We meet the warriors very early on when we start yoga practice, and like many things we
meet early on, we just assume they are part of the programme and get on with it. We learn
the moves, they become second nature and we just flow through them on the way to more
interesting postures.
But why are they there? Even in its Western expression, never mind in its Indian
expression, Yoga adopts a non-violent approach. Ahimsa which you can translate directly
as non-violence, or more positively as simply kindness, is one of the basic principles.
As with any philosophical system, there are many levels of interpretation, and many reasons
for having warriors in Yoga. At it’s most basic level however, it is in Warrior pose that we
first learn to use a drishti, the use of a focus point.
Warrior 1 has us looking up between the hands or to the hands if they are in prayer. Easy
peasy? Sure, if you’ve been doing it for years. Even looking up while remembering to
keep the knee over the ankle, the hip of that leg back, the weight dropping down, the side
body long, the tummy tucked, the breath flowing, making sound with the breath, the arms
reaching up, and now the teacher wants us to direct our focus up too? Not so easy.
Warrior 2 has us looking out over the middle finger of the front hand. Again, following the
series of postural cues for a beginner, this is not so easy, especially as we tend to lean
forward following that focus at the start, rather than remaining balanced, lifting out of the
house of the pelvis.
Warrior 3 then increases the level of challenge to our focus as we have to balance on one
leg while directing our gaze to the ground ahead of the standing foot. It’s a lot harder to
maintain that focus while wobbling about on one leg.
So, what have warriors to do with focus? Surely warriors have to do with violence, battle,
anger, damage and destruction, all things we try to avoid in civilised society? The trouble is
that “civilised” society contains all of those things and we get challenged by them all the
time, maybe not in an extreme life or death challenge, but still, to live is to experience
adversity.
Yogis have to live in the real world. It’s not all about sitting on your bottom, with your head in
the clouds. Sometimes, sitting still and keeping your mind from flying off on a million
tangents is a huge challenge. To deal with the inevitable adversity we meet on or off the
mat, we need focus. Hence the need to learn focus and now we are back to the value of the
warrior pose.
Om Shanti 3rd February, 2021
