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Vrksasana Myth
Vrksasana Myth
to Lanka, he naturally assumed that she would fall for him. After all,
other women did. He was handsome (once you got used to his ten faces),
strong, and fabulously wealthy and powerful. His palace was a
sensualist's dream of beauty and pleasant surroundings. Ravana was not
unlike an urbane, highly influential drug lordrepellent, yet fascinating
at the same time. He offered Sita one pleasure after another, but she said
no to them all. He proposed to make her his chief wife, and Sita refused.
She refused to spend even one night inside Ravana's beautiful palace.
was a pretty sweet deal, as his hundred satisfied wives could attest. They
said that a woman as royal and beautiful as Sita deserved to live in a
palace and to be treated like the queen she was, not wander the forest
with her exiled husband. "Forget Rama," they said. "Think of all that
Ravana could do for you. And it's not like you're leaving here alive
anyway," they reminded her.
But Sita sat, with her back against an ashoka tree, and she breathed
slowly, and she waited. She concentrated her mind on Rama with onepointed focus. Every thought, every breath, every beat of her heart said
Rama...find me. Rama. Rama. She sent her love and longing into the
trees, and imagined their leaves broadcasting Rama's name to the
atmosphere. Sita was the daughter of Bhumi Devi, the earth itself, and
deep within she felt kinship with rooted, growing things.
The Pose
Stand in tadasana (mountain pose), with your feet together, or hipwidth apart. Spread your toes. Lift your inner arches. Distribute your
weight evenly between the right and left sides of your body. Settle your
feet into the floor as if they were sending down roots.
Then, shift your weight into your left leg. Press down with the root of
your big toe and your outer heel. Externally rotate your right leg and
place the sole of your right foot on your inner left leg, above or below
(but not on) your knee. Level your hips. When you feel steady, stretch
your arms overhead, hands parallel to each other. Relax your shoulders
away from your ears.
Imagine yourself a tree in a grove. Sense the calm, rooted presence of
your tree companions. Gaze forward at a point that does not move.
Widen your peripheral vision. If you are practicing in front of a wall, feel
back through your body to sense its steady presence. Breathe slowly and
quietly. If your eyes harden or wander, or if your mind is agitated, your
balance will waver. Be easy. Observe your mind, your breath. This pose
may reveal previously unacknowledged distractions. In the midst of
them, can you draw stability from the earth?
Reflection
Trees appear throughout Indian sacred literature as symbols of the
universe and as organic links between God and the individual. In this
pose, imagine yourself as both Sita and the tree.
Sita, abducted and held captive, draws strength and comfort from nature.
Contact with the earth helps her focus on Ramawho is, of course, not
only her husband, but God, the personification of ultimate value. Her
body may be constrained, but her mind is free. Have you been in a
situation where there was overwhelming pressure to accept a way of life
or a set of values that fought with your own deeply held sense of what is
right? What helped you to regain and maintain your equilibrium?
Perhaps you were in a difficult situation you weren't able to leave. Where
did you find mental freedom? Did nature help?
The tree, patient, stable, and deeply rooted, offers shelter to the one who
takes refuge beneath its branches, back snuggled firmly against its trunk.
At the next opportunity, sit with your back to a tree and feel it breathe
with you. Have you ever been called upon to comfort, to back up
someone who needed your protection? Did their trouble disturb your
equilibrium? It takes a lot to shake a tree. Through your back, sense the
tree's profound calm.