Pañcamaya as it relates to Āsana
What is Āsana?
Āsana are the physical movements or postures of yoga. A lot of people think of yoga as just āsana. While they are apart of yoga, they are only one part of a larger whole. It’s easy to understand the confusion.
When observing a regular yoga class, you see people putting their bodies into different, often unusual positions. Sometimes they flow, or move slowly from one posture to another, sometimes staying in one position for a period of time. Frequently, everyone in the class is synchronized, all moving together. Add to this modern media’s input on our cultural values. Magazine covers, social media and even tv commercials all represent yoga as beautiful, fit people performing various postures.
Have you ever thought, I don’t have a body like that? I’m not strong or flexible. Or maybe you’re dealing with a health concern. If we think getting into pretzel like postures is all yoga is, then it’s beyond a lot of us. It’s not, anyone can do yoga, although it will look different for everyone.
Let’s take a deeper look.
Yoga is an ancient spiritual discipline. It is a 1000’s year-old art and science based upon one of the 6 philosophical disciplines of India. The philosophies, called darśanas (pronounced darshanas,) are aimed at relieving human suffering, and this is yoga’s main goal.
The practice of yoga helps stop the rollercoaster movements of the mind. It helps bring clarity to our thoughts and balance to our lives. Yoga facilitates healing and self-acceptance, calms the mind and body, and helps us notice and choose the important and pleasant things in life. The practice of yoga helps create space in our body and our lives. Yoga supports the creation of new habits or patterns and improves the quality of our relationships. How the heck does yoga do that? How does putting our bodies in different positions make our lives better? These are great questions.
Āsana (the physical postures) is 1 tool of yoga. There are several. The practice of postures is an important tool and one that can make a huge impact on our lives. Yet to understand how it all works, we need to understand a few other basic principles.
The Pañcamaya Model
From the Taittrīya upaniṣad, the pañcamaya model is one-way yoga practitioners understand how the human system works. Pañca (pronounced pañcha) means 5. Maya means something that is all pervading. According to this model, the human system is made up of 5 multi-dimensional and interconnected aspects or dimensions. Some might use the word “level,” but unlike the levels of a scale or layers of an onion, all the aspects or dimensions occur in the same place at the same time.
The 5 dimensions are annamaya (the physical body,) prāṇayama (breath and movement,) manomaya (mind or intellect,) vijñānamaya (personality) and ānandamaya (emotions.) These elements are always present, all the time, in every part of the human system. They are inseparable and all-pervading. Therefore, what affects one level or dimension of the human system, affects all the others.
In terms of āsana
When doing asana, we find that the breath is affected. In fact, the breath supports or informs the purpose or function each posture. Postures (annamaya) relate to the breath in very natural ways, working with natural breathing patterns as they connect to movement (prāṇayama.) For example, when we expand or extent the body, inhaling is natural because the lungs expand. When folding forward the natural exhale accompanies the contraction of the abdomen. But also, movement is a part of everything. even when holding still or staying in a posture, the abdomen is always rising and falling, blood is always pumping, and there is always some form of movement.
The mind level (manomaya) becomes involved when paying attention during asana practice. Attention and focus is needed to coordinate our breath with the movements. Without alertness and stability, both the breath and movement changes, with these changes we get different results.
As we practice yoga over time, we begin to cultivate spaciousness. Space is the place where change is nurtured. Here’s an example.
Say you come home from a hard day at work. The house is a mess, and your children are gleefully playing tug of war with the dog and the couch cushions. Stuffing is everywhere. Because you have been cultivating space, you can choose the way you want to respond. A moment is all it takes.
All of this adds up to how you feel, ānandamaya (level of feelings.) This, for me is also the level of connection and joy, because I am no longer bound to the old patterns in my life (vijñānamaya.) With this cultivated space, I can now develop new, intentional ways of acting, thinking and feeling. I have the clarity (most of the time) to choose an appropriate action rather than an automatic one.
The way āsana works is not an accident.
The above effects do not happen by accident. The ancient sages put this all together in a scientific and intentional way. Yoga is about consciously engineered experiences. We begin where we are and move to where we want to go. Small steps over time. When we practice an intentional, well-planned āsana practice, where we end up is usually better than where we started out thinking was possible.
Doing random poses in a random order can scatter our energy, dispersing prāṇa. (We’ll talk about prāṇa next.) When that happens, āsana practice can take us away from the direction or area of focus. Because of this, the results are far less beneficial and sometimes even harmful.
Yoga practice, including the practice of the physical poses, is very personal. It is not prescriptive. Everyone experiences everything it in their own way. One person may feel great with a kind of practice that another finds detrimental. Working with a qualified teacher, as a guide, is the best way to develop a practice that helps you move in your chosen direction.
Coming up next – The concept of prāṇa.
Annie Jones
Annie’s main educational background is in traditional and therapeutic yoga, herbalism, Vedic chanting, and Ayurveda. She is a Clinical Herbalist with more than 35 years’ experience, and a Yoga Therapist and Teacher in the linage of T, Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar. Annie is a registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance, E-RYT 500, YACEP, RCYT, and is a Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT) with the International Association for Yoga Therapists. She is also Certified as a Vedic Chanting Teacher by the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai, India.
Annie offers individual yoga therapy and herbal health consultations. She is available for a variety of experiential, educational and transformational workshops in the fields of yoga and holistic healing.
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References
TKV Desikachar; The Heart of Yoga, Developing a Personal Practice; Inner Traditions International, Rochester Vermont, 1999
Bossart, Chase MA; The Yoga Tradition, Yoga Bodies, Yoga Minds, How Indian Anatomies form the foundation for healing; International Journal of Yoga Therapy-no17, 20017
Desikachar, Kausthub with, Bossart, Chase and Liz Bragdon; Yoga of Healing: Exploring Yoga’s Model for Health and Wellbeing; International Journal of Yoga Therapy – Vol 15, 2005
Taittrīya upaniṣad – Brahmānandavallī
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