Sukshma-vyayama and Surya-namaskar

In India sukshma-vyayama is called gymnastics in regular gyms, so there can be any number of variations in the sequence of exercises. Any gymnastic exercise, if you put a name to it in Hindi, will be vyayama. Of course, this is far fr om a practice for gaining siddha-deha, but just a certain preparation. Sukshma-vyayama is very beneficial for the body.

As for dynamic practices, similar to sukshma-vyayama, they also have their value, because they work to open the body, eliminate blocks in it, muscle stiffness, and vyayama mobilizes the motor functions of the body.

Sukshma-vyayama is also called "vikasaka" – “opening”, “development”, namely of the gross ("sthula") and subtle ("sukshma") bodies. Before one start to manage energy, bringing it into order through balance — the very presence of this energy is necessary, and vikasaka deals with this "presence". In asana, the energy process is redirected from opening to collecting energy at a qualitatively higher level.

Surya-namaskar and Sukshma-vyayama

In the main classical sources of Naths, the main asanas, as a rule, were associated with the names of 84 Siddhas and 9 naths. Sukshma-vyayama and Surya-namaskar are later elements introduced into hatha-yoga, so every Teacher in India explains them as he wants. Unfortunately, Dhirendra Brahmachari does not provide any descriptions of more than 12 movements in Surya-namaskar in his book. There he really talks about some 16 actions, but this figure is more related to the Moon than to the Sun. Often in tantra, two weeks of the bright Moon in the form of 15 + the 16th (full moon) are associated with the Sun, perhaps hence this interpretation.

But let's not go too far into tantric symbolism, because in the case of Dhirendra Brahmachari, everything is much simpler – he studied hatha-yoga not from Svami Kartikeya, as many people think, but from Rajbali Mishra. RBM taught various fakiric things, in general, more the physical side of yoga, which Dhirendra Brahmachari mastered perfectly.

For example, as Guru Rakesh Pandey told me, Dhirendra Brahmachari mastered vajroli-kriya and other complex techniques, he did it all in full physical form. RBM taught some simple gymnastic approaches; sukshma-vyayama was created as an auxiliary element of hatha-yoga for ordinary people, as well as Surya-namaskar, they both appeared much later.

Based on the fact that 84 asanas were associated with meditation on siddhas, identification with their powers, apparently, and practices like Surya-namaskar appeared in the same way, they were once in the Vedas, and remain to this day, as a form of puja (veneration) to the Sun. Any worship leads to identification with the object of worship, so the "physical form" gradually acquired a religious semantic load.

By now, some people just do certain sequences of Surya-namaskar without any mantras, the same ordinary vinyasa is a clear example of this. Also, currently many people are simply inventing countless Surya-namaskaras, with a variety of inserted asanas, simply based on their effectiveness as a gymnastic technique, rather than relying on some religious meaning. The practice of Surya-namaskar and the associated symbolism of Surya-namaskar is the practice of worshipping the Sun, which originates from the Rig Veda.

Obviously, since yoga has always had a spiritual character in India, many external sadhanas related to worship have been associated to yogic practices in one way or another. Each Nath panth implies an emphasis on a certain upasana, and, well, yoga practices that correspond to it. The Sun plays a big role in sandhya upasana (these are the time periods of position of the Sun in the morning, at noon and in the evening), the time most favorable for yoga practice. In India, Brahmins recite gayatri, the solar mantra, at these times; Naths usually perform arati. Arati is considered to mean the supreme light of devotion, which dispels "darkness".

If one looks at the night sky, you will see a lot of shining stars. All these cosmic formations are nothing more than a state of condensed light; without going too far into modern scientific theories, let's just say that Naths have always known these laws, just stated them differently. Matter is nothing more than light in a condensed state, so the earth is usually depicted as yellow or golden in color.

When Naths perform homa (fire ritual), first of all, when establishing a dhuni in the earth, they worship the earth as a Goddess and as Surya. Dhartri (a bearer, supporter, preserver) is the Goddess of the earth. Not just the earth, as many people understand it, she is Shakti, who supports the entire universe (brahmanda), and in this universe an infinite number of planets, constellations, galaxies. Dhartri is also associated with the human body structure. In general, if Surya-namaskar is considered from this position, it turns out to be a means for expanding consciousness, awakening the life force, a means by which we bring our body and consciousness into complete harmony and are able to see all the forces of the universe in it.

Therefore, Surya-namaskar is a very unique psychophysical technique, both as a method of worship and as improvement of the physical body. Here we worship both the external sun and the internal one. The description of how cosmic objects are located in the body can be found in Jyotish, and there is also an explanation in “Siddha-siddhanta paddhati”, a text of Nath tradition, which describes the philosophical and metaphysical aspects, practices and principles by which yogic sadhana is built.

