ASANA FOR MEDITATION

 

Asana is sitting posture. Asana is a particular form of gymnastic which makes the body flexible, sound and steady. While performing Asana, you have to concentrate on your body. Asana or yogasans are conducive for meditation and spiritual attainment.

Asana is the practice of Body postures. Asana is a body position, normally coupled with the practice of yoga, formerly known as a mastery of sitting still, with the spine as a channel of bio-dynamic union. In the context of yoga practice, asana refers to two things: the place where a practitioner sits and the manner (posture) in which he/she sits. The practice of asana has widespread benefits; of these the most fundamental are improved health, strength, balance and flexibility. In other words, asana is defined as "posture"; its accurate meaning is "seat". Originally, the asana served as firm postures for lengthened meditation. More than just stretching, asana open the energy channels, chakras and psychic centres of the body. Asana purify and make the body stronger and control and focus the mind. Asana should be steady and comfortable, firm yet relaxed.

Yoga first originated in India. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali describes asana as the third of the eight limbs of Ashtang Yoga. Asanas are the physical movements of yoga practice and, in combination with pranayama or breathing techniques constitute the style of yoga referred to as Hatha Yoga. In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali describes asana as a "firm, comfortable posture", referring particularly to the seated posture, most basic of all the asana. He further suggests that meditation is the path to samadhi; transpersonal self-realization. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali suggests that the only necessity for practicing asana is that it should be "steady and comfortable". The body is held poised with the practitioner experiencing no discomfort.

The physicality of the yoga postures becomes a vehicle to enlarge the consciousness that pervades every aspect of our body. As a person practices asana, it fosters a quieting of the mind, thus it becomes groundwork for meditation. Asana later became a term for various postures useful for restoring and sustaining a practitioner's well-being and improving the body's flexibility and vitality, with the goal to promote the ability to remain in seated meditation for extended periods. Asana are widely known as "Yoga postures”.

Using asana to open the physical body acts as a binding agent to bring one in harmony with all the invisible elements of their being, the forces that form our lives through our responses to the physical world. Asana becomes a mode of exploring our mental attitudes and strengthening our will as we learn to liberate and move into the state of grace that comes from creating balance between our material world and spiritual experience. Releasing to the flow and inner strength that one develops brings about a profound grounding spirituality in the body. Physically, the practice of asanas is considered to improve flexibility, strength, balance, diabetes management, physical health and quality of life measures in the elderly. It reduces symptoms of lower back pain, hypertension, sleep disturbances, stress and anxiety. It increases energy and decrease fatigue. It shortens labour and improves birth outcomes.

The emphasis on the physical benefits of yoga, attributed to practice of the asanas, has de-emphasized the other traditional purposes of yoga which are to facilitate the flow of vital energy (prana) and to aid in balancing the sheaths (koshas) of the physical and metaphysical body.