Developing intelligence in practice: Insight into standing Asana-s

------ Geeta S Iyengar

As students of yoga, you must practice on your own. In the beginning don't think about whether you are doing correctly or incorrectly, just keep on doing. You realise how the intelligence develops only when you keep on doing. Normally, you don't do this kind of practice.

Why?

Because we think we are very intelligent human beings. We think we are so intelligent that we should know whether the Trikonasana that we did was correct or not? But, we do not have body intelligence. Guruji calls it - body intelligence. The intelligence of the brain may be superb but we may not have the body intelligence.

The intelligence of the brain may

be superb but we may not have

the body intelligence.

If you develop body intelligence

then the brain too develops.

Often Guruji has told some of his students that they may be more intelligent than him because they are well-read, well-educated while he is not! But, even in these people there is no body intelligence. If you develop body intelligence then the brain too develops that intelligence. in fact, with the development of body intelligence- the brain too gets more clarity.

In your practices, first the tamo guna has to be conquered. When you conquer tamo guna your rajo guna will come to the surface. Then you become excited?, and you say, "Oh, now I can do actively!" Why are asana-s repeated three times or four times in the class? This is done so that your body gets activated and with that also the mind. You can't do any asana without the involvement of the mind.

Why are asana-s repeated

3 or 4 times in the class?

To activate your body & mind.

You can't do any asana without the

involvement of the mind.

In the beginning of the practice you do without the involvement of the mind because you don't know where to use the mind as it has not surfaced for you to use it. So you will now ask the question : " How do I use the mind?"

Do you teach a child in kindergarten or first standard on how to write or the intelligence on how to write? If you ask a child to draw a mango he will ask, "How to draw the mango"? The child does not say that I have no intelligence to draw the mango. Intelligence does not come first. The innocent mind just says, "Teach me". When a child wants to learn to draw or write - all it wants is to know the words and their spellings. The intelligence comes in much later.

In the practice of asana-s too, you have to just do in the beginning while the intelligence comes later. Then the body compares what am I doing here and what am I not there? The intelligence starts flowing. Even if you talk to somebody while practicing then your intelligence vanishes. Often I have said that you have to see what you are doing when you are practicing. If you talk to someone your mind gets distracted from the asana. Please understand this energy.

When you do on the right side and left side, you yourself start recognizing your surya nadi and chandra nadi. The words may appear heavy. You begin to understand the surya nadi and chandra nadi : ida and pingala when you bring evenness to the right side and left side. If you feel unevenness of you feel that you have done better on one side then the surya nadi and chandra nadi have awakened to inform you that you did the right side better than the left side.

Then, you have to know how you kept the hand on this side. How did you keep the hand on that side? How did I extend this side? How did I extend on that side?

That is why the Hatha Yoga Pradipika refers first to the nadi-s- the surya nadi and the chandra nadi and not the chakra-s are mentioned in the third chapter.

Svatmarama in Hatha Yoga Pradipika did not open the chapter with chakra-s. He opens the chapter with "What is Hatha Yoga? It is to bring the balance between surya and chandra - between these two energies." You have to bring the balance between these energies.

Some refer to these as the positive or negative energies. Some call it - the right side nervous system and the left side nervous system. One side is active while the other is inactive or less active. If the two hemispheres of the brain are uneven in sending messages then the work will not be done.

You begin to understand this during the practice of asana-s.

Patanjali too talks about this but uses a different language:

tatah dvandvah anabhighatah ( Y.S. II.48)

Patanjali does not refer to minor things. He directly deals with what needs to be done. "Why do you do asana-s?" He says tatah dvandvah anabhighatah (Y.S. II. 48 ). When you do asana-s no duality exists. Dualities do not bother you when you are in good asana. That is why you have to treat both the sides evenly. You have to deal with both sides with understanding.

The standing asana-s are the best way to understand the left and right side. These are very handy and accessible for you to discern the difference between the two sides.

The standing asana-s are

very handy and accessible for

you to discern the difference

between the two sides.

You cannot think of Parsva Bakasana on the right and left side when you cannot even identify the differences between the right and left side in sirsasana or parsva sirsasana because you are in a topsy-turvy position. You cannot physically see. You can easily see the difference between the two sides in standing asana. You can also feel them better and easily than Sirsasana.

