Friday, May 8, 2009

Saluting the sun


I woke up with bright sunshine hitting my face, The first thing I do, is Surya namaskars. 20 minutes later, I lie down in shavasan, relishing the execise with every pore of my being. I recall how I grew to love these set of asanas, so much so, that I teach it to youth at the Art of living YES!+ workshop.
My first experience of Surya namaskars was when I did the Art of Living course as an 18 year old. Back then yoga sounded like an utterly outlandish concept, where people twisted themselves into weird positions, and then don’t know that to do.

But doing Surya namaskar was fun, as it was more like an exotic choreography. And surprisingly after 15 rounds in 10 minutes I felt amazingly exercised and energised. Its a set of these 12 yogasanas, that give complete exercise to you mind, body and spirit. Not only is it a great way to be in shape, but it gives complete rest to your body. Doing Surya namaskars's fast rounds makes you shed extra flab, and doing it slowly is very meditative and increases your stamina.The best part about it is that you do these asanas in co-ordination with your breadth, which very rejuvenating. It is best done facing the east in the morning and west in the evening, preferably with a light stomach and before the practice of pranayam and meditation.

There is a story that says that before the battle of Mahabharatha, the Pandava army along with Krishna used to practice 108 Surya namaskars before going for battle for courage and stamina.It is also said that Krishna is the 'Padmanabha', means, whose navel is the size of a lotus, in the navel resides the 'Solar plexus', which is a size of a pea in a human body, with regular practice of Surya namaskar, the pea can grow into the size of a lotus. The Solar plexus strengthens the intuition or 'the gut feeling' in a human being.

20 minutes of Yoga, about 30 rounds, at 6:30 am (not being a morning person at all, its the earliest I can manage, earlier than this and I'm sleep walking) when nature is in complete harmony, its a brilliant time to do Surya namaskars. For me its more like getting in tune with the nature, which carries forward for the rest of the day, keeping me calm and centred.
No doubts about it, its my mantra to keep super fit and super cool.

8 Annotations:

Ashish said...

Hey, its really pain to do it in initial phase of YES!+.... I remember we used to tell dinesh bhaiya to stop it and he used to say, smile and more round of surya namaskaras :) ...

Now when I see people doing surya namaskara 1st time in YES!+ courses I feel funny... For Some people Vajrasan is other painful thing and then showing them how to sit in Vajrasan and say "See its very simple...:P"

Really its a nice thing to do in the morning... I don't do though, but surya namaskar + Padma is WOOW...

Ree said...

goodness...u remember doing padma sadhana at 3 am and then drinking raagi and heading into another mad day of shooting that documentary?!?! heady to say the least

Unknown said...

Boy!!!
I gave up surya namaskar ages ago!!!
Reading this has sent me on a guilt trip!!!
I will resume it during vacations!!
(If I can!)
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OK OK! I will!!Pakka!!!

Goli said...

I love the image... it is nice. I do surya namaskar, I think it is really nice and I fell that it keeps the body very flexible.

Srikant kancherla said...

Surya Namaskars are the best way to keep fit physically, mentally and more so, spiritually. It's wonderful that it is being practised since times immemorial in our culture.

All the very best !!!

Mayank said...

Ok now I have seen 3 versions of Surya Namaskara. The one at office is closest to the pic - symmetry all round except for ashtangaasan is done only once (with a complete breath - in n out). Any how it is one of the better forms of warm up I have seen so far. In Kalari when we do it we don't have to do the other warm ups as we sweat within 10 cycles.

In YES+ I loved the fact it made me sweat more than I did in the 10K run - laughing during the pushups after dandaasan at the silly PJs! :) One thing I will owe to AoL is the ability to smile when sitting in Vajrasan for 20-30 minutes! :) Need to improve on that further. Work in progress! ;)

Mayank said...

How come nothing about the chakras and solar plexus was spoken in the YES+? Is it in some advanced course. I am curious as ever! :D

aks said...

im one of the many people who unfortunately suffered from cervical spondiliosis(sheesh da spelin bafles me everytime)
but when bawa made us do 40 rounds of suryanamaskar that too when i cud barely raise my head up...i swear by the spinal cord...after the 40 rounds i cud runn n skip n jump...it was awefuly painful to begin ..but was so much fun..thanks to SUN GOD n people who teach and propogate the benefits of it....ITS A BOON....