The founder of Ananda Marga Yoga, Anandamurti, mentions five reasons for practicing Ásanas.
1. To increase the flexibility of the body
Many factors compromise body flexibility: repetitive motion, lack of exercise, and genetic predispositions. Muscles, joints, organs, and other body parts benefit by engaging in ásanas and other stretching exercises. They make significant contributions to our emotional balance and improve the meditation practice. While the ultimate goal of Ásana is spiritual elevation, Ásanas and other stretching exercises serve as important influences for meditation because stretching the body releases tension and makes the body fit for long and comfortable sitting meditation.
2. To balance glandular defects and hormonal secretions to control the vrttis
Vrittis are a vital component of the chakra system whose health can directly affect our behavior and thoughts. They have direct involvement with those traits that compose our personality, sometimes directly affecting our emotions. Strong behavioral urges that overwhelm us are usually characteristic of underlying vrttis that are being ‘fired up’ or agitated. Some vrttis are positive. Some vrttis are negative. As spiritual aspirants, we strive to nurture the positive, redirect, and free one from the power of negative thoughts. The asana practice is a ‘helping tool’ in bringing equilibrium to the mind and body.
Ásanas target and exert subtle pressure on specific glands, helping in balancing their hormonal secretions. Hormones are the chemical substances secreted by endocrine glands that have a key role in our mental-emotional-physical balance. Through the direct manipulation of the glands, we can significantly influence our way of thinking and our emotional state, as each emotion is simply the result of under- or over-secretion of certain hormones. When talking about normalizing hormonal secretions, this activity also safeguards the health of the subtle body or chakra system. By rectifying glandular defects, yoga practitioners can control the vrtti/propensities attached to each chakra, as well as the thoughts arising in the mind and eventually behaviors.
Sam’yoga yogo ityukto jiiva’tma’ parama’tmanah:
The unification of unit consciousness (Jiiva’tma’) with the Supreme Consciousness (Parama’tma’) is yoga. ~ Yanavaikya Upanishad
3. To balance the body and mind
Ananda Marga Ásanas are functional and therapeutic in nature. All ásanas have the potential of affecting all 12 systems of the body and when the body is so profoundly affected the mind is as well. Strengthening the nervous system, including the cells and fibers, is essential for bringing peace and contentment to the body-mind. Ásana practice can minimize psychological problems that may arise, inviting benevolent thinking and promoting positivity. The kumbhaka pranayama combined with all of the unique features of Ananda Marga Ásana contributes to the oxygenation of the muscles and nerves as well as to psycho-mental-emotional serenity. Ásana practice improves respiration, blood and lymph circulation, massaging the internal organs and the entire nervous system.
Psychic propensities are not suspended (Patanjali), but rather guided towards the Supreme – in the physical, mental, and spiritual strata (Anandamurti).
4. To withdraw the mind from undesirable thinking
Through regular ásana and breath practice, it has been widely validated by clinical medical studies and widely testified by yoga practitioners that the mind becomes more peaceful and positive. The regular daily asana practice has proven time and time again that it results in fewer negative and defective thoughts, allowing a greater priority to subtle reflection and spiritual ideation.
With the support of other yoga practices, one is quite naturally guided towards expansion, universalism, neohumanism, and ultimately the spiritual goal of maximizing one’s fullest potential in life, self-realization. Ananda Marga Ásanas are a tool towards gaining higher awareness and understanding. Ásana practice can heighten the progressive evolution that enables one to become a fully realized human being.
5. To prepare the mind for subtler and higher sadhana
If the mind is not elevated from crude to subtle, progress in meditation is impossible (Anandamurti). Ananda Marga Ásanas are a tool towards gaining higher awareness and understanding. Ananda Marga Ásana and other yoga practices lead the way to that Divine Desideratum.
In the Ananda Marga yoga system, asana is defined as a mostly physical exercise that is
performed twice a day which supports the all-round physical health. The ultimate goal of the
asana practice is to minimize and/or cure physical, behavioral, and/or psychological ailments that
may cause discomfort for meditation practice or interfering with yogic lifestyle goals. On the
journey towards unification with the Supreme, one should remember that the absence of a proper
balance will harm not only the individuals, but also the society as a whole.