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The Purpose of Yoga Postures
Usually, hatha yoga (the science of yoga asanas, or postures) is taught
only from a standpoint of its benefits to the body. And from this standpoint
it might well be said that the yoga postures, as a system for achieving
longevity and radiant health, stand supreme. We have personally seen
old men, practitioners of this science, who might have passed for young
men in their thirties. At Allahabad we met an ancient yogi, named Deohara
Baba, who was reputed to be 140 years old. His hair was black, his body
muscular. He could easily have been taken for a man of about 50.
Old age and sickness settle first in the joints and in the spinal discs.
Anatomical studies reveal that these spinal discs often begin to show
signs of degeneration as early as man's third decade, which is to say,
in his twenties. The yoga postures loosen the joints; they stretch and
irrigate the vertebrae, keeping them youthful even late into old age.
They promote the free flow of energy throughout the nervous system and
assist in the elimination of toxins and poisons from the joints and other
body parts where these foreign elements tend otherwise to settle, sometimes
permanently. The postures exert a beneficial pressure on various glands
and internal organs, flushing and stimulating them. Even a little bit
of this practice can produce astonishing improvements in one's general
health.
It is small wonder, then, that
hatha yoga should be growing in popularity in the West as rapidly as
it is. A few years
ago an article in California's
Palo Alto Times (now the Peninsula Times Tribune) listed the grievances
of high school students in a neighboring community. Among the "rights" demanded
by those youngsters was instruction in the yoga postures.
Yes, whether for good or ill, the asanas are well on their way to becoming
a fad. But the aim of these postures, so far, has generally been recognized
to be only the promotion of physical health. Much more is involved.
For by the yoga postures one can improve his mental outlook. He can
achieve a richer, more harmonious emotional life. The postures are a
definite aid to spiritual development. Particularly, from a standpoint
of the approach of this book, they help one to develop a more vital awareness.
The hatha yogi (a yogi is one who practices the yoga science) learns
to include his body in the general circle of his awareness, to live in
his body instead of merely existing in it. By increasing his physical
awareness he can free his mind from the imperatives to commonly imposed
upon man by his body: weakness, fatigue, physical sluggishness and resistance,
discomfort, pain. He is thus able to make the body the servant of his
will. Health, as it is usually conceived, is negative: a mere absence
of disease. But the yoga postures help to create a joyous sense of vitality
and well-being. They make the body an ally, not a neutral neighbor or
even a foe, of the soul in its search for expanding awareness.
Physical Postures and Mental Awareness
Certain bodily postures are naturally associated with certain mental
attitudes. When the mind is discouraged, the body tends to stoop forward.
Courage tends to make the body erect. Under the influence of aggressive
feelings, the shoulders often become hunched upward, the fists become
clenched. When feeling stubborn a person may jut his jaw forward. When
he is inspired, his eyes will look upward; when depressed, they will
look downward. Poise, or lack of it, is reflected in the way one sits,
in the way he stands, in the movement of his hands.
Even the pattern of breathing is affected by one's mental attitudes.
Fear and anxiety tighten the stomach muscles. A person with a narrow,
self-restrictive outlook inclines to draw in the sides of his rib cage.
One who suppresses his natural feelings tends to hold in the upper part
of his chest. Can a person with all of these psychological problems find
any room for breathing at all? Hardly! The amount of oxygen he permits
his system amounts to starvation wages, truly.
But just as one's mental attitudes
affect his body, so also his bodily postures affect his mind. Slumped
shoulders
and a bent spine can actually,
to some extent, induce moodiness. Tensed stomach muscles can—again,
to some extent—induce mental anxiety. This simple fact, obvious
enough to anyone, is turned by yogis into a major key to the problem
of self-development.
For, as physical tensions can induce, as well as reinforce, mental tensions,
so physical relaxation can bring serenity to a worried mind. Ripples,
after striking the shore of a pond, return toward their source. An effect,
in its turn, is often found to affect its initial cause. If this first
effect can be altered, the cause may be substantially altered also.
