Conquering the pose

Asanajaya comes from two Sanskrit words (i.e., asana, jaya) which means victory over a pose.

The yoga sashtras say that in order for us to conquer to mind, we have to first conquer to body.  We do that by practicing asanas.  It has been said that once we are able to practice daily for three hours with stillness and steadiness, then we have achieved asanajaya.

One of my students asked, "How can I improve my practice?  I've been practicing for some time now and still I am not able to do certain poses."

"Why do you practice yoga?" I asked.

People practice yoga mainly for two reasons: health and fitness, and spirituality.  People first come to yoga for health, stress relief, or general fitness.  Spirituality comes to those who seek deeper.  If we practice yoga for health and fitness reasons, and we want to improve our asana practice, then we have to remember the FIT principle.  Frequency of practice (i.e., how often do you practice?), intensity of practice (i.e., how intense do you practice?), and time spent on the mat (i.e., how much time do you spend for your practice?).  There's another T in that principle which stands for "type" or "mode" of exercise, or in our case, asana.  Are we doing prep poses that will eventually help us get to the final pose?

To those who practice asanas for spiritual purposes, the goal is not to always improve in the postures but to be in the poses, however it may look like.  There will be days when the body is tight and we might not be able to bind in marichyasana D.  So be it.  The question is, where is the mind?

To conquer the pose may sound that we're supposed to perform the asanas perfectly.  This perfection, however, is not in how the asanas should look, but in its steadiness, ease, and stability.  When the asana is steady, comfortable, and stable, then it has been conquered and the mind becomes still.  Then, victory is ours!  Jai!

Namaste.