Hatha Yoga
INCLINED PLANE with an added leg and arm variation.
Use as a counter pose after forward bend.
Sit with legs outstretched in front, feet together, yet relaxed. Place hands behind you about a foot away on the mat with straight arms. Push your chest forward and drop your head back. Inhale, lifting up hips as high as you can while pushing your feet into the floor. Hold your breath in the pose and then lower the hips back to the mat with an exhalation. Repeat the pose twice more if desired. With practice, hold the pose longer, breathing rhythmically, up to 30 seconds. Relax in corpse pose.
Tip: Keep feet parallel on the mat in the pose and legs straight. Hold hips high and head back while relaxing the neck. Keep the chest high. Keep the fingers pointing back away from the body.
BENEFITS:
- Strengthen arms, legs, and back.
- Opens the chest, rib cage and abdomen area.
- Maintain core strength.
Try these variations to incorporate use of the abdominal muscles and further strengthen arms:
VARIATION 1: In the pose with hips held high, raise one leg up straight, once to three times, replacing the foot and repeating with the other leg. Lower the hips back to the mat.
VARIATION 2: In the pose with hips held high and without turning the hips or turning them as little as possible, shift weight to one arm, inhale and lift the other arm straight up. Turn the face upward, to keep the head aligned with the spine. Keep the chest elevated. Exhale and lower the arm with hand back on mat to original pose. Lower hips and relax in corpse pose.
To cool the system, take a cup of pure cow’s milk in the early morning and at night, before going to bed. Regulate your food. Take bath twice a day. – Sri Swami Sivananda
This yoga asana is an edited contribution for the Sivananda Gurugram sourced from the Sivananda Publication – “Yoga: Your Home Practice Companion” – Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre – 2010. Other yoga tips at http://www.sivananda.org/teachings/asana/101tips.html
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| March 2015
01 Ekadasi April 2015 04 Full Moon |
Glossary
AKASHVANI: vani – sound; Kash – celestial. An announcement from the celestial realm; sounds or message coming from the sky.
NIRGUNA:
In a chapter of Brahma-Sutras which deals with the nature of qualities of Brahman, it mentions positive attributes like ‘joyful,’ ‘intelligent,’ etc., as well as negative attributes like ‘measureless,’ ‘colourless,’ etc. Both kinds of attributes are referred to the absolute and yet the contemplation of such a Brahman can be called Nirguna-Upasana or meditation on condition-less Brahman. The chief distinction between the contemplation of the conditioned (Saguna) and unconditioned (Nirguna) Brahman is that in the former the devotee looks upon it as really connected with those attributes, while in the latter, positive and negative qualities are not viewed as essentially connected with it, but as suggesting its absolute nature. Hence, joyful etc., do not enter into the essence of the contemplated Brahman but act as a gateway for grasping its true nature. In the contemplation of the conditioned Brahman, those and similar other properties form a part of the contemplation.
The term Nirguna does not mean that Brahman is a negative concept, the Brahman is a non-entity or zero. It means that the qualities found here in limitation, are found illimitable in Brahman. It means that the attributes are Brahman’s essential nature or His Svarupa. It means that Brahman does not possess perishable qualities of matter like the blue colour of a cloth but possesses all auspicious qualities (Sarva-Kalyana-Gunas). Brahman is Nirguna-Guni.
The appearance of the world vanishes in the Reality of God. – Sri Swami Sivananda
Complete glossary can be found at: