![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Dynamic sequences of postures are absent or unrelated to their devotion to the sun. However, as far as my knowledge and encounters go with the worshippers of the Sun, their practices revolve around meditation techniques. Mitra is the Vedic personification of Surya. One of these deities goes by the name of Mitra. In the section of the possible Vedic origins of the Sun Salutation, we came across a group of seven Rigvedic guarding deities. Interestingly, we also find worship of the sun’s disk, as a deity or as a passage to the gods, in ancient Europe and Mesopotamia. Surya worshipįrom Vedic times to the present day we still find worshippers of Surya throughout Asia. Linking the fiery practice of burning karma to the resulting coolness of true peace (Reinhard Palm, based on personal talks 2008). Hanuman extinguishes the fire by putting his tail in the sea. Hanuman’s stay on Lanka could be viewed as a form of tapas (austerity). In this leap back Hanuman’s tail is set on fire by Ravanas’ army. This possible line of interpretation could be elaborated upon by linking the leap to Lanka with the leap back from Lanka to the southern shores of India. The story goes that Hanuman makes some kind of prologue before he leaps. Then Hanuman recalls his powers enlarging his body, he takes a leap and consequently flies across the ocean. As they see the vast ocean, they are grieved over the inability to cross this body of water. ![]() In Rama’s search for Sita he meets Hanuman, and they reach the southern coast. Sita is abducted by Ravana and taken to the island of Lanka. The story is of the love between Rama and Sita. Could the Virabhadrāsanas (ecstatic warrior postures) in the Sun Salutation be a reference to this Vedic symbolism? RamayanaĪ next possible origin of the dynamic sequence of the sun could lie in the Ramanaya, one of the great epics of India. Through this yoga, a group of seven guarding deities will allow the warrior to ascend through the sun and take his rightful place among the gods, as he has offered himself to the Vedic sacrificial fire – to be “dead” already, and consequently fully focus on his warrior task at hand. When we look at the earliest use of the word “yoga” it implies the connection warriors have with their chariots in battle. Could this internal fire ritual to the sun be regarded as an origin of the modern variation of the Sun Salutation?Īt the same time, the disk of the sun functions as the gate between the human realm and the world of the gods. In a later era, as the Vedic rituals became increasingly internalized, various ritualistic prostrations would be carried out in praise of the sun. In various parts the sun is praised, and to salute the sun by magic means of the fire ritual would result in health and prosperity. The Vedic Corpus (12th to 10th centuries BCE) consists of hymns, formulas, spells and incantations. Let’s explore the Vedas to study claims about the origins of Sūryanamaskāra. Perhaps there are roots of Sūryanamaskāra predating the modern period? The Vedas However, it may be worthwhile to examine whether there might be something to it. The claim of Pattabhi Jois is difficult to corroborate as there is no evidence that Sūryanamaskāra, before the mid 1930s, was part of a physical practice named yoga (Singleton 2010). Pattabhi Jois, a student of Krishnamacharya and father of the Ashtanga yoga style, claims that the exact stages of the sequences are enumerated in the Vedas. Krishnamacharya was to make these flowing movements the foundation of his Mysore style of yoga. Yet, it was far from obvious that Sūryanamaskāra and yoga were part of the same body of knowledge or practice in or before that period (Singleton 2010). In the early twentieth century, bodybuilders used dynamic sequences as a warming-up exercise to prepare for various poses and weight work. In short, he argues that the Sun Salutation as we know it today is “a mixture of yoga as medical gymnastics and body-conditioning on the one hand, and state of the art dumbbell work and freehand European bodybuilding techniques on the other“ (Singleton 2010: p124). In his work “The Yoga Body” Mark Singleton has done an excellent job at tracing the origins of Sūryanamaskāra. There is a high likelihood that this sequence has, above all else, modern origins. The asana sequence known as Sūryanamaskāra literally means “salute to the sun” (surya = sun, namaskara= salute). Olav concludes his search by explaining the benefits of Sūryanamaskāra in modern yoga. Olav takes us by the hand exploring the possibility of finding traces of the Sun Salutation in ancient texts, from the Vedas to Ramayana, one of the great epics of India. ![]()
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