Years back I posted to an ashtanga yoga forum inquiring if there was a “scriptural” reference to the reason Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is always practiced on the right, meaning, the right foot precedes all postures but two of them: Marichasana B and D.Nobody answered.
Bihar School of Yoga told me not to practice chandra bheda (left nostril) pranayama until The Guru instructed me to do as such. Given how much personal contact I had with THAT guru (ie: none) I figured I needed a bit of a different chain-of-command.
So what’s up with this clear right-side bias anyways?
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika does instruct to use the right side first for some postures but it does not make a point forbidding it’s use.
As I wrote about before, the right nostril and side of the body is related to the male aspect and the left is the female. Its helpful to think of gender with a number of different analogies and relationships, perhaps as two indestructible principles forming the necessary sexual polarity for life to exist. Like a battery.
I got curious about the right dogma when nursing knee injuries and hip imbalances, which seemed to be exacerbated by only using the right leg on top when in lotus. Every so often I would use the illegal left on top practice to find that I was ridiculously out of balance.
That was when I came across a teaching by one of my old teachers: BNS Iyengar of Mysore India. Iyengar teaches that the right on top first (in lotus) is for moksha - liberation, while the left on top first is for siddhi - psychic development.
I still wonder what moksha really is actually… do I just blip out of of existence with the “I” erased permanently? I’m still interested in more attainment… sorry, call me crude or unenlightened if you like. That aside, I do know what siddhi is however 
So I’ve taken to practicing lotus with the left and using chandra bedha pranayama along with other kriyas I’ve learned over the years and have noticed a subtle difference. It’s walking along a hidden path in a way, one that has a lot of power and shakti inerrant in it. It is Tantric in it’s orientation towards the feminine and power. It may not be for everyone right away, but if you have good control over your own mind and prana, experiment with this and tell me if you notice anything. Remember, yoga is transcending duality not encouraging it.
10 responses so far ↓
1 TC // Jan 8, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Apparently when Guruji was asked the question as to why Padmasana is done by first placing the right leg and then the left leg on top, he quoted the Yoga Shastra as saying, “right leg first and right leg on top purifies the liver and spleen. Left leg first and right leg on top is of no use at all.” He also explained that this stimulates insulin production. Hmmm, make what you will of this explanation.
Some contemporary teachers have suggested performing Padmasana on both sides to balance the body. I had an ashtanga teacher who believes that improving symmetry of the body is achieved through standing postures. He is of the opinion that postures that strongly influence the abdominal and thoracic cavities such as Padmasana, Kurmasana, Dwi Pada Sirsasana and Pashasana do not have the function of making the body symmetrical but of accommodating the asymmetry of the abdominal and thoracic organs. For instance, the liver is in the right side of the abdominal cavity and the spleen on the left, so the right leg is first placed into position before the left. Similarly, as the leg-behind-head postures develope the chest, the left leg is placed first to accomodate the fact that the heart is predominanly in the left side of the thoracic cavity. Does this make sense?
From my own experience, doing Padmasasana on one side first all the time meant it was hard to do it on the other side first. But in the first place the other hip was tight that’s why I never did it on that side first. The result is the open side is getting more open while the other side remained the same. I would imagine most people aren’t symmetrical anyway so they would tend to favour the “easy” side. So yeah, now that I have swopped sides for 6 mths, the tight hip is opening up and the other side has remained the same, it hasn’t tightened up.
2 Adrian Cox // Jan 9, 2008 at 3:56 pm
That’s a great reply… my friend and teacher Christopher Gladwell had this to say:
“… the stepping to the right in other postures is because of the cyclical flow of the organ energies, liver first….”
Interesting, I saw another website showing the flows in men go down the right side and up the left… but what about women?
When you say Guruji quoted from yoga shastra, my question is WHICH yoga shastra. Do you know?
3 TC // Jan 10, 2008 at 9:31 pm
My guess would be the yoga kurunta? but wasn’t the only copy supposedly eaten by ants? I’ll see if the teacher I quoted from knows which shastra Guruji meant.
Yes, interesting, if the reason for practicing right side first is due to the flow of energies, and if the flows in women go the other way, then should women be practising left side first? But I wonder why the flow in women should be different. OK, sure right side is solar, yang & male and vice versa for left side. Anyways,there appear to be a few rationales behind this right/left business…. So, yeah - food for thought.
4 Christopher Gladwell // Jan 13, 2008 at 5:38 pm
For sure stepping to the right (ashtanga style) is about the cycle of organs and also the cycle of digestion which is the same in men and women.