What do we do after the standing asana?

In Ayurveda, when you take medicine - you have to take it with a supportive vehicle like water or honey. This is called as anupana; it balances the medicines. When you take antibiotics in modern medicine - you are asked to take vitamins along with the medicine. In a similar manner, when you do all these standing asana-s you need to pay attention to your sitting asana-s to remove fatigue . These are Virasana, Swastikasana, Padmasana ( if you can do ) , Baddha konasana and Upavistha Konasana. These are simple sitting postures that will remove the fatigue.

Pay attention to the simple

sitting asana-s to remove

fatigue of the standing postures.

Suppose there is breathlessness, then you have to do Adho Mukha Svanasana, Janu Sirsasana, Paschimottanasana to return the breath to normalcy. Add Uttanasana and Adho Mukha Svanasana if you have not already done it. If the breath has returned to normal then there is no problem. Then you can do Sirsasana, Sarvangasana, Halasana, Setu bandha and Viparita Karani.

Often, people just leave out these inversions, from their practice. These are very essential in order to keep these two nadi-s, surya nadi and chandra nadi balanced.

So the day you think of doing all the standing asana-s then end these with Sirsasana, Sarvangasana, Halasana, Setu Bandha and viparita Karani. If you are a beginner in the class, you are taught to do at least Setu Bandha, Halasana and to some extent Sarvangasana. So you can do Sarvangasana, Halasana or whatever variations of Sarvangasana that is possible and Setu Bandha Sarvangasana on the block or a bench.

You may not have learnt all these asana-s but you can practice according to what you have been taught. Note that learning asana is not a one year or a two year course. You think that you have practiced for one or two years and that now you have become a master. No, that is not possible. Remove that idea from your brain. There has to be continuity. I don't think that to continue is a big problem as such. It's only the laziness which makes you to discontinue.

Most of you people, though regular, are irregular in your regularity. You are irregular in your practice though very regular in class. Having done for 2 years, first year as beginners, second year as intermediate and perhaps third year in big general class and that is the end! you feel " I learnt" ! No, that is not correct! The deeper you penetrate you will ' benefit' to a great extent. Benefit is not a right word- it is a very gross word - to talk about the benefit of the asana-s. Your liver will improve, your lungs will improve, your spine will improve, all over you will improve. All these things are important for a beginner - we have to tell them about all these 'benefits' . But, for you as a practitioner, you should know the practice is above all these things. In fact, your circulation has to improve. That is why I said that standing poses are done from the bottom of the feet to the crown of the head. A to Z ! You 'deal' everywhere in the standing asana-s. You feel your breath, you feel your circulation, you allow the brain to have a better flow of this blood.

The day you take time to practice all the standing asana-s; and then go to Sarvangasana, then these asana-s are like anupana. If you practice you will know how the day changes for you. Your emotional level changes. Your intellectual level changes. Discipline sets in. You cannot invite discipline. Do you understand this? You cannot say show me how the discipline has to be. But practice and then you will know how you become disciplined. Your state of mind totally changes.

Yoga is not a three or a six month course.

It needs tapas.

You need to keep doing in order to

understand what it contains.

I have chosen to speak about the standing asana-s because you all of you are accustomed to these. This way I can talk about forward bends, backbends, or twists or whatever. You will know how and where it is connected because everything has to be known.

Yoga is not a three month or a six month course. Nobody is going to understand yoga by doing in that manner. That is why yoga is tapas. Why do you have to do tapas? You have to repeatedly go on doing it in order to understand what it contains. Even if you understand that much then at least you know the base and also know that it cannot be learnt in a month or even few months.

As students of yoga, you need to know all this. Sometimes when you hear Guruji speak about yoga sutra-s, you find that there he 'jumps' from one 'sutra' to the other. Guruji has thought of the sutra-s very well. The yoga sutra-s are divided into 4 chapters. The first few sutra-s from the first chapter are connected to the fourth chapter. If you categorise them separately then you find that they are connected in the second, third and fourth chapter. That means somewhere they are equivalent in that sense. You don't know what the connection is when referred suddenly from Samadhi Pada to Kaivalya Pada. Similarly, you won't understand about the asana unless you practice and develop intelligence in your practice.

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