January 2nd 2025 - Raya Intermediate -Urdhva Hasta Dandasana

This year I am back at Dheeraj's place close to the Old Post Office. Today was an organising day - unpacking, doing laundry and practicing. I stayed here in 2020 and the highlight for me was the rooftop terrace surrounded by treetops and birdsong. However this year it wasn't ready for me to use as it was waiting for a local company to come and give it a deep clean. I woke up a little despondant at the thought of having to stay inside to practice and decided to take matters into my own hands and go up and give it a good scrub and hose down. The saying goes "Be the change you want to see in the world" and the change I wanted to see in the world was a sparkling clean practice area out in the (relatively) fresh air! I took my speaker up there, put on some tunes, rolled my sleeves up and got on with it - much to Dheeraj's horror when he came up to see what I was up to. I managed to convince him I was happy as larry and to just leave me to get on with it. It was a big task but several sweaty hours later I was satisfied and went downstairs arms heavy with tiredness and brought my props up to settle down for a recuperative practice to get over the physical graft.

I'd opted to attend Raya's 6pm intermediate and was slightly apprehensive as I know Raya's classes can take you to a place where your comfort zone is but a distant memory. Well of all the days to arrive at class with tired arms! It was essentially 80 minutes of Urdhva Hasta Dandasana with a little 'break' in Urdhva Dandasana and the final 10 minutes for a blissful brick setubandha and savasana with feet resting on the wall. For my local yoga colleagues, it was reminiscent of the class Gerry gave in Otterton where we spent a very, very long time extending our arms and came out feeling fabulous.

He started preparing for the invocation seated in virasana giving lots of instructions to soften the facial skin. I am a chronic over-trier and it shows in my face, especially when my routine has been disrupted (like now) and I haven't done all my wonderful grounding, releasing practices like my daily jump into an ice-cold lake followed by a seated savasana surrounded by nature. Safe to say there had been quite the build up of tension in my face. I had to smile to myself as I battled to remove the over-trying from my face, some observing part of me enjoying watching me try hard to not try so hard!

I love hated the class as you only can as a committed yogi. The final Urdhva Hasta Dandasana was to be a 3-minute hold and we all steeled our nerve to stay there come what may, only faltering when he verbalised after an interminable amount of time that he had forgotten to watch what time we started but it was 'probably' 2 minutes.

Towards the end of the class when we were in brick setubandha he said that every asana should be the child of tadasana and savasana. And we observed to what extend the genealogy of each parent could be traced in our poses. After some time he got us to move very slightly away from the wall so the whole sole of the foot could no longer reach, yet continuing to extend the big toe to touch the wall. It made a remarkable difference to the whole pose as the legs noticeably refined and extended. Although I have been practicing seated leg extensions and foward bends with this foot shape, it had never occured to me to use the wall in this way for setubandha. I got a LOT out of this class and resolved to enrol for one of Raya's online classes when I get back. I feel like regularly training with Raya would result in you becoming like the Unsullied in Game of Thrones - absolutely bullet proof!

January 2nd 2025 – Raya Intermediate – Urdhva Hasta Dandasana

• Invocation in virasana – Sometimes people lift the side trunk, but leave the centre trunk dropping downward, so raise up the centre body and keep the sides tall. He talked for quite some time here observing and softening the facial skin and also the layers below the skin.

• Uttanasana taking care not to immediately force the knees straight after the extended stay in virasana. Taking the outer feet down and hitting the legs apart. Gradually bringing the intelligence to the feet and legs drawing upwards like the rising sun.

• Half the class take 2 bricks, half the class take a bolster.

• Very long holds in every one of the following Urdhva Hasta poses. Lots of instructions throughout to keep the legs and feet sharp, extended, active, spread etc Reminder to keep face passive – ‘Don’t tighten your throat to the extent that you are making your eyes bulge out of the sockets’. We were encouraged to keep the feet spread and active, without making them aggressive like a dog baring its teeth when it's ready to fight.

• Parsva Dandasana x 2 each side

• Urdhva Hasta Dandasana with the buttocks raised on the bolster / brick. Draw the outer legs in. Straighten the knees fully, don’t have them like Mount Everests. Compare the right and the left side. Raise the centre body up and take the elbows further back. Don’t let the lower abdomen sink. Raise up from the lower abdomen.

• Parsva Utthita Hasta Dandasana – Still seated on the brick or bolster. Rotate the back arm so that it is like gomukhasana and make the armpit like an open eye looking at the window behind you.

• Upavistha Konasana – Seated on brick or bolster. Extending from the inner groin to inner heel and circling back from the outer heel to the outer hip. Legs fully extended straight. Feet actively open, but not harshly like dogs with their teeth bared ready to fight.

