Handstands are fun, but are they yoga?
An essay by Annie Leap (GLYS Graduate 2022)
SCENE: FADE IN
INT. TRIYOGA SHOREDITCH. SATURDAY – 10am
The yoga studio is packed, mat-to-mat. If lululemon could sponsor a room, it’s this. As we pan across several mats on the front row, sinewy yoginis effortless float up into warm-up handstands.
A nervous WOMAN enters the room, clutching a water bottle as she surveys the scene, panic flashing in her eyes…
WOMAN: IS THIS YOGA?
And so began my journey into the world of ‘advanced’ postural or ‘asana’ based yoga. A world where the pursuit and attainment of handstands or Adho mukha vrksasana is a badge of yogi honour (and almost certainly a sign of an advanced human being). Over my teacher training and the occasional savasana, I’ve pondered this obsession and whether it’s truly ‘yoga’.
What is yoga?
It makes sense to start with an agreement of what we mean by ‘yoga’. There are many definitions, but I like this one:
‘The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Yuj’ meaning to bind, join, attach and yoke, to direct and concentrate one’s attention on, to use and apply… It thus means the yoking of all the powers of the body, mind and soul to God; it means the disciplining of the intellect, the mind, the emotions, the will… it means a poise of the soul which enables one to look at life in all its aspects evenly.
Mahadev Desai, Introduction to the Gita according to Gandhi (1946)
Desai’s description of yoga as ‘poise of the soul’ is beautiful and resonates with how I feel during my more successful practices. The ones where I’m focussed on my breath, my mind is yoked to the moment and I’m able to carry an ember of calm with me out of the room and into the hoipolloi of Finsbury Park on a match day. Desai, known by some as ‘Ghandi’s Buddha’, wrote these words in 1946. Whilst this description doesn’t explicitly mention asana, Desai was writing in the 20th Century, when ‘modern’ postural yoga was taking off around the world.
Some critics, would exclaim ‘if it’s not in the sutras, it’s not yoga’ – a line of argument that has all postural yoga in the crosshairs. These ‘yoga essentialists’, Mark Singleton comments, would eliminate ‘bastardized’ forms of modern yoga and return to the authentic ‘true yoga’ – one where asana principally refers to ‘the ability to remain comfortable in the same position for a long period in a relaxed fashion’ (Larson, 2008) - without the option to take it upside down.
Why is today’s yoga, yoga?
These ‘yoga essentialists’ are right; today’s rocket classes bear only a passing resemblance to classical yoga. However, I argue, that the outward appearance of yoga has undergone many changes. Krishnamacharya, often known as the ‘father of modern yoga’ agrees – noting that ‘whatever place, whatever time, ancestors have framed the yoga practices to suit them all’. I.e., the methods to achieve the ends have always been in flux and tailored to suit the practitioner, but for the most part the intentions have remained similar.
The intentions, according to Richard Rosen, are threefold: self-realisation; long life; and power (usually interpreted as Siddhi, but can also be considered as attainment or accomplishment). Three goals that seem as relevant today as they did in the Upanishads. In this excerpt from Light on Yoga, Iyengar makes a strong case for how asana enables us to achieve these goals:
Asana have been evolved over the centuries so as they exercise every muscle, nerve and gland in the body. They secure a fine physique, which is strong, elastic…reduces fatigue and soothes the nerves. But their real importance lies in the way they train and discipline the mind. Many actors, acrobats, athletes, dancers, musicians and sportsmen also possess superb physiques and have great control over the body, but they lack control over the mind, the intellect and the Self. Hence they are in disharmony with themselves and one rarely comes across a balanced personality among them. They often put the body above all else. Though the yogi does not underrate his body, he does not think merely of its perfection but of his senses, mind, intellect and soul… a soul without a body is like a bird deprived of its power to fly.
BKS Iyengar, Light on Yoga (1996)
So, through the committed practice of asana, especially in pursuit of the-holy-grail-handstand, we are doing yoga. Turning up day after day, week after week, students create patterns of thinking and move in tiny steps closer to Desi’s ‘poise of the soul’. Through this daily practice, it’s likely that asanas become more easeful, and the yogi looks for something more advanced. Iyengar agrees that the poses should be altered - noting that when the body becomes more pliable, the simple poses will have little or no effect. The wise therefore discard them and practice the intricate poses, just as a scholar will not repeat the alphabet daily.
How can a teacher judge if it’s yoga?
I’m interested in whether it’s possible for a teacher or someone walking into a room of yogis to know the difference between an acrobat and a yogi practicing their press. Iyengar (again!) has a proposal here: without the practice of the principles of yama and niyama…asana is mere acrobatics[1]. On a personal level, it’s easy to identify my own effort (tapas); patience (santosha); and self-study (swadhyaya) but it’s much harder to observe that in others. Perhaps then, it is simply up to the teacher to set the tone for the practice and try to guide people to approach asana in the right way.
Later in Light on Yoga, Iyengar almost seems to argue that the physical practice of asana can be enough to change our samskaras – talking about headstands, he says, ‘regular and precise practice … develops the body, disciplines the mind and widens the horizons of the spirit. One becomes balanced and self-reliant in pain and pleasure, loss and gain, shame and fame and defeat and victory [2]. Here, he seems to argue that just by turning up and moving through the asana we can begin to access the deeper benefits of yoga and so at least initially, it doesn’t matter what our accompanying intentions are.
Can other things also be yoga?
I have made a case for why I believe handstands = yoga. I want to finish by also acknowledging that the opposite isn’t true. Yoga takes many forms. As Hatha Yoga Pradipika notes - One should not be deterred from practicing yoga because of feeling physically inadequate. It does not matter if the body is old or young, sick or feeble, everybody is eligible to practise hatha yoga and to attain self-realization[3].
So yes, handstands are yoga. But so are other things. We shouldn’t be wedded to a single way of doing things and yet we should be mindful of doing things for the right reasons. Denis Waitly said, ‘if I had two wishes, they’d be roots to cling to and wings to set me free’. Whilst a bit cheesy, I admit to loving this imagery. It speaks to the importance of studying and respecting the storied history of ‘yoga’ and yet being curious and open to trying new things, getting a different perspective and perhaps even floating upside down.
[1] P35, Light on Yoga, Iyengar
[2] P152, Light on Yoga, Iyengar
[3] P143, Hatha Yoga Pradipika