Inner Fire
by Nicole Ward
In our rajasic yoga practices, we salute the sun and ignite the same fire within. The discipline to get onto our mat before dawn and open our movement as the sun wakes up the world, can feel like a small spark in a cold, dark night. But our bodies, like a coal saved from the last fire, can be reawakened again each morning, and brought steadily into illumination.
As we in the Northern hemisphere pass through the equinox and begin tilting away from the sun, the days shorten and the Mysore room opens while the stars are still shining.
Recently, I left my house to go practice and was stunned to see the rare and bright beauty of our crescent moon, Venus, and Regulus nestled together against the black sky. The intense contrast of their light in the darkness was not just a quiet cosmic moment of wonder (thanks to the morning practice, I get to witness many of these!) but also a reminder of the increasing darkness to come, and the importance of keeping the fire lit within.
As the sun rises, Mysore Ashtanga practitioners weave their way into the studio and begin their sun salutations, adding to the collective heat building in the room.
Though we are practicing indoors, one can imagine the sensation of facing the rising sun during those opening Surya Namaskars, and the way that first light bathes every part of the body in a gently increasing heat. We learn to mirror the way the sun affects us here on earth, rising in intensity, radiating in all directions, sourcing from the center, growing and transforming, all without burning out.
The dedicated application of the Ashtanga sequences is considered a rajasic practice. In yogic philosophy, the three gunas helpfully architect qualities of nature and mind through tamas (inertia), rajas (activity), and sattva (clarity).
These three qualities assist us in understanding how we are relating with life, and offer us endless opportunities to adapt and make choices that either harmonize these relationships or imbalance them.
We all experience being swept away by the great waves created by the interrelating gunas, and go through cycles where one may dominate another, whether it be for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
The work of yoga, however, gives us a path to refine our energy, to transform tamas into rajas in service of sattva, and to move with these currents skillfully.
The Ashtanga method embraces rajas through its repetitive, vigorous, demanding, and dynamic movement. The fiery tapas (heat) stirs up the rajasic quality within us by moving us out of tamas. The heat moves us out of stuckness, apathy, lethargy, heaviness, and into the energy that propels us forwards and establishes consistency in breaking through inertia. This fire is said to have a purifying effect that literally burns away limiting belief systems and their corresponding physical barriers.
Therefore, any stagnancy, shadow, unawareness, or unwise habit, can willingly be used as fuel for the fire of transformation as it increases in intensity, burns away the unnecessary, and eventually softens into subtler states of awareness, luminous qualities of insight, realization, and deep compassion.
The danger of unchecked rajas has its shadow: striving, inflated ego, overexertion, and restlessness. When we overly identify with progressing quickly without patience, collecting postures as trophies of success, aggressively competing with others, forcing the body despite strong signals of alarm, we will inevitably slip into the realms of the very harm and ignorance that yoga seeks to dismantle. This light blinds rather than illuminates.
Bringing rajas into the practice consciously and with skillful awareness, however, opens up entire landscapes of divine understanding through clear, intelligent light.
Abiding here allows us to relate with life in a way that also warms, encourages, inspires, and illuminates others wisely and with adaptability. When we approach the practice with humility, curiosity, and awareness, rajas becomes a healthy fire that cleanses the system and reveals our true nature. By respecting the fire within and putting ourselves in conversation with it each morning, we can work with that heat in our lives for the benefit of all beings.
Sometimes we need a teacher to ignite us again, as we sit on our mats cooling down with too many research poses. Sometimes that teacher needs to be the rajas within, who says in the mind “pick it up, jump back!” with life and vigor, encouraging us along.
At some point, we need to take full responsibility for our own fire. We know when we are cooling down with more poses left to go, and need to get on with it. We also know when we are moving too fast, losing presence, stumbling and forgetting, shortening our breaths, burning ourselves out.
All the signals are there when we choose to listen to the vast communication system of body, breath, and mind. When we allow the practice to be a vehicle of awareness of this communication system, we will learn how to move our energy efficiently, precisely, and luminously, enacting powerful change wherever it's needed.
I enjoy, even after years and years of practice, discovering more and more of the genius of these sequences at raising, sustaining, and cooling down heat. Whether it’s in the order of postures, the transitions, bandhas, numbers of breath, circuits of nadis interacting, opening invocation, or the vast unknown still yet to be illuminated, there is a lot to learn from this fire.
And I am so grateful to be a student of this fire with you.