Shavasana: Final Rest
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Photo by Justin Kral.
In shavasana all effort and all
determination fall away. The body lies in stillness.
We are not the body, which is subject to death, but rather
we are the unborn, the unchanging. The death of the body invites us to come
back to our true nature, which is consciousness.
This letting go of artificial identification with what is
impermanent is shavasana.
Shavasana, when done properly – as the letting go of everything –
shows us what we truly are. Both the Yoga
Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita state
that the pure existence, pure awareness, pure being that is left at the end of
the body is without beginning and end.
It cannot be cut by
knives,
It cannot be pierced
by thorns,
It cannot be burned by
fire,
It cannot be drowned
in water.
It is eternal, the
true self.
This post is an excerpt from Ashtanga Yoga: Practice & Philosophy by Gregor Maehle. Namaste.
