Performing asanas according to the materials of the treatise on Hatha Yoga

Pose for the stomach

This is a pose for the abdominal area. Lie down on the ground, breath in and put your arms above your head, then breathe out and bend forwards, grasp your ankles by hands. Make sure you legs and knees are straight. Remain in this position and let the energy flow inside you. Then touch your knees with your forehead. By doing this pose, you will get rid of any illnesses in your abdominal area, you will feel joy.

Cobra pose - Bhujangasana

Oh, dear student! Place your body on the floor, on your abdomen. Place the palms under the shoulders, look up, then slowly raise your head, bend your neck, then your spine and help yourself with your hands to bend more. Remain in this pose, and give yourself to the energy. Then do everything in reverse to get out of the pose. This asana brings clear rage to the mind, like a cobra ready to strike. This exercise heals eyes, the upper spine, gives clarity of mind. By doing this asana, you will wake up forces drowsing in the sacrum.

Four-limbed staff pose Chaturanga Dandasana

Place you straight body on a beautiful mat on the stomach. Place your palms on the floor under the shoulders. Breathe in and raise your straight body on straight arms as if your body is a stick. By doing this pose you mobilize your consciousness. If you feel you could hardly control yourself, by doing this pose you will not let anger to come out. This pose gives clearness to mind and cures all illnesses of the arms.

Downward facing dog pose - Adho Mukha Svanasana

Do the same as in the four-limbed staff pose, then bend in the waist line in such a way, you’re your knees remain straight. Your arms, body and head should make one line. By doing this pose you will clear channels in your legs, arms and waist. Blood with prana will wash your arms, body and head. By this you will renew the blood in your legs. Endurance is acquired by this pose, it will balance blood and energy level in your body.

Cat pose

Stand on both knees and both arms, then bend so that your head, arms and chest are on the floor like a cat, climbing under the fence or stretching. Remain in this pose for a long time, so that the energy flows from your pelvis through the body to the head. Watch your spine to be gracefully curved down. Stomach problems and lungs disease are eliminated by this pose. You will become resilient and develop intelligence.

All that is said: you can touch floor with the forehead, or with the chin, you can bend arms – anything goes under this pose. In time the internal energy will let you bend as far necessary. Fully trust your internal energy and feelings, do not switch on the internal supervisor and think “am I doing it right?” First of all trust yourself!

Twist pose – Ardha Matsyendrasana

Sit down on bended knees, make sure your back, neck and head are straight and make one line. Put your left foot near the right knee and then place it on the other side of the right knee. Then turn your neck, back and head to the left. Help yourself to turn to the left by pressing your right elbow on the left knee. At the same time try to hold your left ankle by the left hand. Remain in this pose for a long time and you’ll get rid of all spine illnesses. By doing this pose you can change moon energy flow into sun energy or vice versa. Return into the starting pose and do all the same to the right side. By doing this asana, you will understand the duality of the universe, and realize the All behind duality.

Description of inverted pose

In a beautiful place lie down on your back, raise your feet up and support the lower part of your body by hands. Remain like this for a long time. By doing this pose you’ll reverse the stream of time. You’ll get younger, all wrinkles will disappear. By this asana yogis switch places of energy and consciousness. Endless blessings are inherited by this pose. Do not overdo it. Slowly increase duration, eat well and avoid bad companies. Yogi practicing this pose holds time in own arms. If you move your legs further away from the head, and you are holding then with arms only, you will become a master of the sexual energy. Brahmacharya is reached only when this energy is under control.

This is one of the poses in which it is difficult to feel how to do it by energy method or by the method of consciousness. The method of consciousness in this pose is in increasing duration, when in the beginning you stay in this pose easily, and then you make yourself to continue. In ancient texts this pose is called “mudra”.

