“Yoga asanas are steady and comfortable…”
Ask Yogi - What does Sutra 2:46 mean?
Sutra 2:46 explains that Asana is mastered by achieving a balance (Sattva) between steadiness/effort (Sthira) and comfort/ease (Sukham) in any pose. This Sutra can also be applied to everyday life; according to Swami Satchidananda (1914-2002), in times of dissaster or crisis, there are many benefits to being a “bendy weed” versus a “stiff strong tree” to better survive and thrive in situations of adversity.
Mentally and emotionally, the balance between effort and ease can be cultivated by meditation and ‘contemplating the infinite’ potential of the connection between ‘self’ and ‘source’. According to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, to perfect asana meant to find stillness and to quiet the body enough to turn attention toward the mind and the senses. When you are able to hold an asana comfortably you unite the mind-body dualism; the results are your physical limitations dissolve, your mental and emotional focus centers and your energy expands and fills the space around you.
Physically, we seek the perfect combination of “firm and soft” that occurs in the body while being still and steady, yet active in a pose, feeling as if one could hold a pose forever, with very little effort, simply by breathing. The Sutra also invokes the need to be aware of what is felt as “good” and “bad” pain in the body, and cultivate an ability to work the “edge” of each Asana without competing or pushing oneself into injury.
For many years Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog) was a pose that felt like pure effort and no ease. That began to shift as I focused on the instructions to 1) “root my hands and feet to rebound up through my arms and legs”; and 2) using ujjayi breathing while lengthening the spine by drawing the core inward and pelvis up and away from the crown of the head. Both of these instructions create “lightness” and “space” in the body, and bring the ease-to-effort ratio into balance in this pose.
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