Sarvangasana, sarvāṅgāsana – the shoulderstand

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sarvāṅgāsana

Shoulderstand, striving “dynamically against gravity into the graceful, candle-like line”¹

The shoulderstand is like a flower:

When standing on the shoulder, the practitioner can move into a rather unusual order of his various limbs. He lets the head, which stands for thinking and generally perceiving by the senses, rest on the ground, as if the root of a plant rests in the earth. The breathing system with the lungs and the heart organ form the middle, which is erected over the head and shoulder girdle. It corresponds to the leaves of the plant. The belly, the seat of human willpower, inversely rises upwards. It corresponds to the flower of a plant. So the human body in the shoulderstand is like a flower , which aspires to the sky with its blossom, forms its center with the leaves and is based on the roots in the earth.²

Text sources and notes:

sarva = all

āṅga = the limb

āsana = to sit

(1) Heinz Grill,  The Soul Dimension of Yoga: A Practical Foundation for a Path of Spiritual Practice, Lammers-Koll Publisher, p. 70

(2) Heinz Grill, Harmony In Breathing: Deepening The Path Of Yoga Practice, Heinrich Hugendubel Publisher, ISBN 978-3980423045

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