Shirsha-Pada-Bhumi-Sparshasana

Shirsha-Pada-Bhumi-Sparshasana

Shirsha = the top, the crown
pada = the legs
Bhumi = the ground, earth
Sparsha = touch
Asana = posture

If we piece the above words together it will mean - Touching the ground by the head and the feet through this posture.

This is slightly tougher than the Greevasana

Shown below is the nirlamba (unsupported) version

 

However, once we are comfortable with Greevasana, this is doable. I practise this Asana on earth - the bank of a small lake we have at our neighbourhood. I find it easy there, since the soft grass on the ground (in the morning hours the earth is also soft, washed with dew drops) has lots of friction to help me balance my body a lot more.

Warning!!:

Practise this Asana only when your neck muscles are strong enough to support your body weight.

Greevasana - Part 2

Greevasana

Greeva (n.) = Neck
Nirlamba (adj.) = Unsupported

 

This is the nirlamba version of the Greevasana. The pressure on the neck of the whole body without the forearms sharing it. The asana gives a sweet pain, as the back of your head touches your back

Warning:

Don't do it without having done the salamba version (supported) for over an extended time. You may hurt your neck, if you are trying it if your neck muscles are not that strong.

My next goal:

The goal is for the Salamba version. Execute a Shirshasana from the Salamba Greevasana. And then from Shirshasana do a Vrischikasana (scorpion) and a pincha mayurasna

Greevasana - Part 1

Greevasana

Greeva = neck. This is the salamba version (hand supported)



Been doing Greevasana for the last three-four months. All the more so, since I had this hypothyroidism - which made me a fat guy :).

Of course this was additional to what other hypothyroidism fighting Asanas I have been doing for the last two years or thereabouts: Matsyasana, Ujjayee pranayama(Jalandharbandha), Ardha Chakrasana, Kavandhasana. Three other I used to do - Halasana, Sarvangasana, Sasangasana - which I won't do any more, as long as an iota of this back pain that I have stays.

Well, now this hypothyroidism thing is almost gone. And the doc is reducing the doses of synthetic thyroxin hormone every time I pay a visit to him.

The idea here is:
1) Rest your body weight on your neck muscles. This Asana helps in Matsyasana too. I am able to execute the Matsyasana far better than I was used to.

2) Second objective - bend your neck so much backward that your face is flat to the ground so much so that your nose and mouth touch the earth.

Vasishthasana - incorrect posture

The incorrect posture

 

The more correct (better) posture



The 2nd posture is better only as far as the hip is concerned. As it is, I see a lot of minor flaw here too. And who does not know that minor flaws take far greater time to correct? hehe!!

When I published the Vasishthasana day before yesterday, I was talking of the challenges of it. Main challenge that I faced was to counter the pull at the hip to the ground. It's not really a gravitational pull, but a because of a countering force when the hand pulls the raised leg.

If much force is applied by the hand to the raised leg to pull, it is countered and balanced by the hip sagging to the ground.

To prevent the hip sagging to the ground, the arm that holds the raised ought not use force. and to achieve that feat, one needs to make the hip joint so supple as the leg can execute an acute angle with the torso without much difficulty. Hence I published the Uttanpadasana - that's one way to make the leg execute an acute angle with the torso.


Hence, the basic idea is: make the acute angle acuter. My next target in uttanpadasana - touch the raised leg to the ground by my head. It will take me about two-three years. But I am going to be there, one day.

Vasishthasana Practice

Yesterday I published the Vashisthasana. Now I am publishing the approach that I took to be able to do this asana.

Uttapadasana

Vasishthasana is to be approached in multiple ways. We need to use multiple weapons to conquer this asana. I demonstrated the use of different hasta padngushthasanas.

Let's now go back to the Uttapadasana to perfect the acute angle executed by the leg to the torso. I showed the Uttapadasana during the back pain series. At that point of time my uttanpadasana was normal to the ground.

In this uttanpadasana I executed the raised leg is at an obtuse angle with the ground, and at an acute angle with the torso. The idea is to make the acute angle acuter.



The right leg




The left leg

This practice of Uttanpadasana, you will find helps you to negate the effect of falling-hip syndrome in the Vasishthasana.

Vasishthasana

Vasishthasana

Who was sage Vashistha?

Figures pretty much in Ramayana, the epic set in the Treta Yuga of Indian mythology.
He was the guy who denied sage Vishwamitra - when Vishwamitra was a king, and therefore a Kshatriya, warrior caste - the bramhin status. He was also the guy who took an adolescent Rama to kill Asuras/demons who were creating nuisance in the Ashrama (hermitage). And then to led Rama to salvage Ahalya, the wife of hermit Gautama, and thereafter, to Mithila to break the bow of Shiva so he could marry Sita, the daughter of Seeradwaja Janaka.

Vasishtha is one of the seven great sages after whom a constellation (the Great Bear / Ursa Major constellation) had been named in Indian Astronomy. His wife's name was Arundhati. There has beena story on Arundhati too.

As I perhaps mentioned somewhere or may be I did not, all asanas, however difficult they may appear in the first look, are postures for meditation. Vasishthasana is the posture in which Sage Vasishtha used to meditate.

 

I have miles and miles to go in this Asana before I am able to sleep. I have been practising this Asana for the last 7 months or thereabouts. Still there's lot to achieve.

The hip ought be raised. The difference between where I am and where I want to go, can be demonstrated by the picture of this Asana performed by Arjuna

I have identified the problem areas - how to counter the hip gravitating down. Do the Hasta Padagusthasana more with the leg in more more acute angle to the torso.