Amrita 6: Asana through the ages - Magazine - Page 42
The Purpose of Asana
of an armoury of tools used to transform the physical body
into a vessel immune from decay. For the modern practitioner, its transformative powers have been largely harnessed in the service of physical and mental health. For
some, it enables them to experience both body and environment in different ways. For others, it is a portal to different
forms and techniques in the pursuit of self-realisation.
From its inception as a simple ascetic tool to facilitate
meditation, sana has evolved into a myriad of physically-demanding postures which would undoubtedly be unintelligible to its earliest practitioners. As competing schools of
Yoga attempt to create greater variations in postures and
sequences, sana continues to develop. Today, India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library aims to document 1500
sanas: perhaps not as many as Siva’s 84 lakh, but certainly
more than Patañjali’s solitary stirrha sukham sanam. Love it
or hate it, it seems that sana is here to stay. A
REFERENCES
Iyengar, B.K.S, Light on Yoga, 1966 , London: George Allen & Unwin, 1966, p.3
1
http://ashtangaworkshop.com/asana.php
2
www.bwy.org.uk/pdf/1225972591asana.doc
3
Olivelle, Patrick, trans., Upanisads, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, p.255.
4
Easwaran, Eknath trans., The Bhagavad Gt, California: Nilgiri Press, 1985, p.141
5
Feuerstein, Georg, The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice,
Arizona: Hohm Press, 1998, p.225.
6
Bodhi, Bhikkhu, ed., In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali
Canon, Boston: Wisdom Publications, p.282.
7
Mallinson, James, ed. & trans., Datttreya’s Discourse on Yoga, 2012, forthcoming, p.1.
8
Swami Muktibodhananda, ed., Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Light on Hatha Yoga, Bihar: Yoga
Publications Trust, 1985, p.67.
9
Singleton, Mark, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2010, pp. 56-8
10
Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga, Great Britain: Amazon, 2015 (1896) pp.9-10.
11
Singleton, Mark, “Yoga Makaranda of Krishnamacharya” in White, David Gordon, ed.,
Yoga in Practice, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011 p.339.
12
Ibid, p.346
13
De Michelis, Elizabeth, A History of Modern Yoga: Patañjali and Western Esotericism,
London: Continuum, 2004, p. 204
14
ROSE BUSTO HAS been practicing Yoga since she was a teenager and teaching for over 30 years. She is currently working towards a Ph.D. at
SOAS, University of London. Her research revolves around the intersection of asceticism, religion and Modern Postural Yoga. She teaches and
runs Teacher Training courses in West London. Her next teacher training course is scheduled for September 2021.
40 AMRITA Issue 6 / Spring 2021
