Why do we always start the practice of Yoga Asana from the right side?

Sometimes, when we keep doing the same action again and again, the action becomes a habit and we forget the reason why we have been doing it in the first place!! And so, it came as a surprise when one of my students asked me this question leading to some introspection and ultimately this blog.

Why do we always start the asanas from the right?  From a cultural perspective, it is not just Yoga practice but most of the action in India is started from the right as it is considered auspicious.  We enter the temple or any auspicious place by placing the right leg first.  We start any workshop with the right hand. Even when we want to hand over something to someone we do it with the right hand.

Anything done with the left hand is considered inauspicious in India and I clearly remember being scolded by elders when I inadvertently used my left hand for anything important.

According to Tantra and Yogic system, there are three fundamental subtle energy channels or Nadis within us; Ida, Pingala and Sushumna. In my earlier blog: "Reciprocal Inhibition …Secret to improve our flexibility", I have mentioned about polarity in nature at the physical level. Ida and Pingala represent such polarity within us at subtle energetic level. Ida is cooling, Pingala is heating. Ida flows through the left nostrils and Pingala flows through the right nostril. Ida is known to activate Para-sympathetic nervous system thus creating calming effect, whereas Pingala is known to activate sympathetic nervous system thus driving activity. Ida is feminine in nature, whereas Pingala is more masculine. We are all made of both feminine and masculine qualities. These are not just gender differences but differences in attitude. Masculine is more outgoing, whereas feminine is more inward and receptive. We all know that anything that is gentle or kind is considered as female quality and anything that involves force is considered as a male quality. This duality is symbolically represented in the form of Ardhanareeswara of Shiva and Shakti, where left side is Shakti and right side is Shiva.

Wondering what has all this to do with doing on the right side first?!! As the right side represents the outgoing, masculine, or activity side, it makes more sense to start all our actions with the right side and then later end it with feminine or calmer side which is the left side. As the primary purpose of Yoga is to calm our mind at the end of the practice, it makes more sense to end all our practices with the left side.

Apart  from this subtle idea from energy point of view, even at the at the physical level, the way the ascending and descending colon of our large intestine is arranged in the human body, twisting on the right enables easy elimination of waste.  Perhaps the colon too is engineered in line with our energetic system! 

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Yoga tips: Should we pull up knee cap or not?

In many Yoga classes I was asked to pull-up my knee cap (also called locking the knees), during most of the asanas particularly in standing asanas. Pulling up of knee caps involves strengthening inner quadriceps muscles so that knee caps move towards hips. This is considered to be very good to protect knees. If it is supposed to be very good when why are we questioning whether we should do it or not? I have explained how our whole body is connected in my earlier blog Misunderstanding the pain. Keep this concept in mind as we proceed further. 

Well, it may be true that it is good to pull up knee caps but whenever I tried to do it my entire awareness was in and around my knees. My whole focus was on keeping that pulled-up position intact. When Yoga is all about developing complete body awareness then how can we localize most of the awareness to one area? Is this the right area to focus on? Instead I tried to focus on stretching the toes of my feet and pushing heel down. What this does is it creates more feeling of connectedness with the ground. Due to which it aligns all the bones and in the process will automatically pull up knee caps just to the extent it is healthy for knees without hyper-extending it. By pushing the heals down we will start working from our core and this will spread the awareness without localizing at one point. Try this but you may need to sensitize your feet and toes for that. For most of us because of constant usage of shoes it becomes really difficult to control the movement of our toes. Try activating them by touching, rubbing, etc.

So stretch your toes, spread your feet in order to ground yourself more in to your heels. This process will pull up the knee caps without you putting any extra effort. But is it always required to pull the knee caps up? What if we don’t do? Well remember that there is no one rule in Yoga. I would like to recollect some parts of famous philosopher, J Krishnamurthi’s statement in this context “I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.  Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.” Yoga is all about going in search of truth/nature/reality. So don’t get biased by any conditions/rules/guidelines/instructions in Yoga practice. Feel free to explore and enjoy the journey. 

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Previous related blog

Misunderstanding the pain

It's all about journey and not the destination

Yoga teacher pushes...Good or bad? 

It's all about journey and not the destination

Journey and Destination

When I was a kid, my family and relatives used to ask for their time pass “What do you want to become when you grow old?”, teachers used to ask “what do you dream to become in your life” and my manager asks “what are you short term and long term goals”. Somehow I was always not too sure what to answer.  At times I was guilty for not knowing the proper goal of my life. It is said that everyone is born for a reason, but how do I know, why I am born? If I was assigned the goal for my life when I was born, I would have saved many sleepless nights thinking about it.

Point is we are always told that we need to fix on a goal/target and go towards it. In fact, my Yoga journey started with the same intention and I was behind achieving the right posture. What is right is what teacher told me or that which looked good. I was too much dependent on my teacher to tell what is right and what is wrong. I was pushing myself to get the right asana. I spent many sleepless nights due to extreme pain, dreaming that the process will end soon. Thinking, when will I become extremely flexible and permanently pain free? This never happened.

During my mountaineering
days

What changed my approach was my experience in mountaineering. During mountaineering we were putting ourselves to such extreme situations that looked insane at times. Still why did we do it? Initially, I thought we were doing all this to feel good when we reach summit. We felt good, but there were times when we did not reach the destination. During those times, can we say we wasted precious time in our life attempting to climb? No, we became better at climbing. So, why not focus on climbing which is the activity in the present moment as our focus? This is something that can always get better. Enjoying the journey was the only way I could enjoy mountaineering as it was disturbing to think what might happen. I applied these lessons in to my Yoga practice.

I stepped back from pushing myself to observing what I am doing. I started observing every small things that leads to so called perfect asana. I stopped at every step in between to see how much better I can do. Instead of achieving perfect looking asana, my focus changed to make every action perfect. Without worrying about what I did earlier, or how much I need to do today, I was just observing whatever I was doing. I became experimental in my approach - Not standing straight where I am supposed to stand, breathing fast and slow, just to see what happens to my actions etc. My feelings became my guide, telling how far I can go and how I am doing. It was such a pleasurable experience and I was more connected with my practice. Is connecting mind with our actions and being in present, not Yoga about?

I finally understood that Yoga practice is not about reaching any destination in the form of a perfect asana but rather it is about enjoying the journey of getting there. This approach has made a lot of difference in my practice and even to flexibility level, which I am not interested anymore. 

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