The verse and its meaning · Yoga in Practice · Yoga in Practice — Asanas as Taught Today

Ardha Navasana — half boat pose

Asanas as Taught Today 40

अर्ध नावासन

Meaning · English

Ardha Navasana: ardha, half; nava, boat; asana, seat. The half boat seat: the half boat pose, in which the body rests on the sitting bones with the legs held low and straight.

Take the name apart first. Ardha means half. Nava is a boat. Asana is a seat, a way of sitting or holding the body. So the name is the half boat seat. The body, balanced on the sitting bones, is the hull. The legs and the leaning trunk are the two sides rising from it. It is called half because the legs are lifted only a little, so the boat rides low and shallow. The fuller boat lifts everything higher. The Pradipika, the Gheranda Samhita and the Shiva Samhita do not describe this pose. It is modern postural yoga, codified in the twentieth century in the Mysore line of Krishnamacharya and the schools that grew from it. Its old frame is Yoga Sutras 2.46 to 2.48. A seat should be steady and easy. Effort should loosen. The mind should rest on the infinite. The lesson begins seated with the knees bent and the feet on the floor. On the out-breath the body leans back and the straight legs rise a little. The belly is kept firm and the breath stays even. If the lower back strains, the knees bend. On the in-breath the body comes up and the feet return to the floor. The knees are hugged, and the body rests. Why teach it? The pose trains steadiness under mild effort, the very thing the Sutras ask of a seat. It asks the practitioner to hold firmness in the belly and ease in the breath at once, and to yield by bending the knees when the back protests.

1. Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Rest your hands beside your hips or lightly behind your thighs. 2. Lengthen your spine and let your gaze rest on your knees or toes. 3. Breathe out. Lean back from the hips, keeping the chest open, and lift your straight legs a little off the floor. The shins stay a hand's breadth or so above the floor. Hold the body low, like a shallow boat. 4. Stay here. Keep your belly firm, as if drawing it gently toward the spine. Breathe evenly through the nose, in and out at the same easy pace. Stay for a few breaths, and stop earlier if the effort turns to strain. 5. If your lower back strains, bend your knees, even to the point of lowering your feet toward the floor, and keep the lean smaller. 6. Breathe in. Come up, and place your feet on the floor. 7. Hug your knees to your chest with both arms, and rest for a few breaths. The pose is the same on both sides, so there is no other side to turn to. Fine points: the lean comes from the hips, not from rounding the back. The chest stays lifted, and the collarbones stay wide. The neck stays long, and the jaw and shoulders stay soft. Do not push the legs higher or straighten them by force. Counting breaths and lifting the arms alongside the legs are modern teaching, not part of the lesson's lines.

The body holds this pose like a balance on a single point. The sitting bones and the tailbone are the keel. The deep muscles at the front of the hips lift the legs, and the thigh muscles keep the legs straight. The belly muscles work to keep the trunk from collapsing backward and the lower back from sagging. The muscles along the spine keep it long. The backs of the thighs lengthen gently as the legs straighten, and a stiff pair of hamstrings is the usual reason the knees must bend. The spine does not move much. Its job is to hold one line. The breath is left even because the firm belly tempts the body to hold it. A held breath fixes the ribs and makes the pose rigid. Breathing out into the lean makes the belly work, and breathing in to rise gives the body its way back up. For the mind, the pose gives a small, honest task. Balance on a narrow base needs steady attention, and a wandering mind shows at once in a wobble. The tradition's own account would say the firm belly gathers the body's energy at the centre, where it places the fire of digestion, agni. That is the tradition's account, not physiology.

The Pradipika and the other hatha texts say nothing of this pose, so there is no old claim to report. The schools that teach it today say it builds strength in the belly and the front of the hips, and steadiness in the trunk. They say it improves balance and gives a sense of centre. They also say it helps the body hold an upright seat with less tiring, and trains the habit of staying calm while working. Some teachers add that the firm belly warms the middle of the body, which is the tradition's way of speaking about agni. These are the teaching of the schools. They are not promises, and the pose cures nothing.

A girl of about seven sits on the living-room floor copying her grandmother. She leans back, lifts her legs, wobbles, laughs, and tips onto her side. Then she tries again. That small scene shows most of what the pose does. It asks the trunk and hip muscles to hold a position against gravity, and the wobble is the body learning. Today's mainstream understanding agrees that holding the trunk steady against a load trains the belly, hip and back muscles to work together. Breathing steadily during effort is sound habit. A body that can hold itself upright with ease usually finds sitting and lifting easier. There is no good evidence for the claim that the pose stokes digestive fire, tones the organs or clears the body. Agni maps only loosely onto digestion and appetite, and this pose has not been shown to affect them. The pose can also irritate a sensitive lower back or neck when forced. Keeping the knees bent is the sensible adjustment, not a failure. Whether it suits a given back is best judged by someone who can see the person.

This is not medical advice. A teacher can see and correct what a page cannot, and this pose is learnt with a teacher, not from a page. Stop at any pain, and especially pain in the lower back, the neck or the hips. Take care, or leave the pose out, with a disc problem, a recent injury to the back, a recent abdominal operation or a hernia, high blood pressure or heart trouble, or a tendency to dizziness. Leave it out in pregnancy unless a teacher who knows pregnancy guides you. Anyone with sore knees or a stiff neck should bend the knees and keep the lean small. Never force the legs straight, hold the breath, or stay on after the belly shakes and the back sags.

Gentler: keep the knees bent and the shins parallel to the floor, with the hands holding behind the thighs. Or keep the feet on the floor and only lean back slightly. A folded blanket under the sitting bones can ease the tailbone. A stiff beginner may use a strap looped under the feet, held in both hands, to steady the lift. Fuller: straighten the legs a little more and lift them higher, lengthen the spine, and reach the arms forward alongside the legs. The full boat follows after this, with the legs and trunk both lifted into a V. The pose is symmetrical, so there is no mirrored side.

Rounding the lower back and collapsing into the lean: bend the knees and lean less, so the spine stays long. Holding the breath to stay up: keep the breath even and the jaw soft. Throwing the legs high with the belly slack: lift lower and keep the belly firm. Pulling the shoulders up toward the ears: let them drop and the neck stay long. Gripping the thighs hard for help: use the hands lightly. Staying until the body shakes: come up on an in-breath while the effort is still clean.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Paripurna Navasana — full boat pose · Asanas as Taught Today 39
• Next: Bakasana — crane pose · Asanas as Taught Today 41
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