21st June 2021 was International Day of Yoga. In the week leading up to the 21st, students in all my yoga classes performed 9 rounds of Surya Namaskar to celebrate International Day of Yoga. On the morning of the 21st, Ironman EV and I performed the Yoga Mala to celebrate International Day of Yoga. This was my #bigkidmoment for this year. Both EV and I have not done the Yoga Mala before. We completed 108 Surya Namaskar.
A Yoga Mala is an ancient yogic tradition, where one performs 108 sun salutations. The Yoga Mala is usually performed at a change of seasons, or on auspicious days. A Yoga Mala is an auspicious way to reflect and think about where we are in our lives, and where we want to go. It then acts as an affirmation of our circumstance and goal.
The Sun Salutation, or the Surya Namaskar in Sanskrit is a sequence of asanas performed in a flow. The classical Hatha sun salutation is a sequence of 12 poses, beginning and ending in Tadasana. 9 rounds of Surya Namaskar, which my classes have performed this week, will amount to 108 asanas. It is for them completing their own spiritual cycle.
For the yoga practitioners , the number 108 represents spiritual completion. 1 represents God or a higher truth, 0 represents emptiness or completeness, and 8 represents infinity or eternity. Also in yoga, there are 108 nadis or channels of energy, that branches out from our heart chakra to the other 6 chakras. Love and healing are required to balance all 7 chakras and the heart acts as this pivot.Everything begins and end in the heart chakra.
It may seem daunting to perform 108 Surya Namaskars. Like doing anything for the first time. An example is running your first marathon and both Ironman EV and I have completed dozens. So while being apprehensive, we were comfortable and looking forward to it.
We broke down the 108 to 12 sets of 9 Surya Namaskars with a short breathing recovery period, in Tadasana before beginning the next set of 9.
Here we are on our first round. With 107 to go.
As we got into the groove, we moved into a meditative rhythm. One asana blending into the next one effortlessly. At the halfway point, we were feeling strong and calm. This is us getting into the halfway point,
Yoga sutra 2:47 says prayatna-śaithilya-ananta-samāpattibhyām. They (asanas) are mastered when all effort is relaxed and the mind is absorbed in the Infinite. This can be taken to mean, when we are calm in an asana, we have begun to master it. As we flowed from one asana into the next, from one complete round into the next, I found calmness in the meditative rhythm. This is the calmness, I teach to my students and remind them at the beginning of each class as they sit in balasana or child pose. From this calmness, comes strength. Strength of mind and strength of body. From this calmness, comes clarity. Clarity of thought, purpose and path.
At the end it was bliss.
We completed the cycle in a calm, meditative manner, in 55 minutes. Both with our own reflections. We sent out positive energy into the airwaves in the hopes that the world will heal and recover from this pandemic. Just as 108 represents spiritual completion, we wish that, by completing this 108 Surya Namaskar, the path of the pandemic will end.
Click here to the full unedited video of our Yoga Mala. This video is 56 minutes.
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