Sun Salutation or Surya Namaskar, often misunderstood literally as a salutation to the Sun, is a powerful sequence of postures in Yoga that helps you balance your inner energies in terms of the right and left dimensions, bringing in a certain level of equilibrium in your body. According to the yogic culture our body is divided into energy dimensions – the right and left (or masculine and feminine, or solar and lunar). Here masculine and feminine have nothing to do with gender, it just refers to the kind of energy flowing in your body. While the solar energies help you perform all the work and action in the outside world, the lunar energies are responsible for creativity and sensitivity. Only when both these energy dimensions are in balance with each other are we able to function with utmost vibrancy, and still be relaxed.

Not a form of Sun worship

Sun salutation is not really a form of Sun worship. It’s a routine that energises the solar energies in your body. If you start practising surya namaskar on a daily basis you will find that your batteries last longer and even though you could mentally be tired, you would find lesser and lesser occasions when you physically feel exhausted.

The sun salutation has twelve positions, all of which together make a full round. In fact even the Sun’s cycles in the solar system run about twelve and a quarter years. This cannot just be an accident! The positions of the surya namaskar are so aligned that it helps organise the solar energies in your body giving you a great physical balance.

Physical benefits of Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation)

At the elementary level, surya namaskar is a great form of physical exercise. It is a combination of yoga asanas and breathing, and helps in reducing abdominal fat and increasing breathing capacity. It provides great flexibility to your limbs and spine. Especially for a stiff person, the sun salutation is a boon in bringing back lost flexibility.

In the yogic culture our body is referred to as a temple, because our body is the only access we have to this life. Only if we take care of our body completely, we are able to go after all our dreams and desires. For a sick person, the only desire is to be in a perfect state of health. Consider tomorrow you get a really high fever, all your focus and attention will be on coming back to a good state of health. Even if your work crosses your mind, you wouldn’t have enough energy in you to be able to indulge in it fully. So it is really important that you take care of your body with utmost care and attention, and daily practice of surya namaskar can be a great way of keeping your body in full swing!

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