Week Five ~ Yoga Stories, Savasana (Corpse Pose)
Hello everyone,
What incredible weather! It is such magic to stroll through these long warm evenings, walking by the silky purple ocean while dozens of swimmers sunbathe and push each other into the water at 10pm ~ Ireland is a very special place right now.
This Sunday is our final practice at Thrive for a while! I can't believe it. This week is not just the end of a term, but also a conscious pause of my yoga classes for the summer ~ a moment for me to stop, go away, find treasure, and bring it back. In the beginning of July I am planning a few morning pop up beach yoga classes (not too early in the morning!), but aside from that we will not be practicing at Thrive again until late August!
Thank you all so much for being there with me the last few weeks/months/year?! Please continue your yoga practice for the next few weeks :) My good friend Gilly Bow will be teaching in Greystones all summer, as will many others locally, and there are also fantastic online teachers that you can move with anytime you wish on youtube or via subscription. Even without a teacher...I wonder how it would feel to roll out your yoga mat one quiet morning and just...see what shapes your body finds? You will find that you know more than you think. Let your breath lead the way.
To finish up our lovely yoga philosophy theme this term of 'Stories Behind the Poses', I could tell no other tale than that of Savasana. This is the final resting posture in most any yoga practice; the Sanskrit literally translates to mean 'corpse pose'. Savasana is not just a time to restore the energy of the body after a sweaty flow, it is often said to be the most profound yoga shape to master ~ the art of doing nothing. Buddhist monks and yogis were (and are) known to sit and meditate in crypts and graveyards to help them feel and remember that impermanence is life. Savasana is the art of allowing. The art of dying while still living, as a surrender to union. Yoga.
Ekhart Tolle once wrote that the secret to life was to die before you die, and realise there is no death. This is the deepest philosophy in yoga teachings, and it's not surprising that sometimes Savasana can really be the most difficult shape in yoga to practice. All. Those. Thoughts. Feelings. Restlessness. Pain. What's next? When are we done? Learning to become comfortable within that discomfort is the practice of yoga. And you also get a lovely nap...so.
When researching the mythology behind Savasana I found multiple stories behind this precious shape. I've decided to share two of my favourites here, in short renditions. They are two very different stories; one demonstrates the calming power of choosing to witness within chaos, and the other tells the wisdom of accepting that life is chaos; that shakti, life energy, is inherently wild and free.
~ Goddess Kali's Rampage ~
On one hot and terrible day, the Gods were fighting and losing a battle with an Asura demon named Raktabija - Blood Seed. Rajtabija was impossible to vanquish because every drop of blood he spilled immediately transformed into another demon who spawned to join the fight. The dark and powerful Goddess Kali, who is life and death itself, was told to drink every drop of Rajtabija's blood before it touched the earth. For only she could handle such evil, such power, and not despair. She danced around Ratjabija as he fought the Gods, her long and wicked tongue stretching out to touch him as he moved, slyly catching every drop of his blood in her mouth before it hit the earth. This won the battle and Ratjabija was destroyed.
Kali, however, was now drunk on the blood of the demon; this became a whole new problem. She was overcome with bloodlust. The most powerful and destructive force in the world was set loose on the world. Kali destroyed all in her path.
Seeing Kali's rampage, Lord Siva laid down on the battlefield and decided to practice his savasana - corpse pose - surrendering himself utterly to the state of complete awareness and relaxation, despite the chaos unfolding around him. As Kali killed and drank and ravaged, her blood soaked feet eventually stepped on the resting Siva. The moment she touched his peaceful body, she was shocked out of her bloodlust and was brought back to awareness and truth. By the gentle power of Shiva's forgiving surrender, Kali returned to balance.
~ Siva's Arrogance ~
At another time, long ago, a different demon had taken control of the heavens. His name was Taraka, and he could only be defeated by a child of Lord Siva. But Lord Siva was vowed to celibacy, and would never bear children. And so the demon terrorised the Gods for many years. Desperate for a solution, they decided to send the God of desire, Kama, to Siva's mountain hut, to cast a spell on him so that Siva would fall love with the Earth Goddess Parvati and have a warrior child with her. Because every incarnation of Shakti, Goddess Energy, is in love with lord Siva, Parvati was very happy with this arrangement. And so, a cupid's arrow was shot from Kama's bow to thrust love and erotic desire upon the celebate lord Siva meditating in his hut.
Siva's eyes fluttered open from his meditation when the arrow hit him, and he saw the figure of Parvati in the mountain pass before him ~ she was the most beautiful woman in all the world. Siva was full of awareness, however, and he knew that the intoxication he felt was the work of the erotic God Kama. A great anger swept up within Siva and his third eye opened to blast Kama with a yogic fire, incinerating him completely. But the spell had already been cast, and Siva was in love with Parvati.
They came together in an embrace, utterly transfixed by their love for one another. Parvati, however, was concerned that the God of desire was now dead. She was wise and she knew that all beings on earth needed desire like flowers need sunlight. Without it, they would be isolated and die.
Lord Siva agreed to resurrect the God of desire in spirit, so as to bring balance back to the world. But he said he did not need Kama personally, for he had risen above the urges of desire. This statement made Parvati incredibly angry ~ for she wanted to be desired. The soft and beautiful Parvati's eyes darkened and she grew large and terrible, transforming into the great goddess Kali herself ~ the energy of all creation.
Siva was so terrified that he fell to the floor and lay still like a corpse, playing dead so as not to further anger this great and terrible woman. Kali was the size of a mountain and her voice was dark and booming as she laughed down at his pathetic and quivering form: "Without my power you are nothing, you cannot move. Look at you! Useless! I am desire and life and energy itself. Without me you are paralysed. You may think you are the dancer of the dance but the dance is ME. You cannot transcend me, you cannot escape me. I am the air in your lungs and the beat of your heart. Without me you are only awareness. I am the life that you came into this body to experience. Rise again now with the power and desire that I bestow upon you as I do all the universe; this ever expanding universe that is my child and whose food and water and light is love."
Wow! I hope you like these two wonderful stories. Loads of food for thought within them, I think. I'll leave them with you. I really hope to see you there this Sunday for Hatha or Soft Stretch yoga :) Please let me know if you'd like to book a drop in for a last class before the summer!!! :)
Le grá,
Macha
