Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign hello, welcome to Deep in your yoga practice. I'm Lauren Leduc, the owner and founder of True Love Yoga in Kansas City, Missouri. And today I wanted to talk about something we do a lot in Vinyasa Yoga, we which are Sun Salutations particularly. I wanted to dive a little bit into the history of them, symbolism, ritual and benefits that come with them as well. So if this is a part of your yoga practice, I hope this adds a little more depth and meaning to what you're doing. And if it's not a part of your yoga practice yet, maybe it will inspire you to start incorporating some Sun Salutations into your Sadhana or spiritual practice. I've talked a bit about my origin story with yoga on this podcast, but I actually practiced Hatha Yoga for quite a long time. So by that I mean statically held postures, maybe holding for three to five breaths without a lot of regard to transitions. And yes, while breath is important, it's breathing within a posture rather than using the breath to transition between postures. That being said, Sun Salutations weren't really a part of my yoga practice until I was introduced to vinyasa yoga around 2011. Since then, I don't know how many Sun Salutations I have done. I know it's been quite a lot. One of my favorite practices has been doing Yoga Malas during the change of the season. I haven't done it for a while, but I used to do it pretty ritualistically where every equinox or solstice I'd perform 108 salutations, 27 sun salutations in four rounds, each round dedicated to someone or something. So it became this very intentional way to let go of an old season and bring in a new one.
[00:02:18] And now I haven't done that in a while. But Sun Salutations are definitely a big part of my practice and I see them as I'm leading Vinyasa Yoga and teaching others how to teach Vinyasa Yoga as a template as well for creating flows. So they have a lot of good functional use. We'll get into that later, but I will say that because of that they are such a foundational part of many yoga practices. We don't know exactly when Sun Salutations began, but the possible origins are in Vedic traditions, so they possibly have been practiced for thousands of years. The original gods and Hinduism and other polytheistic religions as well started with nature gods. So the sun would have been one of the oldest gods that people have worshiped, seeing it as actually A deity, which makes a lot of sense because life is completely dependent on the sun and things growing the way that they need to, temperatures being ideal, et cetera. Basically, a lot of our survival is really dependent on the sun. So you can imagine this being a prostration to the sun, both in gratitude and also in saying, please come back, please come back because we need you. The Sun God in Hinduism is worshiped as a symbol of radiant health and immortality. And yogis began honoring the sun and its magnificence and its magnificence with their bodies and their breath by practicing Sun Salutations, or Surya Namaskar. Surya is sun. Like I said, the sun God Nama is to adore and to bow to. So Surya Namaskar. So traditionally, these Sun Salutations were prostrations of gratitude to the east, which is the direction of the rising sun. And I'll go into that a little bit deeper here in a few moments, but just know that that is how they began and that they have evolved into the flowing sequences that we see today. In the early 20th century, Sri Krishnamacharya, who is considered the father of modern yoga, developed this more modern system that we see today, including within it, sun salutations, sometimes in a way that is quite acrobatic, because he, in a way, treating yoga as a form of fitness and folding in influences from around the like gymnastics and wrestling, to create something really distinct for India and his students, one being Patabi Joyce, who is the founder of Ashtanga yoga, evolved the sun salutation process, maybe folding it within their sequences or eventually, as time has gone on, creating all kinds of creative flows from this particular sequence. So as I talked about, the Surya Namaskar has 12 movements that are linked by breath that are meant to honor the 12 positions of the sun and the sky from dawn until dusk. And each of these 12 positions also has a mantra. I'd say it's pretty rare, at least in modern postural yoga in the west, for people to use these mantras with the sun salutations, but I will share them with you in their English form. So it sounds like this. The friend of all, all shining and radiant, who dispels the darkness, the bestower of warmth, mover through the sky, the nourisher of all, the golden source of energy, the source of rays and vibration, the sun of Aditi, the divine mother, the stimulator and purifier, the very essence of vitality, the illuminator of cosmic wisdom. So obviously, those would be chanted in Sanskrit not in English, but that is the translation of the 12 mantras for the 12 aspects of the sun. The idea really is offering gratitude to the sun as a life giver. And you can think of Sun Salutations as a moving prayer or a meditation. Sun Salutations can be integrated into your personal yoga practice. If you go to Vinyasa yoga practices or other dynamic yoga types akin to Vinyasa, you probably already are using Sun Salutations in some form or another. You might practice getting up in the morning and doing a few Sun Salutations as a moving meditation in gratitude for a new day. You might even take in the morning sunlight as you do so. And if I'm doing a lot of Sun Salutations, I like to use them as an energy management practice. So instead of getting kind of more wild and sloppy as I go on, I try to become more intentional with my transitions and with my breath so that it becomes really intentional and elegant. Vinyasa means to place in a specific way. So I think of my Sun Salutations like that, kind of stepping forward just so and placing my body in a specific position and using my breath really deeply. Because there's this magic that occurs when I'm not using too much energy and I'm not using too little, but I'm harnessing it just right within this sacred and familiar sequence. Sun Salutations have a lot of benefits. Physical obviously can provide the body with strength. It's a good opportunity to explore mobility, to improve circulation.
[00:07:56] It's a wonderful warmup for the body. So if you're preparing for flows that explore deeper mobility or even strength training or something like that, you could start with Sun Salutations. There are energetic benefits to Sun Salutations. They're meant to activate prana, or life force, source energy, and also stimulate the solar plexus. So the chakra point that's right above the navel, it's our power center, our center for confidence and drive. They also have mental and emotional benefits. They can help cultivate focus and discipline and a beautiful sense of renewal each day. And they have the spiritual benefit of connecting us to nature, helping us remember who we truly are, to find mindful rituals throughout our days and to find self discipline, or tapas, one of the Niyamas of yoga. So that's a really brief overview of Sun Salutations, and I hope that it helps you feel more deeply connected to them within your own practice and gives you some ideas on how to incorporate them through your day or through your morning. I'd love to encourage you to reflect on your relationship with Sun Salutations. When did they come into your practice? How did they feel in your body? How might they improve and become more deep, more intentional, more of an integral part of your practice? It's always good to bring that intention into our practice so that we aren't doing empty rituals, that they're meaningful and intentional, and that they provide fuel for our daily lives and moments that are really special. Because when we are aware of special moments, we also become more aware of how sacred, how amazing, how beautiful nature and life are around us. Thank you so much for listening today. Om Shanti Om. Peace.
