Pandoraspace

Virabhadrasana

I am not privy the to nuances of Hindu religion and myth.  My thoughts about the story of Virabhadra do not, therefore, purport to be those of one who is well-versed with Hinduism, but rather, of one who is grappling with the experience of this bus ride called Yoga.

Virabhadrasana is a pose that is named after the Hindu warrior, Virabhadra (which literally means warrior-friend).

From what I have read and what was told to me by my Yoga teachers, Virabhadra was created by the Hindu god Shiva in his rage, sorrow and frustration over the loss of his beloved wife Sati. Sati’s rage and humiliation at her father Daksha’s deliberate refusal to invite Shiva to an important feast, caused her to “self-combust” and die. Virabhadra was created by Shiva to kill Daksha and avenge Sati’s death. While Virabhadra did kill Daksha, he was later reborn to make his peace with Shiva. Sati was likewise reborn as Parvati, Shiva’s second wife.

One could say that Virabhadra is a hit-man created out of ugly emotions. I would, however, like to think of Virabhadra as the person (if you could call him that) who was there for Shiva in his darkest hours. Shiva called Virabhadra his friend. If not for Daksha’s death at the hands of Virabhadra, he (Daksha) would not have been reborn as someone better.

Although this part is not so clear to me, I understand that, later, Virabhadra wanted to be a sage and sought the advice of another sage about this.   That sage was, however, busy at that time and could not attend to Virabhadra. He thus instructed Virbhadra to get into an asana while waiting for the sage to become available.  I was told that Virahadra waited four year in the same pose for the sage to be done with his business. Thus, Virabhadra is also described as someone who is steadfast, earnest and strong.

As with all standing poses, Virabhadrasana is difficult for me to execute and sustain.  It requires me to position my limbs and torso in the most seemingly unnatural position.  Worse, it takes extraordinary effort for me to sustain the pose.  Like Shiva, I feel ugly emotions when I create the pose.  When I do, however, get the pose right and am able to sustain it, I feel like a reborn Daksha.  And, on that rare instance when I find quite in the pose, I may discover that I am steadfast, earnest and strong.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009 at 12:08 am and is filed under 'Pinions, Pursuits and Pastimes, Yoga is my Bus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.