Surya, as a source of prana, plays a significant role in Naths’ mantrology, in the practice of shabar-mantras and tantra. Surya is also the light of our higher nature; in taraka-yoga, wh ere meditation on light plays a major role, the highest of the five vyomas is considered to be surya-akasha. We can talk a lot about the most diverse Natha-yogis’ sadhanas, which are associated with Surya, there are a lot of them, so Surya-namaskar is in a sense the basis of the basics.

Traditionally, in Indian cosmology, ontology, and various religious cults, light was considered as the appearance of a single transcendent luminous consciousness, it was called Prakasha or Parasamvit, etc. He manifested himself in the form of the light of the sun, moon and fire, the three gunas, as a manifestation of the active creative nature of the universe. Everything in this manifested world depends on these gunas, which determine which worlds and bodies a living being will incarnate in. Therefore, the gunas are associated with different forms of living beings and with different asanas (as body positions).

Questions to Guru Matsyendranath Maharaj:

What are the differences between the technique of sukshma-vyayama in the Nath Tradition and that transmitted by Dhirendra Brahmachari?

In Nath Tradition, vyayama is done in sitting, standing and lying positions, while Dhirendra Brahmachari mostly does everything standing. In general, vyayama is far fr om the main feature of what Naths practice. It prepares for asana as such, while asana is a position in which it is possible to practice pranayama, pratyahara, etc. Accordingly, asana is a stable position in which internal energetic changes occur, linking hatha-yoga with raja-yoga.

But how to achieve this? It is very simple: start with vyayama, which affects the processes in the sthula and sukshma shariras, and the subtle body is “turned on”. There are few asanas described in the early texts (8, 16, 32), but no matter how many there are, these are static positions of the body in which the body is maximally relaxed. Of course, you cannot relax all the muscles in an asana, since only part of the energy goes to relaxing the physical body, the remaining part of the energy in a static position is directed to the work of the subtle body.

Working with the physical body, the energy state is transferred to the subtle one and vice versa. Then complete liberation and a "sense of infinity" occur. As for sukshma-vyayama, this is an external dynamic that at a certain stage activates the internal dynamics, removes blocks in the energy and mental bodies. Sukshma-vyayama is taught to everyone in our school, regardless of who they are – Nathas or not.

Not all Nathas practice vyayamas, but they have many other sadhanas that lead to almost the same results. Without a normal healthy body, there can be no healthy consciousness, at least at some level. Because if you do not remove the constraints in the body, the mind will still strive clearly not to the objects of dhyana, and external presence in asana will not yet mean internal purity. Accordingly, asana will not be asana as such, but it would be more correct to call this option "externally stable position" – "sthiti", but this sthiti is only external.

Unfortunately or fortunately, not such a large percentage of people practicing hatha-yoga understand this, and there is a pursuit of flexibility and external results, up to their most hypertrophied forms. Once I was invited to a competition in Calcutta, wh ere I saw a wild spectacle of several people being carried off the stage when they were trying to demonstrate extremely difficult asanas, with the aim of winning prizes in a “yoga championship”.

The Vyayama that we teach looks like a fairly large set of exercises, however, it works the body well. This contributes not only to injury prevention, but also to reliable mastering of the asana. The criterion for a correct asana is that the body does not experience the opposite effect (i.e. today you did a good stretch, and tomorrow it hurts even just to walk). 

Our Vyayama is more diverse in the number of exercises, because we pay great attention to preparing the body. Moreover, this approach is used in Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese psychophysical practices.

My Guru always says that vyayama, despite its simplicity, should never be ignored – if the body is not completely free from gross energies, then Kundalini-shakti will not be awakened and will not give the perception of higher energies. At the same time, most of my Teachers, from whom I studied the methods of hatha-yoga, were not oriented to teach western people and also those for whom only temporary healing from diseases is valuable. The techniques and approaches that are used by us are aimed at a broader quality.

Another detail about vyayama is that in the Nath Tradition, asanas are "inserted" into it. Thus, the transition directly to the asana itself occurs gradually, the same applies to pranayama, mudras and bandhas. Each part (anga) of yoga includes elements of the rest to some extent. It is possible to work qualitatively with one anga, for example, asana, and based on experience in asanas, a better understanding of pranayama or pratyahara is created. And again, this question is very subtle, because it is not difficult to fill asanas with anything, so it will be difficult to call it an asana. Therefore, exercise complexes can only be made by a very good specialist. In general, many schools in India use vyayama, and in a variety of variations, the technique is far from limited to the version compiled by Dhirendra Brahmachari.