Half Headstand pose

Place your head on the floor. Put your arms round it. Stay on the knees. Then straighten your legs in such a way, that you take stand on your feet, and the body is bent in an angle. Remain in this position and you will inherit sharp mind, excellent vision and knowledge of the finest energies. This asana by its effect can be compared with stand on head or the royal pose.

Headstand - Shirshasana

Place your straight body on the head, so that you rest on your head and elbows and keep the body straight. If you rule the country and experience lack of time practice at least this pose. If you can’t do the stand on the head, then do the previous pose, half headstand.

Bow pose

Place your body on the stomach and bend your knees. Grab the ankles by your hands and remain in this position for some time. Wait until the energy of this pose wakes up. Then start unbending your knees and bend the back. So you’ll take a bow pose. Remain in it until your body lets you. This is unsurpassed pose to whet vital spirit. Life infirmity, weak vital spirit is cured by this pose. Shoulders and joints are cured by this pose. A lot of negative karma is burnt by it.

Forward bend with straight legs - Uttanasana

Stay freely on both feet. Get a lungful of refreshing air. Raise your hands up. Breathe out and bend forward, grab your ankles. Knees should be straight. Remain like this for a long time. You will cure many diseases of the brain, turn away the external and find the way to the inner world. The top part of body will be cured from many diseases.

Poses for meditation

Now I will show you wonderful poses for meditation and for doing many kinds of yoga.

Diamond pose

Sit down on your bent knees in the secluded place. Back, neck and head should be on one straight line. Put your hands on the knees. Look at some point in front you. Strength of diamond is obtained by doing this pose; that is why it is called a Diamond pose.

Sukhasana

From sitting position put your right or left foot on the right or left thigh accordingly. Keep your neck, back and head straight. This is a comfortable pose.You can do this pose to one side and then to another side. The feet should rest comfortably. The main thing is to keep the spine straight.

Lotus pose

In sitting position place your right foot on the left thigh and left foot on the right thigh in such a way that your legs are intertwined.The lotus pose is symmetrical; it can be done on both sides. If you don’t succeed do not worry, after some time your legs will twine into the pose naturally. To speed up the process it makes sense when practicing the previous pose (subhasana), to bend 5 times to one side and then to another side.

Sidhasana

No words can describe all the benefits of this asana. It gives all the goodness, even to the indolent student. That is why it is called an absolute pose. Let the student sit in a privy place and bend the right leg so, that the heel is placed in the perineum (the area between the genitals and the anus). Put the other heel above the genitals against the pubes. The back must be straight. The student should remain in this pose for a long time. All the goodness is obtained by doing this pose. Nothing and nobody can confuse or unbalance mind of the successful student. A person becomes a lord if mastered this pose. Only about such person it can be said that he/she controls his/her sexual energy. Keep this pose a secret and do not disclose it to anyone.

Sidhasana is one of the most mysterious and powerful poses, which is valued even higher than the Lotus pose. In the treaty this pose is named “the crown of yoga” and as soon as your master this pose, you will get a lot of wonderful strengths. Sidhasana helps to control the process of aging by controlling of the sexual energy. If Yogi is practicing hatha yoga and not having sex, he/she must practice this pose.

Plow-pose – Halasana

Place your straight body on the floor, breathe in and with a breath out put your straight legs over your head. Touch the floor behind your head with your feet. Let the arms rest along your body or place them under the head. This pose will cure all illnesses of the waist, as well as the neck.

Triangle pose - Trikonasana

Stand straight. Put your legs apart shoulder wide. Body, neck and head should be on one straight line. Breathe in and raise your hands, keep them parallel to the ground, so they make one line. Breathe out and bend to the right, touch your right or left foot with the right hand.

Wheel pose – Chakrasana

Lie down on your back. Bend your knees. Place hands behind the head and put palms on the floor. Suppot yourself on your palms and feets, raise your body up and then make hands and feet to move towards each other. You will get a wheel pose. This asana eliminates impurity in the spine and increases vitality.

