From the archive of Gitananda Yoga Gesellschaft Deutschland e. V.

"sthirasukhamasanam": asana is a steady and comfortable state

It is ironical. Maharishi Patañjali describes asana with just two words: steady and comfortable. Yet, the world today equals yoga with asana. There is a thin line between comedy and tragedy. This applies to yoga as well. Today asana is all about image: major yoga journals today project people showing off in asana. Most poses are even modified to suit the camera angle! Professional models of enticing beauty are used in asana shoots. Fancy, trendy yoga dress make a pretty picture. Pretty girls in pretty poses sell magazines for pretty prices!

Sthirasukhamasanam - three words (sthira. sukha and asana) all in one continuous line. What is this asana that Maharishi Patañjali talks about? Is it possible that there were no asana known at the time in which Maharishi Patañjali lived? Why did he not make a list like the ones we find in later hatha yoga scriptures? We need to understand the great Maharishi in order to understand his sutra. For Maharishi Patañjali asana is not about physical fitness. It is all about a state, a state of being wherein we are steady and at ease with ourselves. It is not a mere physical practice That inner state manifests itself physically in a body position.


To understand this sutra in light of the physical practice of asana we can say that one needs to practice asana until one feels at ease in it. Practice makes perfect and perfection brings grace and ease.

Sukha should be translated as "at ease" rather than merely as "easy". Yoga teachers sometimes teach only easy postures and claim they do so as per this advice that asana should be easy. This is not what Maharishi Patañjali meant. On the contrary it is an ease that develops within one's own self after arduous effort. When are we steady? Only when the mind is calm. When we are steady our mind becomes calm, too. What is the link between these two? It is the awareness and control of breath.

Yoga is the science of experimentation through personal experience, whereas modern science believes in experimenting on others. This yogic science of self-experimentation is not possible without swadhyaya. We must focus our awareness inside ourselves not outside on others. Where is this balance within us? Through asana we can start to observe ourselves while we balance on our hands, on our feet. on our head, on our tailbone. Why did our great rishi give us such instructions? They wanted us to develop awareness, to be able to bring our focus within and find the balance that exists within ourselves. When we have that physical balance, slowly and steadily, emotional and mental balance will follow.

The state of balance and ease is asana. lt is not only when you are in Nataraja asana, but also when you are walking down the street or when you are waiting for your dosa in an Indian Café. Asana is a state, very much like ahimsa or brahmacharya. For Maharishi Patañjali these are all states of being that enable us to become true humans and truly humane beings, rather that what we are today: human "doings". Being, not doing, is the essence of asana.