoulder. (NP)

2. Tadasana/Samasthiti

3. Tadasana (Paschima Baddha Hasta arms)
a. Holding elbows, roll open from the sternum to the frontal shoulders.
b. Press back ribs into arm to keep navel back.
c. Added to prepare for Chair Sarvangasana.
d. Belted upper arms to help open shoulder. (NP)

4. Tadasana (Urdhva Baddhanguliyasana)

5. Tadasana (Urdhva Namaskarasana )
a. Push wrists into Upper Wall Rope to open armpits and stretch side ribs.
b. Added to prepare for Virabhadrasana I.

6. Vrksasana
a. Take the right knee to the wall to drop the right hip and to open the right inner groin.

7. Virabhadrasana II
a. Swap first prior to Trikonasana to get freedom in hips without the challenge of stiff hamstrings.
b. Left heel at the Rope Wall, holding the lower wall rope, make the left side the stable side, so that the right side becomes more mobile. Extend the inner left leg towards the Rope Wall while bending the right knee.
c. Turn the right leg out more to bring the right femur more into the socket. Connecting the femur into the socket supports the pelvis, trunk, and spine. It also stops hip cramping.

8. Vrksasana
a. Open the right inner groin towards the right knee.

9. Utthita Trikonasana
a. Left heel at the Rope Wall.
b. Open the chest to penetrate the vastness of the soul

10. Utthita Parsvakonasana
a. Left heel at the Rope Wall, holding the lower wall rope as in Virabhadrasana II.
b. Repeat the actions as above, the sit the buttock down to take the right hand to the floor.

11. Calf Stretcher Tadasana (on inverted chair seat)
a. Add to facilitate turning open the calves more in Virabhadrasana I and Parsvottanasana.
b. Omitted for time. Do next week.

12. Parsvottanasana (hands on chair seat, head on brick on chair seat)
a. Inserted prior to Virabhadrasana I to provide rest and stretch left calf.

13. Virabhadrasana I
a. With Urdhva Hastasana arms, press wrists into Upper Wall Rope to lift the pubic plate and sternum.

14. Utkatasana from Urdhva Hastasana

15. Ardha Uttanasana
a. Substituted for Baddha Hasta Uttanasana because of lack of flexibility.
b. Press side wrist into ledge to open chest and elongate the spine in line with the arms.

16. Chair Sarvangasana
a. Next week add Wall Ardha Halasana and Wall Ekapada Sarvangasana. New students repeat Chair Sarvangasana.

17. Savasana
a. Trifold blanket beneath head. Feet and calves on chair seat.
b. Release the muscles and allow the mind to penetrate inwards towards the vastness of the soul.