Often yoga postures and the sequence of yoga postures have a deep
symbolic meaning. Sometimes they tell you a story and the aim is to
communicate to the deepest part of your being, toward the grossest
part, the body.
One, maybe the most well known sequence is the Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar).
Surya means Sun, Namaskar means to salute, to honour, Surya Namaskar
is a ?ritual?, where we worship the ?Sun?, which is not just the Star
that gave life to this planet, but it?s the symbol of vital energy,
the inner sun, the energy that allows us to be alive.
The Sun Salutation is done in slightly different ways according to the
teaching of different yoga tradition. The tenets of it remain the
same though.
Now let?s consider the sequence of Surya Namaskar taught by Swami
Satyananda (Bihar School of Yoga).
This sequence has 12 positions.
Now let?s consider a Rashi Chart (zodiacal chart), that is a diagram
that represents the ?path? that the Sun travels along the sky in one
year. As you can see there are 12 zodiacal constellations.
If we compare the 2 charts we have one yoga position that corresponds
to one constellation.
If we overlap the two charts so that Aquarius corresponds to the first
position in the sequence, we will have the following correspondence:
position- zodiacal sign ? planet (the planet in Vedic astrology is the
?energy-principle? that creates the Sign)
Position no. sign / planet
1 Aquarius / Saturn
2 Pisces / Jupiter
3 Aries / Mars
4 Taurus / Venus
5 Gemini / Mercury
6 Cancer / Moon
7 Leo / Sun
8 Virgo / Mercury
9 Libra / Venus
10 Scorpio / Mars
11 Sagittarius / Jupiter
12 Capricorn / Saturn
Now comes the most interesting part, if we analyze the following two
yoga poses that repeat throughout the Sun Salutations sequence we
have:
Poses no. Signs/ Planet
1 & 12 Aquarius & Capricorn ( Saturn)
2 & 11 Pisces & Sagittarius (Jupiter)
3 & 10 Aries & Scorpio (Mars)
4 & 9 Taurus & Libra (Venus)
5 & 8 Gemini & Virgo (Mercury)
6 Cancer (Moon)
7 Leo (Sun).
Basically we have a perfect correspondence: the asanas that are
present two times in the sequence correspond to the zodiacal sign
dominated by the same planet, the same yoga pose, same planet, the
only two asana that is not possible to match correspond to the Sun and
Moon, and these two celestial objects in Vedic astrology are
considered to be complimentary to each other, two faces of the same
coin.
It?s also important to keep in mind the symbolism of Sun (Pingala) and
Moon (Ida) in the Hatha Yoga.
Planet and signs according to the Vedic astrology
Each zodiacal constellation (Rashi) has a Lord, a Planet; the signs
reflect the meaning of that planet.
Cancer and Leo represent the ?orbit? of the Sun (the Sun and Moon are
one being, the Moon is the feminine side of the Sun).
Gemini and Virgo represent the two sides of Mercury, Taurus and Libra
are the two sides of Venus, Aries and Scorpio the two sides of Mars,
Pisces and Sagittarius the two sides of Jupiter and finally Aquarius
and Capricorn the two sides of Saturn.
Each Planet regulates two signs, to explain this there is an old tale
that I once read on a Vedic astrology book (Light on Life):
?At the beginning there were the Sun and Moon, the King and Queen of
the heavens. They where ruling the entire sky from the two
constellations of Leo (Sun) and Cancer (Moon).
Becoming aware of this reality Mercury (that regulates communication)
wanted to ask them for a portion of sky inside the Zodiac.
The Sun, being of a generous nature, gave consent to his request
giving him the constellation next to him, Virgo. Mercury, which is
well known to be a dual planet, which speaks with a forked tongue,
finding it easy to get a portion of the sky from the Sun, waited for
the Sun to set, and once the darkness took over light, he spoke to
the moon saying: ?Oh Queen of the Sky, the Sun donated me the
constellation of Virgo, would you like to give me a donation as well??
The Sun represents the soul and the Moon is the emotional mind, the
mind is not self-confident knowing that she just reflects the Light of
the soul.
So being unconfident, the mind replicated the action of the soul, so
the Moon said to Mercury:? I will give you the constellation next to
me?. In this way Mercury got Gemini and Virgo.
Venus (representing desire) saw what Mercury (the thinking mind) did
and made the same request to the Sun and Moon and got from them the
other two constellations Libra and Taurus. Mars (representing action)
seeing what Venus (the desire) did, acted in the same way obtaining
Scorpio from the Sun and Aries from the Moon. Jupiter (wisdom) got
Sagittarius and Pisces and lastly Saturn (the renouncer) who is the
slowest of the planets to get the things done, got Capricorn and
Aquarius.
The order described in this short story reflect the distances of the
planets from the Sun:
Mercury is the nearest, followed by Venus, Mars, Jupiter and last Saturn.
The same order reflects the evolution of the embodied consciousness
who is born from the Soul (Sun) and is experienced first in the
emotional mind (Moon). As objective thought develops, so does the
thinking mind (Mercury), then more that the mind thinks the more it
desires (Venus), desire leads to action (Mars) in order to fulfil the
desire itself.
From action we get the Wisdom (Jupiter) once we understand the good
and bad results of every action. When wisdom develops, an inclination
towards renunciation (Saturn) is natural and we become satisfied with
what Nature gives us.
The same living drama that is acted on the earth is symbolised in the sky.
As above, so below.
The Sun Salutation on a deeper level connects us to this continuous-
cyclical- repetitive process where the emotions, thoughts, desires,
actions, events and situations continuously flow and we are there to
witness this flow, when witnessing the flow we become the Centre, the
Sun itself.
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