It is difficult to change one's mental outlooks. It is difficult even
to view them objectively. The thoughts with which one would disperse
his delusions are already poisoned by the very delusions he is trying
to disperse!
To change oneself physically, however, in such a way as to influence
the mind to adopt a similarly reformed outlook is a relatively simple
undertaking. Harmonize the body, and it will be easier to harmonize the
mind. This principle is fundamental to the science of hatha yoga. And
it applies, in varying degrees of subtlety, to all levels of yoga teaching.
The breathing, for example, is affected by one's state of mind. Change
the breathing, and one's mental state may be changed, too.
"But," you may ask, "how,
specifically, can a bodily posture or a breathing exercise affect one's
mental outlook?"
The connection between the body and the mind is the energy (prana) in
the body. It is energy that transmits signals from the senses to the
brain. It is energy that carries impulses from the brain to the body.
When the flow of this energy is obstructed or set out of balance, there
is a corresponding inharmony in both body and mind. The yoga postures
are designed to promote and to harmonize the flow of energy in the body.
The perceptive hatha yogi, understanding this truth, will endeavor to
become conscious of his energy, and will use the postures and breathing
exercises as a means primarily to developing this awareness. For awareness
is the first and most important stage towards gaining control.
One of the most fascinating
discoveries that the practicing yogi makes concerning his own psycho-physical
natures is
that the positive and negative
currents, which we discussed earlier, have their literal counterpart
in a directional flow of the energy in his body. When he thinks positively,
there is an upward flow, literally, of this energy. When he thinks negatively,
there is a downward flow. It is no accident that common parlance speaks
of feeling "uplifted," "on top of the world," of
feelings though one's soul were "flying," when one feels happy.
Nor is it accidental that one speaks of feeling "downcast," "under
the weather," "dragged down," "depressed," when
he feels sad.
 Yogis say that, in an uplifted state of awareness, the energy is literally
concentrated in the upper part of the body. At such times, the very eyes
tend to look upward, the corners of the mouth to turn up; everything
about the body suggest an upliftment of this inner energy. But in a depressed
state of mind, the energy becomes concentrated in the lower part of one's
body: The eyes become downcast; the corners of the mouth turn downward;
there is a sagging in the face, in the shoulders, in the arms; one's
whole body suggests a sense of heaviness, of being earthbound.
It does not seem likely that heaven and hell are above us or below us
in an objective sense, as tradition claims. But it is not difficult to
demonstrate to oneself that heaven is up, and hell down, from a standpoint
of one's own inner awareness.
An all-important purpose of
the yoga postures, and indeed of all yoga practices, is to assist the
direction of this
inner energy toward the
upper part of the body, especially toward the brain. Just as a calm,
relaxed pose can help to induce a calm state of mind, even so, the simple
process of changing the inner level of one's energy can have a tremendous
effect on the quality of his awareness. By directing his energy upward,
it becomes relatively easy for him to develop a positive mental outlook—to
become kind, willing, energetic, and joyous.
For our virtues and vices are not really we, ourselves. They are reflections,
only, of the plane of consciousness on which we live. As that plane changes,
the traits of our personality change also.
Lest it be imagined that virtue can be developed by mechanics alone,
it must be stressed that without an endeavor also to change the quality
of one's thoughts, no deep-seated good can be achieved. Our thoughts
are the prime cause of whatever harmony or inharmony we experience, not
in the mind only, but in the body as well. To concentrate on soothing
the effects while continuing to aggravate the initial cause would be
like trying to placate a cat with milk while continuing to stand on its
tail.
But if there is a sincere desire to improve one's state of mental awareness,
then the yoga postures, the breathing exercises, and above all, the deliberate
effort to harmonize and uplift one's inner energy, can be a tremendous
aid to this worthwhile endeavor.
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