Ardha Chandrasana: Half Moon

The pose we are focusing on this week is Half Moon. The physical elements include a single leg balance, hip opening, and core strength to hold the pose. I will be breaking these elements down in this week's classes by focusing on strengthening the legs, stretching and opening the hips, and building core strength. Learning the science behind a pose is extremely helpful and beneficial so that the body can align properly and enter the pose safely, but there is another side to yoga asanas (poses) that fascinates me and provides me with a drishti as I practice.

This is the story told in the Hindu religion of why the moon waxes and wanes and is not constantly full and shining. Ganesha is a god in the Hindu religion, the child of Shiva and Parvati, that has the face of an elephant, with the body of a pot-bellied man. In Hindu, the gods have special vehicles, or vahana, and Ganesha's is the Indian bandicoot rat (Doniger, 2015). One night, Ganesha was invited to a feast hosted by Kubera, another Hindu god. Ganesha loves Indian sweets and is very fond of modakas, which are dumplings filled with coconut and jaggery (Silk Routes, 2015). This night, he devoured modakas and departed the feast overly full. As he rode home on his rat, a cobra snake slithered past, scaring the rat, causing Ganesha to fall. When he fell, his stomach burst open and all the modakas spilled out. Ganesha quickly picked up the modakas and put them back into his belly, and then secured his belly by tying the snake around it. As Ganesha stood up ready to board his rat again, Lord Chandra, the moon, began to laugh at him. Ganesha became angry, broke his tusk and hurled it at Chandra, taking all of his light away and making a deep crater.

Chandra apologized vehemently, and Ganesha agreed to adjust the curse, bringing light back to Chandra. Ganesha said Chandra would not be whole all the time, but would wax and wane because Chandra's ego was too large and he should not make fun of others (Netflix India, 2020).

There are a couple of lessons that I take from this story and try to focus on while I am in this pose. First, when our anger is fierce and fast because of our own insecurities when others may laugh at us, our actions can steal the light from others, including those we may not even realize we are hurting. The second is that when I am too full of myself, or my ego is enlarged, I can hurt others even without intending to. This story shows that it is important to find balance and be centered; not to shine too bright or hide in the darkness, but to discover that half moon inside of myself that brings balance to light and dark.

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References

Doniger, Wendy. (2015, March 6). Ganesha: Hindu deity. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ganesha

Netflix India. (2020, March 30). Bal Ganesh and The Moon [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFI5Rbxo_ms

Silk Routes. (2015). Why Ganesha has a broken tusk or why the moon has a crater. The International Writing Program. https://iwp.uiowa.edu/silkroutes/city/bangalore-india/text/cultural-lens-childrens-stories-why-ganesha