VASISHTHASANA (Tree variation)
Vasishtha = literally, “most wealthy”
Popularly known as Side Plank
Vasishtha (pronounced vuh-sish-tuh) is the name of a celebrated Vedic sage. He’s best remembered as the owner of a miraculous cow, Nandini, the “cow of plenty,” who had the power to grant its owner whatever he could desire, hence Vasishtha’s name. Born directly from the brain of the creator deity, Brahma, he’s one of the seven great seers (sapta rishi) who, according to the ancient myth, receive the timeless words of the Rig Veda at the outset of each world incarnation. As a poet, most of the 104 suktas (“wise sayings,” usually called hymns) collected in the seventh chapter (called a mandala, “circle”) of the Rig are attributed to him.
Apparently, there’s more than one Vasishtha associated with Hindu and yoga literature. Several other texts–the Vasishtha Samhita (“collection”) and the Yoga Vasishtha among them–are attributed, as we can see, to a Vasishtha. These texts, though, were written hundreds of years after the Rig. So unless the original Vasishtha lived a really long time, it’s a safe bet that there were later Vasishthas. Another possibility is that these texts were written by men who attributed their work to a well-known and widely revered sage while remaining anonymous, something that doesn’t happen very often with modern books. But this was a fairly common practice in the yoga tradition. It was felt that by tagging their work with the names of self-realized or semi-divine characters, that work would be thought to be endowed with greater authority.
A search through the Encyclopedia of Traditional Asanas turned up three different poses named vasishthasana. The earliest, from the 18th century, is found in the Joga Pradipika (not to be confused with the Yoga Pradipika; joga is Hindi for “yoga”). Picture sitting on the floor with bent knees, taking your arms outside the thighs and under the knees, then clasping your hands on your crown (the feet a lifted slightly off the floor). Looking straight on at the pose then, the shins make a V shape. The next variant is from the year 1880, found in the Asana Yoga Grantha (“treatise”). Picture sitting on the floor in Bound Angle Pose (baddha konasana), slipping your arms under the shins, taking hold of your feet and raising them above your head. If you’re like me, this picture is as close to this pose as you’ll get. The third variation is from a book authored by T. Krishnamacharya, Yoga Rahasya (“secret”), written, I believe, in the late 1930's. Here at last we find the basic version of the pose we all know and sort of like, in theory if not in practice, so well.
PREPARATION
Balance can be an issue with vasishthasana, so here’s a preparation that will give you a feel for the pose in a more stable variation.
1. Come into Downward Dog (adho mukha svanasana). Step your right foot half-way to your right hand, pivot on the heel and turn the foot so the toes point out to the right, then slide that foot a little closer to your mat’s long edge.
2. Inhale, swing on to the outer edge of your left foot, turn your torso to the right, and swing your right hand to your right hip. You now should be resting on your left hand and the outer edge of the left foot, with your bent-knee right foot out in front of the rest of the body providing stability. Press your left hand actively to the floor, emphasizing the contact on the base of the index finger. Imagine your arm is rooted in your spine, so that you push against the floor from deep inside your upper back.
3. Try to create a straight line from heels to head diagonal to the floor. Oftentimes the pelvis is doing one of two things: it’s either pushed up toward the ceiling, creating a kind of shallow upside down U, or sagging toward the floor, creating a kind of shallow U. Adjust as best you can.
4. In photos of this pose, we often see the supporting hand positioned directly below its shoulder. It’s my humble opinion this isn’t the best placement, it will tend to jam the joint, and we prefer yoga jelly to jam. Ideally, the hand should be slightly ahead of the shoulder so the supporting arm is parallel to the line across the top of the shoulders, not perpendicular to the floor. The same goes if you want to stretch the free arm up. Adjust it too parallel to the shoulder line, so the arms, like the rest of your body, are slightly angled relative to the floor.
5. You might imagine there’s a wall in front of your top hand. Push against that imaginary resistance and use it to bring the shoulder blade firmly against your back.
6. Hold for 15 to 30 seemingly endless seconds, then exhale and swing back to Downward Dog. Come down for a rest if needed, then repeat with your right side, left foot forward. Hold for a similar length of time (no cheating), then again back to Downward Dog and release into Child’s Pose (balasana).
PRACTICE
1. If you feel that you might need some help, you can do one of two things. Start in Downward Dog with your heels against your yoga wall, balls of the feet on the floor. Swing on to the outer edge of your left foot as before, but now press your left sole against the wall. Then stack your right foot atop the left and press that sole to the wall as well. Make sure your hand is ahead of the shoulder.
2. The second thing you can do, if you want to work away from the wall, is move into Downward Dog with a foam block within reach. As you swing on to the left side, with your right hand take the block and wedge it, tallest height, under either the left foreleg or thigh, depending on your height. Of course, you can always do the pose without any help.
3. Now comes the tricky part. Exhale and bend your right knee in toward your torso and take hold of the ankle. Lift the right foot up and stand it on your inner left thigh. If you want to mimic the Tree Pose (vrkshasana), touch the ball of the foot first to the inner side of the thigh, then firmly press the heel into inner groin.
4. Be sure not to press the raised knee back. Keep it slightly forward of the line of the torso, so the groin stays soft. Again, stay for 15 to 30 seconds, then swing back to Dog and down into Child’s Pose, take a rest.
5. Now if you’re feeling adventurous, you might try the pose without a wall or block. Be sure to press actively from the tail bone through your heels, keeping the thigh muscles firm. Unless your neck is perfectly aligned with the torso, I strongly advise NOT to turn your head to look up, but keep looking straight ahead.
THINK ON THESE THINGS
Here’s something to think about. Which arm feels stronger? One of my teachers many years ago maintained that for righties, the left arm is stronger, for lefties vice versa. According to him, the dominant hand was best at fine manipulation.