prayatna-śaithilyānanta-samāpattibhyām
prayatna-śaithilya-ananta-samāpattibhyām
“[Āsana becomes steady and happy] from the relaxation of effort and an intimation of the infinite.”

Patañjali has told us that āsana is stability and happiness (sthira-sukham āsanam). Here, he elaborates. Sūtra II.47 connects to II.46 by its grammatical construction, that is, by its noun-ending. The string of four words form a compound of two parts, and the entire compound is governed by the fifth-case, dual ending: -ibhyām. The fifth case describes causation. What brings the qualities of stability and happiness to āsana? They come from prayatna-śaithilya (the relaxation of effort) and ananta-samāpatti (intimation of the infinite).

In chapter one, Patañjali defined abhyāsa as the effort to maintain focus (see I.13). Perhaps for this reason–though śaithilya literally means relaxation or loosening and prayatna is effort–B.K.S. Iyengar emphasizes a dynamic tension between the two values with his translation of śaithilya as “effortlessness,” setting up the koan-like and beautiful expression “effortless effort.”

The phrase “effortless effort” comes up often in Iyengar Yoga classes, and it has intimately shaped my sense of what the yogic enterprise–and the spiritual path–is about. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,” says Jesus. “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11.29-30.) The discipline, the effort of practice, brings relief, lightness.

Āsana moves toward effortlessness when we release unnecessary actions and locate the necessary, when we balance, in other words, our various parts and bring them into harmony. Āsana practice often reveals the grace of the body, as the practitioner, bit by bit, activates dormant areas, relaxes tense or overworked ones, liberates the integrity of the whole. The body often feels lighter, the effort feels less–yet effort  has been made, is being made, will be made again. The non-effort and the effort appear at once.

Ananta means infinity (“not-ending”); it is a name for Vishnu, and it is a name for the snake that supports Vishnu in the cosmic ocean of being. The sage Patañjali is said to be an incarnation of the snake Ananta; according to Hindu myth, Ananta asked to be born. He brought to humanity the supports of yoga for consciousness, medicine for the body, and grammar for language.  The Invocation to Patañjali, often chanted at the beginning of Iyengar Yoga classes, alludes to these gifts. (Find my literal translation here.) The pose anantāsana is often called Vishnu’s couch. It can also be considered the pose of infinity. In this āsana, the practitioner lies on her side, balanced, not dropping to the front body or back, making a line in space through herself, resting, observant, supported in flux and flow–in infinity.

Samāpatti, a term Patañjali uses in chapter one, is full perception, direct experience, union. I have translated it here as “intimation” to emphasize how subtle, how delicate, our experiences of the ineffable, the infinite, often are. Many commentators (including the foremost Vyāsa) have emphasized that the practitioner must keep his or her focus on the divine. B.K.S. Iyengar has taught that the āsana itself, in its very finiteness, its material definitiveness, reveals the infinite within–the space between the molecules and atoms (see quote below). The infinite moves through and through every part of our lives. What brings us to the perception of it?

I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end,
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
–Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

—–

“In āsana, we are trying to broach the mass of our gross body, to break up the molecules and divide them into atoms that will allow our vision to penetrate within. . . . Initially we need to exert ourselves more as resistance is greater. Of the two aspects of āsana, exertion of our body and penetration of our mind, the latter is eventually more important. Penetration of our minds is our goal, but in the beginning to set things in motion, there is no substitute for sweat. When effort becomes effortless, āsana is at its highest level.” –B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life, p. 45

“It is difficult to speak of bodily knowledge in words. It is much easier to experience it, to discover what it feels like. It is as if the rays of light of your intelligence were shining through your body, out your arms to your fingertips and down your legs and out through the soles of your feet. As this happens, the mind becomes passive and begins to relax. This is an alert passivity and not a dull, empty one. The state of alert repose regenerates the mind and purifies the body.” –B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life, p. 32

Questions:
• What has been your experience of effort and relaxation in āsana practice? Has it changed over time?
• How would you describe effortless effort?
• In what way do you experience the intelligence of the body?
• What connects you to the infinite? What does the infinite mean to you?