The verse and its meaning · Yoga in Practice · Yoga in Practice — The Old Seats

Bhadrasana — the gracious seat

Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.53

गुल्फौ च वृषणस्याधः सीवन्याः पार्श्वयोः क्षिप्ते। सव्यगुल्फं तथा सव्ये दक्षगुल्फं तु दक्षिणे ॥

Meaning · English

Set the two heels beneath the scrotum, on either side of the seam of the perineum: the left heel on the left side, the right heel on the right side.

Bhadra means gracious, auspicious, well-omened. Asana means seat. Bhadrasana is the gracious seat, and the book announces it with that heading just before this verse. The verse itself only places the feet, and three words carry it. Gulpha is the heel. Vrishana is the testicles, and the text puts the heels below them. Sivani is the seam, the line along the floor of the pelvis between the genitals and the anus. The heels rest at the two sides of that seam. Then comes the rule of sides: left heel on the left, right heel on the right. They do not cross or stack, so the seat is even about the midline. The verse gives no reason of its own and no length of stay. It describes a position and nothing more. The hands and the holding come in the next verse. The commentary reads the name another way: it says the perfected yogis also call this seat Gorakshasana, because Gorakshanatha practised it so often. The text speaks in a man's terms. For a woman the same place is the floor of the pelvis between the sitting bones. What the verse asks of a practitioner is exactness about where the heels rest and evenness left and right.

The text's form puts the heels close in at the perineum, one on each side of the midline. The lesson shows the form taught today, called Baddhakonasana, the bound angle pose. Here the soles are joined and the feet rest at a comfortable distance in front of the body. The lesson's form is the one described below. Closer heels, as in the verse, are a later step. 1. Sit tall with both legs straight in front of you and your hands beside your hips. 2. Breathe in. Bend both knees and draw the feet in towards the body. 3. Breathe out. Join the soles of the feet, hold them with your hands, and let the knees open wide towards the floor. 4. Stay here. Sit tall on the sitting bones and breathe slowly through the nose. Let the eyes rest softly on the floor ahead or close them. 5. Let the knees sink a little with each out-breath. Never push them down with your hands. 6. Breathe in. Lift the knees and stretch the legs out in front again. 7. Rest, with the hands beside the hips, and feel the opening in the hips. The pose is the same on both sides, so there is no other side. A stay of several slow breaths is a fair beginning, and that count is modern teaching, not the verse's. Keep the spine long and the chest easy. The knees travel only as far as the inner thighs allow. If the heels are brought closer, as the verse describes, each stays on its own side of the midline and the closeness is never forced.

The shape asks the hips to turn outward. The inner thigh muscles, the adductors, lengthen. The muscles of the groin and the deep hip muscles are also asked to let go. Gravity does most of the work, which is why the knees are never pushed. Pushing makes the muscles guard, and a guarding muscle does not lengthen. The sitting bones are the base. When they bear the weight, the pelvis stands upright, the lower back keeps its natural curve, and the spine can rise without effort. When the pelvis tips backward, the back rounds and the stretch moves to the wrong place. The out-breath is the moment of release. The belly softens, the ribs settle, and the knees can drop a little. The in-breath lifts the spine. Slow breathing in a still shape gives the mind one plain thing to follow, which is the sensation in the inner thighs and the breath. The text gives no reason for placing the heels at the perineum. Practically it makes a compact, even seat with the legs folded and the weight low. Any account of what this does to prana or the nadis would be the tradition's teaching, and this verse does not give one.

The verse itself makes no promise. The next verse in the Pradipika calls this seat the destroyer of all disease and gives it the name Gorakshasana. That is the tradition's claim, and this page repeats it without endorsing it. The commentary adds no further benefit. It only explains the name, saying the perfected yogis call the seat Gorakshasana because Gorakshanatha practised it much. Teachers of the bound angle pose today say it opens the hips and inner thighs and makes a steady seat for sitting and breathing. They also say it settles the mind. These are the schools' observations, not the Pradipika's words.

A woman shells peas on the floor in the evening and finds her hips stiff after ten minutes. That ordinary stiffness is the kind this pose addresses. Today's mainstream understanding agrees on the plain mechanics. Gentle, regular stretching of the inner thighs and hips can improve how far the joints move over weeks, and slow breathing tends to calm the body for a while. Sitting upright on the sitting bones is also an easier position for the back than slumping. The claim that the seat destroys all disease has no support in what is well established, and no one can honestly offer it as a treatment. The old idea about the perineum and the flow of prana has no match in physiology. It stays a tradition's account. Medicine would add that the pose is a stretch, and a stretch that hurts has gone too far.

This is not medical advice. A teacher can correct what a page cannot, and the pose is best learnt with a teacher, not from a page. Stop if there is pain. Take particular care with sore knees, hip or groin strain, sciatica, a recent operation on the hip, knee, abdomen or pelvis, and a lower back that is painful when sitting. In pregnancy, ask a teacher who knows the pose before trying it. Do not push the knees down with the hands, elbows or another person's weight. Do not drag the heels in close to match the verse if the hips are not ready. A stretch should feel like lengthening in the inner thighs. Sharp pain, pinching in the hip fold or any sensation inside the knee means ease out.

Sit on a folded blanket so the hips lie higher than the knees. The pelvis tips less and the knees fall more easily. Place a block or rolled blanket under each knee when the knees hang high, so the thighs can rest and release. Sitting with the back against a wall helps a rounded spine stay long. A stiff beginner keeps the feet well away from the body and the knees only slightly open. As the hips soften, the feet come nearer, and finally the heels sit close at the perineum, each on its own side, as the verse describes. The pose is symmetrical, so there is no mirrored side. Fuller forms, such as folding forward from the hips with a long spine, belong to modern teaching.

Pressing the knees down with the hands makes the muscles resist, so let the out-breath and gravity do it. Slumping behind the sitting bones rounds the back, so sit on a blanket and lift the chest. Holding the breath tightens the belly, so breathe slowly and let the exhale soften the groin. Pulling the feet hard against the groin strains it, so keep them at a distance that lets the knees fall without effort. Letting one knee sit much higher than the other twists the pelvis, so level the hips and use a block under the higher knee. Gripping the shoulders high tightens the neck, so let the arms hang long.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Simhasana — the lion · Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.50
• Next: The Count of Asanas · Gheranda Samhita 2.1
• All of Yoga in Practice · Ask Krishna about it

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