Week Three ~ Yoga Stories, Garudasana (Eagle Pose)
Hello everyone,
I am busy and ecstatic planning my summer holidays today (eeep!) and so I will keep this letter nice and short and sweet :)
I've decided to take a few weeks off to travel and do a bit of growing this year, so these next three weeks of Sunday yoga will be our last classes at Thrive until the end of August. I have the exciting opportunity to stay at Plum Village in France this July, which is Thich Nhat Hanh's buddhist monastery for mindful living (I can't wait!), and following that I will walk the Camino Del Norte toward Santiago, maybe do a bit of swimming and surfing, and have an espresso and cheeky pastéis de nata in Porto or Sintra.
I am so, so, so, grateful for your support and commitment to these classes. I can't believe its been over a year since we first started them! I want to say such a heartfelt thank you to each of you for practicing with me. We will definitely be back at the end of August for more yoga terms in Greystones! And I'm also hoping to do some pop up yoga classes on the beach when I'm around in mid July, so you can stay tuned for that update here and keep your togs handy :)
For now, though, thankfully we do have three more Sundays of 5pm Hatha Flow and 6:30pm Soft Stretch yoga at Thrive, with drop-in spaces available if you'd like to put your name down for either class :) I would love to see you there this June!
As we continue our term theme of the yoga stories behind the poses, I would like to share with you now the story of Eagle Pose, Garudasana. An adventurous tale of great trickery, wisdom, service, and strength, around which our two Sunday classes this week will be designed.
In a time that always is yet never was, a mighty sage named Kasyapa, grandson to the creator Brahma, had twenty-seven wives. All of his wives were sisters; each a daughter of Daksa. Kasyapa had thousands of children by these wives, and thus they created all the races of the worlds; gods and demons alike. Two of Kasyapa's twenty-seven wives were ~ oddly enough ~ very jealous of one another. They were in fact so competitive in earning their husband's affections that they became his favourite wives, and to thank them for their service he granted them each a wish.
Kadru, one of the two wives, asked for a thousand mighty sons of phenomenal strength. Kasyapa gave her these thousands of sons, who would be of the serpent race. The second wife, Vinata, with a constant goal to upstage her sister, asked their husband for only two sons, but whose strength and valour would be greater than that of Kadru's thousand sons combined. Kasyapa also granted this wish, and Vinata laid two eggs for her sons, who would be of the bird race ~ while her sister, Kadru, laid a thousand serpent eggs.
Vinata's two bird eggs didn't hatch for a long time, even after all of her sister's snake sons had been born. Five hundred years passed, and Vinata eventually lost her patience and broke one of her eggs open. A great bird named Aruna popped out ~ strong and mighty. But Aruna was so irritated by his mother's impatience in allowing him to mature that he cast a horrible curse upon her.
The curse forced Vinata to wait a further five hundred years for her second son's egg to hatch, and during that time she would be a slave. Only when her second son was born would the curse be lifted. However, through great trickery, Vinata became her sister Kudra's slave, and even after the five hundred years had passed and the small egg had hatched with the powerful bird named Garuda, she still remained a slave.
Gardua was fire and sun itself, the king of all birds. An eagle. But thanks to his mother, he was born into slavery and was forced to serve the snakes and his aunt. In attempts to rectify this terrible curse and trickery, he made a deal with the serpents to steal the elixir of immortality from the heavens and give it to them; a never ending life for them, in exchange for his and his mother's freedom.
Garuda flew to the heavens to take this elixir. In Indra's paradise he fought a great battle with the gods and won. But the elixir was not just guarded by gods, it was also surrounded by fire, and Garuda had to carry the ocean in his great beak in order to quell the flames.
Garuda brought the elixir back to his family to lift the curse of slavery ~ but before he could, a great light shun upon him. It was the light of Visnu, the preserver. Visnu was impressed with Garuda's strength and ability, and he offered him a wish. Since Garuda knew he would soon be free, thanks to the elixir, he wondered what could be more important, more desirable, than freedom? What would he ask for? In a moment of great wisdom, he realised that selfish freedom was likely no freedom at all, and that the right sort of service was a true gift. He asked that he may live the rest of his life as a servant to Visnu, and so serve the greater good.
Visnu was delighted by this and granted his wish, transforming Garuda into his own personal vehicle, his vahana.
Visnu graciously allowed Garuda to continue bringing the stolen potion of immortality to his serpent cousins, but Gardua was now wise and he saw the danger of immortality being in the wrong hands. And so he tricked the serpents by giving them the elixir, but then advising them to bathe before drinking it so that it may work better. While the serpents cleaned themselves, Visnu flew down to steal back the elixir and brought it safely back to Indra's paradise.
Such a beautiful story for understanding service and selflessness, all embodied within this shape of Eagle that requires great patience, centeredness, balance, and strength. We overthrow the ego only by surrendering to the present moment, and in doing so true ability, power, and potential is born. Just try standing on one leg to prove it!
Le grá agus buíochas,
Macha
