May 4, 2026 - When Passion Becomes Creation
While moving through our conversations and practices around the gunas, I’ve been looking into some alternative sources for further clarity. One such sources has been The Puranas, a collection of myths and cosmologies that inform a great deal of Hindu narrative. This text, along with additional commentaries, jogged my memory that while the gunas are often presented as a hierarchy, from least (tamas) to most (sattva) desirable, there are different conceptions about their role in the cosmos.
In their mythic descriptions, the gunas are portrayed less as a hierarchy and more as a cycle, one leading into the next as essential engines in the repeating loop of creation, preservation, and dissolution. Interestingly, rajas kicks off the process - creation. Like we’ve discussed, rajas here still reflects agitation, volatility, and heat. Rajas is the beater that whips egg whites into meringue, that kicks off spring cleaning, that carries us from a stuck position into something steady and flowing.
One of our classmates shared at the start of practice that she’s in a moment of transition. She’s not exactly sure what of she wants but knows it’s time for a change. As with so many of us, initiating that change is often confounding. The more mythic, cyclical rajas may offer some insights. Here, rajas is also deeply connected with passion and desire. As my teacher Douglas used to say, the universe is made of desire. We’re all here because somebody wanted something, right? And while many mystical traditions tend to frown on desire (it’s the root of all suffering, right?!), it’s also powerfully motivating. Passion and desire beget change, and if we’re skillful and moral in following our creative wants, they made lead us somewhere we didn’t know we could go.
So, we worked towards a little known pose that reflects this - vakra tundasana. This is translated as “Ganesha’s gently twisting trunk.” Ganesha is god of many things but is perhaps best known as the remover of obstacles. In classic representations, the elephant-headed god holds sweets or ladoo in his bottom left hand. His trunk snakes across his big belly, symbolizing the universe itself, and wends its way toward the ladoo. This gesture suggests that with dexterity and effort, one may always find the sweetness in life.
So, we began practice with:
Standing centering, organizing ourselves over the four points of the feet
A series of warm ups in standing and in table top, including the five spinal movements (flexion, extension, side bending, rotation, and spinal lengthening)
Shoulder opening warm ups with the strap.
Explored familiar poses like uttanasana (forward fold), adho mukha svanasana (downward dog), and bhujangasana (cobra pose) with special attention to our foundational foot and hand placement, referred to as pada and hasta bandha (literally meaning “seal” or “gate”).
From there, we moved on to a series of poses involving rotation of the spine, hip opening, and lengthening the back of the leg. These included:
Anjaneyasana - low lunge with a twist and shoulder opening.
Ardha hanumanasana - half splits pose, placing our hands on blocks for added support and length
Utthita parsvakonasana - side angle pose. We first pulsed in and out of this stance to warm the legs and glutes and then went into the classic side-leaning position.
Parsvottanasana - pyramid pose, a forward folding standing pose with a shorter, wider stance. A strong stretch for the back of the leg.
Parivrtta trikonasana - revolved triangle pose. Pyramid pose in the lower half of the body, a big twist in the upper body.
We took a breather after this strong progression, resettling with breathing and some gentle hip and shoulder mobilizations. From there, we came to our final pose, vakra tundasana. This is uttanasana with a spinal rotation and a strap diagonally threaded between the legs to allow for shoulder opening. The torso mimics Ganesha’s trunk snaking around for some treats :)
After that, the usual cool and savasana.
Thank you all. So much. It’s a delight to be with you each week.
Saprema,
Joey