Lessons in Asana and Karma Yoga – Lara Warren

“He who shirks action does not attain freedom; no one can gain perfection by abstaining from work. Indeed, there is no one who rests even for an instant; every creature is driven to action by his own nature.” (Bhagavad Gita 3.4-5)

“You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself–without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat. For yoga is perfect evenness of mind”  (Bhagavad Gita 2.47-48)

These passage of the Bhagavad Gita are asking one to enter into action wholeheartedly, with proper intention, but giving up attachment to the results of what one does. This tenet is readily illustrated through the practice of asana. Whether it is the foot coming up to the inner thigh in vrksasana (tree pose), the kicking up into full arm balance, the turning of the head in uttitha trikonsana (extended triangle pose), or getting the leg behind the head in eka pada sirsasana (foot-behind-the-head pose)–it is easy for the beginning student to get caught up in the success or failure of the “final” position.

This attachment to the end-product rather than to the act itself can have several effects. It takes the practitioner out of the present into the future, seeing the picture perfect, final pose (for instance, the asana as presented in Light on Yoga). Then, they are not in the process of getting there and often are not able to complete the pose, or if they do, they are unable to find equanimity or Sthira sukham asanam (Yoga Sutras II. 46) because they have got caught up in “the movement rather than the moment” and the act lacks skill and maturity.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes the true yogi as one who “keeps tranquility of mind in the face of dualistic extremes: heat and cold, success and failure, pain and pleasure, evil and good. She remains calm and composed through the ups and downs of life.” 

This can be experienced and learned through our practice of embodied yoga: the ability to persevere even when the final pose is unattainable, challenging or painful, so that one is able to meet success and failure without feeling inflated or deflated. Thus the practice of asana and pranayama teaches us to withstand the vicissitudes of life. We learn to endure dualities and extremes and then ultimately transcend them so that they are not seen as dvandvas (dualities) anymore. To paraphrase Prashant Iyengar paraphrasing the Bhagavad Gita, “struggle for the sake of struggle is pointless, but struggling for the sake of freedom is worthwhile”.

Yoga is putting the mind and body to the divine purpose of service and sacrifice, Krishna further states that all actions performed gracefully and with joy are to be considered yogic actions. Every thought, word, deed, experience and faculty is to turn us inward end lead is back to our divine source.