Yoga & Its relation with Surya Namaskar

Yoga is the divine union of body, mind and soul and a system of asanas, meditaion and pranayama. Commencement of any asanas is said to be incomplete without prior worship of the Sun God-Surya devata.

One of the means of honoring the Sun is through the dynamic asana swquence known as "Surya Namaskar", also popularly mentioned as 'Sun Salutaion'. The Sanskrit word 'Namaskar' stems from namas which means "to bow to" or "to adore". A gesture of humbly bowing infront of the supreme creatior is 'Namaskar'. This posture or mudra of clasping the two palms face to face (joining the hands) touching to the hear comes with the essence meaning-"the Divine in me honors the Divine in you". This placement is no coincidental, the inner being the soul identifies and knows it all, the hidden truth.

The rich Indian culture of greeting another individual in the form of Namaskar or namaste has a very deeper and spiritual meaning fondly attached to it. Namaskar is a traditional yogic greeting done with the palms facing each other wherein one atman(soul) and by doing so one wishes for the wellness of the other. In this beautiful process, once soul might even ask for forgiveness for any wrong deed which they might have committed knowingly or unknowingly in their present or previous lives manifested by the atman.

Surya Namaskar is included as a morning ritual of true devotion, prayer and a form of worship to Lord Surya, the God of good health. Surya bestows life onto the earth along with bringing in abundant health, wealth and prosperity into the lives of his devotees.

Sun Salutation is a prayer is motion, allowing us to use the body as an instrument o higher awareness, so we can receive wisdom and knowledge. The ancient yogis taught that each of us replicated the world at large, embodying rivers, seas, mountains, fields, stars and planets, the Sun and the Moon. The outer Sun is in reality a token of our own "inner Sun", which corresponds to our subtle or spiritual heart. This is the seat of consciousness and higher widdom(Jnana) and in some traditions the domicile of the embodied self(Jivatman).