(Updated) Happy Independence Day! June 12. Hero series pose 6

“vira” is Sanskrit for “hero” while “parampara ” is Sanskrit for “series” or “succession”. Virabha is an ancient warrior god.

And hence, maybe the Filipino and dialect word “bira!” which means “go, attack!”, or to slug or to punch – i’m not a professional linguist, just guessing.

This pose, vira parampara 6 of another branch of yoga, looks like a variation of virabhasana or warrior 1 in ashtanga yoga.

i saw ten variations of the vira parampara and chose this one (the face and head are looking forward ), because it still looks like a warrior pose (well, it is a variation so it retains the lunge), it looks like it’s saying “Charge!”, or as the Katipuneros (revolutionary movement of the 1890’s) a hundred years ago shouted, “Lusob, mga kapatid!” (“Charge, brothers and sisters!”).

The other hero and vira parampara poses look like they’re resting but alert, and the others look like “defensive” poses, like they’re ducking a spear. Maybe on other “hero holidays”, i’ll use them.

The torso in this pose should be much lower, it should be aligned at zero degrees with the arm; (photo on the right by http://www.dharmayogacenter.com, used here for non-commercial and educational purposes) but whenever i tried to further lower the torso, my back leg and back foot kept backsliding because… of the marble floor and the boots! [the boots also prevented the ankle of the back leg from being flexible and from folding as required; because you need to have a stable back leg and your back foot, stable and flat on the ground ( do not raise your heel, do not “tiptoe” your backfoot to adjust to your torso like in the other branches of yoga; because it makes more sense to have a stable back leg and back foot in the warrior poses, or in the standing sequences for that matter — but that’s just me; not an expert on this). In other words, your ankle should be flexible and bend to follow the angle of the torso instead of the back heel being raised from the floor to compromise to the bend; but couldn’t bend further because of the backslide and didn’t want to go barefoot because didn’t have a yoga mat, and the room was cold here! in other words…i compromised the bending a little for the boots! it was raining and it was cold indoors with the aircon! and that is why… you should always start your practice with five sun salutes A and at least three sun salutes B with no aircon! and with a sticky mat and lose any footgear when on the mat)