Warrior poses: inspired by the legend of Shiva, Sati and Daksha

After Sarah's suggestion, I decided to spend a coffee break refreshing my memory of the stories of the warrior poses, and to share with you what i dug up on the legend of Shiva and Sati :)

Ahem, ahem, so....according to wikipedia, (link) this story "appears in detail in Tantra literature, in the Puranas and in Kālidāsa's lyrical Kumārasambhavam, an epic that deals primarily with the birth of Subrahmanya."

The legend is briefly as follows...Shiva had been living on Mt. Kailas with his wife the goddess Sati, but Sati's father Daksha was not happy about the marriage. Not long after, Daksha threw a party and invited all the gods and goddesses in the universe except Shiva and Sati. Sati convinced herself that they weren't intentionally not invited, but just that such formailty among family would be absurd, and she went to the party. Nonetheless, she was received coldly by her father, and not only this, but that her father had loathed Shiva because of the dishonor he believed the god endured by marrying his own daughter. Not surprisingly, Sati was enraged and humiliated by her father's disdain, and she was so angry that she burst into flame after invoking her yogic powers.

Shiva, hearing of this catastrophe, was himself so enraged that he tore off one of his dreadlocks, and then out of the earth exploded the "Virabhadra" a great warrior. This warrior decapitated Dhaksha and placed his head on a stake. After all this destruction, Shiva was so sad that he gave Dhaksha new life by placing his decapitated head onto a goat, but he could not bring back his beloved (she was later reborn as Parvati, but that is another story!!!)

The warrior poses are a re-enactment of Virabhadra's rise from the earth and slaying of Dhaksha. Vira I is the Virabhadra rising from the earth, exploding upwards--Vira II as he chops off the head of Dhaksha, and Vira III as he places the decapitated head on a stake.

These actions may sound violent, but may be taken as a metaphor, expecially if we think of the head as a metaphor for the ego...what is important enough to make us want to explode through the barriers above us? What injustices do we fight against? and how do we feel when we've won?

A nice telling of the story can be heard as told by Alana Kaivalya, jivamukti instructor here in New York City (link). Enjoy (and back to work)!