Moving towards Sarvodaya Sannyasa: Sidhasana – a cool asana for sitting for long periods of time continuously

Sidhasana is a simple sitting asana, which I was forced to discover in 3rd year B. Tech at IIT Kanpur, mainly to escape from leg-pains of Padmasana and Siddhasana. It is a bit complicated to describe Sidhasana without pictures (I don’t have camera as of now – when I find one, I will upload pictures to explain Sidhasana well), but still, I am giving a try below:

A little bit explanation first. Just like Siddhasana or Siddha Yoni Asana, in Sidhasana also one uses the heel to press Mooladhara Region.
Mooladhara Chakra/Region – this region is different in males and females. In males, it is in perineum (the region between reproductive organ and excretory organ). In females, it is at the cervix, the lower, narrow portion of the uterus where it joins with the top end of the reproductive organ. Due to this reason, for males yoga prescribes Siddhasana and for females, Siddha Yoni Asana.

The location of Mooladhar Chakra makes it a bit inconvenient in describing Siddhasana/Siddha Yoni Asana and Moola Bandha in public lecture, where even children might be present or where people or lecturer themselves might feel inconvenient, but there is no problem in describing it in writing.

So, the technique of Sidhasana (Simple Asana) is:

1. Sit down with both legs outstretched.
2. Bend the right knee and place the sole of the right foot against the left
   thigh so that a) in case of males, the heel of right foot firmly presses against the perineum and b) in case of females, the heel of right foot firmly presses against the reproductive organ. This applies pressure on the Mooladhara Region in both males and females.
3. Bend the left knee and put the left heel gently on ground near right leg. Push the left heel closer to right-leg without making the left heel touch ankle of right leg. Eventually, the left heel should rest on the upper region of right leg just above right ankle and rest of left leg should lie gently on ground.
4. Now, make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
5. Close your eyes and practice yoga.

Note about Sidhasana:

1. Since the bottom surface-area is very big (just like in Padmasana and Siddhasana), the pressure on lower part of backbone is less , because pressure = Force/Area. Here, force is same (weight of the body), so whichever asana gives more surface area to bottom part (both buttocks and legs) touching the ground during sitting position, brings less pressure on spine and hence enables us to sit for a long-time. Thus, Sidhasana satisfies this criteria just like Padmasana and Siddhasana.
2. But, unlike Padmasana and Siddhasana, no pressure-point in legs is created in Sidhasana. So, one can sit for much longer time in Sidhasana as compared to Padmasana and Siddhasana.
3. After one start feeling discomfort in Sidhasana, one should practice Sidhasana with left and right legs’ position inter-changed. When again, one feels discomfort after some min/hours, then again practice Sidhasana with left and right legs’ position inter-changed again and so on, so forth.
4. I have already achieved Asana Siddhi in Sidhasana – Asana Siddhi means ability to sit in one asana for 3 hours at a stretch without moving body even a bit. I achieved it yesterday during first 3-hours thoughtless awareness practice – my previous longest practice of Sidhasana was 1.5 hours. Thus, we can see, that Sidhasana is the shortest-cut to the goal of Asana Siddhi and hence, is most suited for yoga-practice, in general, and “secluded fulltime yoga-practice”, in particular.
5. It should not be practiced by people with sciatica or sacral ailments.

When the heel of right leg is used to press Mooladhara Region, it can be called Right Sidhasana and when the heel of left leg is used to press Mooladhara Region, it can be called Left Sidhasana.

Love and regards,

Gopal