This is different to the use of Surya Bhedana and Chandra Bhedana. Surya Bhedana is about cultivating activity and solar power to be used in the practices of Ha-Tha or unification. Chandra Bhedana is often discouraged because it is considered that too much emphasis on the lunar qualitites can take one into a disturbed place of delusory experience and therefore this practice is to be given to appropriate adepts by the ‘all knowing’ Guru.
Guru also has many principles, not least the human heart and pristine pure awareness of the sadhak that is reflected and brought to fruition by the human teacher, another principle of Guru.
Different again is the use of the heel pressing into the base of the belly in folded knee postures such as Marichyasana and Baddha Padmasana. Here the heel presses into the base of the ida and pingala nadis and the endeavour here is primarily reduction, purification and resolution of the dualistic energies of ida and pingala. The energy to be reduced first because of its consequences on lived mental and emotional expereience is pingala nadi, hence the left heel presses first in the Marichasanas. The right foot goes up in Padmasana first becasue in Padmasana when it is bound the most prominent pressure is then from the top foot, the left, which presses again most prominently in pingala nadi. So for the use of Padmasana for energetic spiritualisisng practice it is right foot first. For those aspirants concerned about the effects on the body and rightly so, balance the practice so both hips rest open with ease. Eventually the hips open so much that that issue becomes fairly irrelevant anyway. Hope this helps. With Love and Peace. Christopher
www.radikalfreedom.com
5 Adrian Cox // Jan 13, 2008 at 9:51 pm
In a spirit of inquiry here… isn’t the base of the perineum the start of ida and pingala? Or some say the kanda… Ok for baddha padmasana and marichasana B and D got it… for the nadis running along the top of the right thigh,
but…
what about all the rest of the asanas starting on the right. I can get stepping to the right with a kind of flow down the right side, but say… janu sirsasana with the right leg first, which folds over the left straight leg… any logic to this?
6 Daniel Strausser // Jan 16, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Concerning “left/right-Padmasana” my tradition (Himalayan Hatha/Raja Yoga - not related to Krishnamacharya or Sivananda) tells that:
“left is female, right is male.”
In nature the female aspect always embrases and covers the male; just like the lingam is covered by the yoni. The opposite never happens and is unnatural.
In the same way the left leg (female) is embrasing, sheltering and covering the right leg (male) in Padmasana. Always.
Female is the cover, the everchanging external and male is the essence and the eternal center.
The sperm comes from male and develops into the central nervous system (the spine and brain - the core of the body) and the arms and legs, the external extremeties, grow from female in womb.
It is all natural. It must be that because yoga nowadays is regarded more or less as a form of bodywork, and since subtle aspects is given less focus, confusion and missunderstanding are widespread.
Or as Christopher said above:
“So for the use of Padmasana for energetic spiritualisisng practice it is right foot first. For those aspirants concerned about the effects on the body and rightly so, balance the practice so both hips rest open with ease. Eventually the hips open so much that that issue becomes fairly irrelevant anyway.”
7 Adrian Cox // Jan 22, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I just met up with Danny Paradise the other day for dinner. I asked him if he ever practiced to the left. He said “yeah, everyday, am I going to hell?”
His conclusion is; it doesn’t make a damn difference, it’s just convenient to repeat it the same side for simplicity. So there you go, ranging from the physical, mystial, symbolic, energetic, and the blase… and we all have different opinions.
I like that
8 satianand // Jun 4, 2008 at 5:40 pm
i have for the past ten years yoga, pranayam and reiki. My horoscope is cancerian and as a result Iam a bit shy and lack confidence. I have found that practice of chandra bedha arouses more of the feminine qualities and accentuates existing negative traits associated with ida nadi. Meditation, chandra bedha and other relaxation techniques are more appropriate for people with aggressive temparent. But what about people who want to cultivate extrovertness, self confidence in the public?
9 Adrian Cox // Jun 6, 2008 at 11:15 am
Good question! As I suggested, the instruction is to use the right initially until one gets good control and then use left to play with things… but not until you understand the dynamics internally.
By all means, open your pingala nadi… maybe especially for you. Look at Swara yoga texts and they say to keep the person you want to attract on the right open swara. Play with it. I’m already extroverted and out there so, I find the ida use to be helpful for me
10 nick // Jul 30, 2008 at 1:37 am
I62cJf hi! hice site!
Leave a Comment