Yoga Polarity

December 24, 2003

Divine Selves,

I recently got the following exchange in the e journal of the International Association of Yoga Therapy of which I am a member.

I felt that all of you may be interested in this topic and so am e mailing it

Happy Christmas and new year

Yogacharya Dr Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani

Questions and Answers

Question: I've been teaching for a number of years, always leading clients in standing âsana with the left foot or left side. I have always done this because that was what I was taught. Could you please send me any literature references or references giving the reasoning behind this practice? Does it extend to all âsana, standing or not? D. M.

Richard Rosen answers: A few years ago, when I was writing a Q & A column for Yoga Journal, I was asked this same question. Unfortunately I can't find the reply I wrote at the time, as it seems buried forever on my old computer. The gist of my answer was: There is no logical reason to go to either side first, at least for the standing poses. According to tradition, the right side is dakshina, "propitious," and so in the Iyengar system we go to the right side first (left is "unlucky," vâma). But this is purely a convention. In fact, it is probably best if you practice to your non-dominant side first (left for most righties, right for most lefties). Just to make things simpler, I always go to the right for the rest of the "two-sided" poses, that

is, forward bends, twists, etc. I also have been taught that for twists it is physiologically beneficial to twist right first because of the way material is channeled through the intestines. I learned this from an Iyengar practitioner, but I have not yet verified it. Perhaps a physician would know.

Jan Newman, M.D., responds: The intestines in particular remain very difficult organs to study, and to my knowledge no studies have been done. This statement thus cannot be verified.

Dr Ananda Balayogi replies:

I felt that I have to try and answer some of these core issues for Non Indian Yoga practitioners as we often have our western students (never an Indian !) ask these same questions.

The major problem facing Yoga in the West is the fact that Yoga has been cleaved away from Indian Culture (Sanathana Dharma). Without an understanding of the Indian (Hindu) culture and the way of life where Yoga originated, it is very difficult to find answers to such questions.

The concept of polarity or balancing the opposites is vital to both Yoga and Indian traditional life. The right side of the body is related to the solar/positive/masculine flows of energy that are manifest by the Surya Nadi that is related to the termination of the Pingala Nadi. Similarly the left side is related to lunar/negative and feminine flows of energy and the Chandra Nadi that may be said to be the termination of the Ida Nadi.

Traditionally, all daily activities are always started on the right side in Indian culture because the right side is considered to be auspicious. If an Indian (traditional one) were given an offering by the left hand they would consider it an insult and refuse it! Similarly receiving anything with the left is totally out of question! Modern Indians are as bad as uninformed westerners (informed ones know better!) in this regard and I am not considering their example at all!

When a newly married bride in India comes to her in-laws for the first time or when we enter the premises of a newly constructed building or any such new “starts”, we always use the right leg (Just like they say-put your best foot forward!).

So to my mind the answer to the question is to do right first and then make sure that you follow it with the left for the balance.

In Spinal twists the turn is always clockwise as the concept of Pradakshina or circumbulation around Hindu temples is always clockwise. It is interesting to note that the Hindu Swastika goes clockwise whereas Hitler’s Swastika went anti-clockwise! (Speak of opposite energies bringing out opposite effects! -Auspicious in the first and inauspicious in the second). Yogamaharishi Dr Swami Gitananda Giri has always taught us that energy in the Chakras moves in a clockwise direction. If you take ten traditional Indians and asked them to turn around, they would all, if not at least a majority turn around in the clockwise direction! So the twist is to right first followed by the left.

Regarding movements of food in the intestine, my guess is that as the forward movement with screws and bottle caps in clockwise to loosen and lift and anticlockwise to tighten and lower that the food must move clockwise in peristalsis to go to the colon and rectum and anticlockwise in anti peristalsis (vomiting). Even fans rotate in the clockwise direction (for the fan) and if they go the opposite way you will not get any air at all!

Regarding the front and back bending Asanas, when we bend forward, we stimulate the Solar Plexus and so this is termed the Loma or positive action where as the back bends relax the solar plexus and so are termed the Viloma or negative action. So in practice it is better to do the forward bends before backbends if we are to follow the polarity concept.

An interesting research work in South India (VK Yogas Bangalore) sometime ago showed that relaxation practices after strenuous activity provided more benefits than the pure relaxation practices done alone. I would like to combine this finding in this regard by saying if we do the right side first, then we can benefit more from the practice as we will be balanced (steady-relaxed). On the contrary if we do left first followed by the right we end up stimulated (hyper-energetic-imbalanced). As Yoga is the science of balance, performance of right before left helps us to maintain that steady state-homeostasis-Samatvam.

We must also remember that even the term Hatha Yoga has the right side (Ha- sun) put before the left (Tha –moon).

With regard to the common question of which side is right and which left in the standing poses I would say that the side that bears the maximum weight of the body in the pose is the side to be given that respective term.

Of course all of this applies to normal balanced individuals of whom very few seem to practice modern Yoga! In cases where stimulation is required as in patients of depression, excessive sleepiness or drowsiness etc then right after left may be better!

Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani Chairman

Yoganjali Natyalayam and ICYER

25,2nd Cross,Iyyanar Nagar, Pondicherry-605 013

Tel;0413 2622902 / 0413 2241561 abb,yognat2001 Website: www.icyer.com

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