• Urdhva Hasta Upavistha Konasana to Parsva Uttihita Hasta Upavistha Konasana – Turn the right armpit back more to help the left side turn.

• Padangustha Upavistha Konasana – Encircle the big toes and then lengthen the big toes away to lengthen the arms. Lift up from the pubic bone.

• Urdhva Hasta Dandasana Brick or bolster under the buttocks and those that had the bricks, feet raised on the second brick. Pull the toes towards you.

• Urdhva Hasta Dandasana – Calves on the bolster or brick. Brick group were also seated on the other brick. Sit on the front of the buttock bones. Don’t lean the body forwards, outer edges of the feet sharp.

• Be students not followers. Guruji was never looking for followers – he was looking for students of yoga. Follow the individual path that is right for you. Analogy of how you can ride your motorcycle behind another motorcyclist, but you should never follow their exact path as your abilities and requirements may be entirely different.

• Repeat Urdhva Hasta Dandasana - Same seating arrangement but this time turn the palms backwards and observe on the spine muscles and the ribs spreading.

• Urdhva Hasta Dandasana – Brick or bolster under the knees.

• Urdhva Hasta Dandasana – Brick or bolster under thighs and lift the heels off the floor.

• Urdhva Hasta Dandasana - Sit on floor and raise the heels on medium height brick / bolster.

• Swap props – bolster group take the 2 bricks and vice versa. We repeated entire sequence of Urdhva Hasta Dandasana with very long holds 1) Brick under heels 2) Calves 3) Knees 4) Thighs 5) Buttocks on floor, heels on brick. Observe the density of the legs and breath. Learning to work at an optimum level, not to place too much extra load. Know when the optimum work has been reached – when you are in an asana. Like churning butter – you work hard to churn the butter, but there is a point when the butter is churned and if you continue churning beyond this point, then the butter is spoiled and starts to return to liquid. Know when the optimum time to stop is.

• Urdhva Hasta Dandasana no brick, no bolster, no mat – 3 minute hold.

• Sirsasana going up with 2 legs where possible and Urdhva Dandasana – mainly in Urdva Dandasana with short periods of respite in Sirsasana. Are you holding the pose from your back? Should be from the legs (firm and extended).

• Here we came down to look at Raya’s mentee in Urdhva Dandasana and observed the effect of having the brick on the back thigh, back knee and heels. And also of resting the feet on something, under something or soles pressing into wall (watch how the back changes)

  
  

  

  Dandasana

  

  Urdhva Dandasana

  
  

• Back to Urdhva Dandasana / Sirsasana

• Stand in Tadasana without making any conscious adjustments, let the body take its own imprint after the long stay Urdhva Dandasana. Feel the resonance / vibration.

• Here we stopped to look at the similarities and differences between Guruji’s pictures of Dandasana and Urdhva Dandasana and considered what those same images would look like standing from every different angle, rather then the single view point that the 2D image gave. Overall they were very similar with some difference in the shape of the chest due to the pressing down of the palms creating a more obvious lift in the chest.

• Urdhva Hasta Dandasana - Sit on a single brick with whole sole of the foot pressing into the wall.

• Trikonasana – Back foot to wall with another Urdhva Hasta Dandasana soles of feet pressing into wall in between right and left side of Trikonasana.

• Parsva Dandasana Right side only - Pressing the back of the palm into the outer leg like bharadvajasana arm and back hand propping you up then if possible lifting the back arm up parallel to the floor and extending it diagonally backwards to help the rotation of the trunk.

• Parivrtta Trikonasana right side front toes up the wall.  Palm down with fingers turned back towards the shin.

• Parsva Dandasana as above to the left side. Press the left side of the sacrum in to generate the spinal lift.

• Parivrrta Trikonasana left side front toes up the wall. Palm down with fingers turned back towards the shin.

• Ardha Chandrasana in the centre of the room, no supports. Try not to let your knowledge of the pose influence this Ardha Chandrasana. Just let it unfold of its own accord.

• Brick setubandha 1) Whole sole of foot pressed into the wall 2) Move slightly away so the whole sole of the foot can no longer reach the wall, but still extend the big toe to the wall. This made a huge difference to the pose – the extension of the legs was better and the whole pose became more refined.

• Urdhva Prasarita Padasana – Nice quiet stay here with the buttocks at least a foot away from the wall so the legs were at an angle, heels against the wall. Allow the feet to roll out like savasana. After some time here, Raya asked us to compare the facial tension and quality of the skin to the start of the class when we sat in virasana.

• Bend the legs and put the feet flat on the floor to ground them for a couple of minutes before rolling to the side to get up.