This is a great question and one I get a lot. I had assumed when I started my Yoga Teacher Training, that Sanskrit posture names was one of the things I would be learning. I happen to love languages and thought it would be fun to add a handful of Sanskrit words to my list of languages. I also thought it sounded cool when a yoga instructor would say Chaturanga Dandasana or Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. I wanted to be cool too.
I was actually disappointed to learn that we would not be learning any Sanskrit. That disappointment led to outright confusion when I learned we wouldn’t be able to use ANY posture names.
Let’s start with why not Sanskrit. it was explained that we wouldn’t teach anything in someone’s non-native tongue. It’s hard enough to remember what a Dolphin or Dead Bug is or is that one called a Happy Baby? I would sometimes be lost in a class at other studios when the instructor was barking out poses in Sanskrit and other students snapped into the posture. “Maybe someday I’ll know all the posture names and be the one everyone else is watching for queues”, so I thought.
Then I considered that this actually might make sense. Why use another language to teach something to a room full of english speakers. Then I did some research. There are hundreds of languages spoken in India. Sanskrit is spoken by less than 1% of the population and is mostly used by Hindu priests during religious ceremonies. So essentially nobody knows what these yoga teachers are saying except other yoga teachers or students who think it’s cool. This unfortunately leaves the rest of us (including 99% of folks in India) in the dark. I remember as a kid hearing from my older siblings that back in the day Catholic Mass used to be in Latin. For the most part that tradition ended in 1965. I guess they figured out that wasn’t an effective way of carrying that message.
So that’s all fine and good, but I have to use posture names! How the heck am I going to tell the students in my class what to do next. Well that answer was a little bit harder to wrap my head around. First, just like with the Sanskrit names you will leave some folks out if you rely on using posture names. Not everyone in the class knows the common english names for postures. Is it Happy Baby or Dead Bug? Is there a difference? What about Table Top? Everyone knows that one, right? I thought so until someone told me that means front side to the ceiling in a Pilates class. Okay I got it. But can’t I just use some names? “No”, my Yogi told me. “All Yoga done authentically is a meditation” he continued. “We are trying to quiet the busy mind by giving the student something to pay attention to.” I think I got it. If you say “Down Dog” the student can move into that posture (or what they think that posture is) and still mentally make out their grocery list, or rehash that argument with their partner that morning. They can stay in the busy brain. If you say, “Put your hands on the mat, fingers spread wide and gripping the floor. Lift your hips into the air, straighten your legs to nearly straight with a slight bend in your knees as you push your heels to the floor. Move your chest toward the knees, gaze toward the toes, crown of the head pulling down. Phew…. That’s not easy for the instructor but it makes it a lot harder for the student to focus on anything but what’s going on with their body. Now you have given the student an opportunity to focus on what’s important in the posture and practice some meditation. Got it? If not, reach out to me.