Peacock pose – Мayurasana

Standing on your knees, bend forward. Put the hands on the ground, with palms facing the legs. Put both elbows together and press them against the belly-button. Your forehead must be resting on the floor. Straighten your legs, raise your head from the ground, so that you are resting only on the palms and the toes. Stay like this until the energy starts flowing. Then move forward and raise yourself from the ground, so that the head, body and legs are parallel to the ground and the whole body is supported on the palms.

Note: In this pose you should be careful with the arm joints. In the beginning just try to sit in this pose and stretch the joints, later when you master this pose, you can increase time.

Pose of the reclining hero – Supta Virasana

Sit down on the ground between your feet. Helping by your arms lay on the back. Put your arms behind the head. Stay like this. This pose can cure joint illnesses.

Angle pose

Sit on the ground with straight legs, so that your body, neck and head are on one straight line. Support yourself on your hands and raise your body so that you hang on your palms.

Crane Pose - Bakasana

Support yourself on hands and feet, bend your elbows, put the knees on top of the elbows so, that the knees rest on the elbows, then keeping the balance, raise the toes off the floor and rest only on the palms.

Shavasana

You should finish hatha yoga exercises with the precious pose Shavasana. Like no any other pose this pose grants success in yoga. If you know Shavasana, you know all poses; if you don’t know this pose it is hard to reach success in yoga. So, listen the worthy student. Put your body straight and motionless, as a corps, on the ground, relax your muscles, relax your face. So as corps, remain in this pose for a long time. Try not to breathe, and then even thoughts will leave. This pose gives rest to the mind, to your worn-out nerves, it regenerates the energy, redistributes the feelings. As the main diamond in a crown, Shavasana is the main among the other poses. Consider you are dead. Then slowly return back to life. Start breathing, then thinking, then make some moves. Never get up quickly, if you did, do some relaxing exercise. Always practice this pose, it would be unreasonable to neglect it.

Logic of exercising

There is the following logic in practicing hatha yoga: to have a good rest your should have a good work-out. You can do Shavasana at any time when you wish: in the beginning, in the end, without any other exercises. But it is better to master this pose after some tension, by doing so relaxation will reach even those areas which we cannot control, and we shall feel relaxation much deeper and switch off from our body.

Success in yoga

Success in yoga is measured only by the habit to practice. Mastership in yoga is defined by Shavasana. The ultimate achievement is meditation poses. In meditation poses one should stay for a long time, nearly two hours, so all other poses help us to get to the meditation poses. If you sit in the same position for a long time your legs will be numb. To return feeling to the legs the following pose can be used: hunker down and take legs in hands and wait until the unpleasant feelings go by themselves.

Yoga is natural and harmonious science, without external overseer. It is hidden inside us, and it is possible to master it, if you listen to yourself. This is a system, which is made known to you if you feel happiness by practicing it or you feel happiness by overcoming difficulty. If any of you were placed on the uninhabited island, then sooner or later you would rediscover yoga yourself, as it is already inside us by the structure of our body. You should always remember the two principles: perfection and energy.

Principle of perfection

Principle of perfection: no matter how you do the pose, in your personal world you are doing it perfectly. You have lived many lives in different bodies, you succeeded in developing your mind and physical ability, you did a lot of useful things in your life, or otherwise you would never had be affected by this practice. As it is interpreted in yoga, if you know about yoga, you already have positive karma. That is why the level of yoga you have when you just started is already perfect. If someone tells you that you are doing something wrong, do not listen to them. If you practice the principle of perfection, you can concentrate on your internal feelings, experience joy from what you are doing and then you could more rapidly dip into the secrets of your body and discover these abilities, which are hidden inside you. It is not possible to teach someone yoga, but it is possible to learn it yourself!

The principle of Energy, principle of funnel: if you take a pose approximately and remain in it for a long time without forcing yourself, the required energy and feelings will wake up and bend your body in such a way as necessary. This will become the most important achievement when you start to trust yourself and let yoga to develop inside you.