halasana
PLOW POSE
Halasana means “plow pose” and refers to a plow that tills the dead earth to bring forth life. In plow pose, the practitioner lies on the floor, lifts the legs up and over the head, placing the toes on the floor behind the head. Halasana stretches the spine and stimulates the abdominal organs and the thyroid gland. It also balances the throat chakra.
The Story of Haladhara
Krishna’s older brother, Balarama, was also known as Haladhara because he carried (dhara) a plow (hala). Despite their quarrels and differences, Haladhara helped Krishna to overcome many demons in the forests of Vrindavan while they were growing up, and the two maintained a great relationship throughout their lives.
One lovely afternoon, Haladhara decided that he wanted to bathe in the great Yamuna River. Intoxicated by his favorite honey drink, he ordered the river to come close. Used to getting his way, Haladhara was surprised when the Yamuna River would not make its way over to him so that he could enjoy his bath. Rather than just walking over to the river, he took his great plow and dredged the river until it ran toward him.
The Function of the Plow
According to yoga philosophy, all of our actions and thoughts leave traces in our consciousness. Our actions in this world can either remove impressions from the landscape of our consciousness or carve new ones. Just as Haladhara dragged the Yamuna to him with his plow, the yogi seeks to draw the mind back from its negative wanderings in order to absorb the positive. There is a sutra in the fourth chapter of the Yoga Sutra that talks about this kind of “plowing of the mind”:
Nimittam aprayojakam prakëtînâm varaña-bhedas tu tatah kasetrikavat (YS 4.3).
Essentially, this sutra says, just as a farmer plows his field to introduce water to the field for irrigation, if we remove the obstacles in our path toward yoga, we can lead our mind toward it. In this way, the plow of our mind leads us to liberation, based on the quality of our thoughts. The plow pose provides an excellent opportunity to plow the field of our mind with positive thinking.
