Taking a look at Savasana

Leslie Hogya

This pose is the hardest, according to B.K.S. Iyengar (Guruji.) It could also seemingly be the easiest, if one thinks of it as just time to lie down and relax. In a beginners class this may be the form and substance of the pose. Sava means corps. Savasana is the corpse pose. It is surrending oneself, completely relaxing and letting go of roles, expectations, and personality.

You can look carefully at a group of students and see that there are small differences between the left and right legs and feet in these people.

Teaching older students, one might think interspersing Savasana in the class would beneficial. Geeta Iyengar, in a recent article in Yoga Rahasya says that this is the wrong approach. It disturbs both the flow of asana, and keeps disturbing the attempt at savasana. She says: “After a good Savasana, you cannot suddenly get up. In Savasana, the body, brain, nerves, everything rests. It is a passive, relaxed stated. If you do Savasana after each asana then, you cannot activate the body. So you neither become active for the rest of the asanas, nor passive in savasana with the anticipating mind. So you offer tension in both ways and the nerves are taxed.” *

In Chapter Thirty in Light on Pranayama (LOP) Guruji gives one of the most comprehensive explanations of Savasana that one will find anywhere. It is traditionally given for rejuvenation after an asana class and at the end of a session of pranayama. Students often ask for Savasana, but the reality is that most people cannot stay still for long. Soon, the student may start to fidget and make small physical adjustments, look for a bolster to put under their legs, or shift their head. In many people the eyes, even under closed lids, show darting movements, others can’t even close their eyes. Oftentimes students may fall asleep, especially at the end of a busy workday.   Guruji says: “a prolonged stay in Savasana is not only very uncomfortable to the brain, but makes the body feel like a piece of dry, dead wood. Pricking sensations are felt on the skin….”

Geeta, (Guruji’s daughter) said, if you fall asleep in Savasana it is saatvic sleep (illuminating, pure sleep.) She said so many people live with such stress, that when they can let go, they sleep and it is more refreshing than when they go to bed. This can happen even if the practice happens after a full night’s sleep. Guruji also said that in Light on Life (LOL), he never woke a student up if they began to snore, unless the hall had emptied!

When the pose is well performed the breath is steady, slow and soft, the thoughts are stilled. But at the beginning, there is often no harmony in body, mind and breath. The breath may be uneven. In LOP Guruji says we must first silence the body, control the breath, and bring quiet to the mind, emotions and move inward to the “Self.” (p. 233). Pranayama begins and ends in savasana, and the two are interlinked, one to the other. The quiet qualities instilled in savasana are essential to pranayama.

He goes on to describe in great detail the steps to achieve Savasana starting with exact placement of the body along a median line. In the photos in LOP, you can see him carefully placing the centre of the spine along a straight line. You can either draw a line down the centre of your own mat, or place two mats of the exact same thickness side by side, and use this simple guide to help find that median line. Lying down with a visual cue like this can be a step in teaching your proprioceptors what is straight.  First sit along the line, with the knees bent. As you lie down, first come to the elbows, and check that the legs have stayed equidistant from the centre line, then tuck the hips slightly towards the foot end and continue to lie down. At first, one might need to have another person check that you did stay on the line once you completely recline. The arms must be placed equidistant from each side of the torso, only about 30 to 40 degrees. If one hand is touching the mat, and the other is touching the floor, the senses are subtly aware of this difference, and attention may be drawn to that touch instead of moving inward. Guruji recommends one adjust the head from the front, to bypass the tendency some people to tilt the head to one side.

All senses draw inwards, and the tongue should not rest on the palate. The skin is the largest sense organ and covers our entire body; the muscles relax and quietness descends everywhere, especially the skin on the face, and temples.

Getting the correct position is the beginning of savasana. Guruji says quieting the body helps to still the mind and “…can lead to a sense of timelessness.” In Light on Life Guruji entitles a section “Savasana and time” (pg.232). He describes Savasana as shedding…“shedding sheathes, thoughts, prejudices, preconceptions, ideas, memories and projects for the future.”  Tensions prevent us from relaxing.  Talking about time he says that we have to find the present moment. He asks: “Can I exist in a discrete awareness of time in which neither past nor future, impinge or taint the present?”

Give your self the gift of time, a gift of silence. Lie down in Savasana once a day, breath softly. The mind does not want to be silent, this is why the pose is the most difficult; the monkey mind is by nature active, it jumps from thought to thought. As thoughts arise, bring the mind back to the breath. Guruji says in LOL that the goal is to live in the present. He sums up this section with: “By all means, relax, go to sleep even; we are all human, but in Savasana you are on the edge of a great mystery. And if Savasana is the most difficult of all postures, at least it has the saving grace that we can all lie on the floor as we attempt it.” (p 235).

*Iyengar, Geeta. “Yoga Practice for the Elderly in the Absence of Props”, Yoga Rahasya vol 24, no 2, 2017,  p. 12.