To perform the sequence, start in Tadasana, with your hands together at your heart. Always breathe through your nose, not your mouth: Nasal breathing filters and warms incoming air and slows your breathing down, thereby lending the sequence a meditative quality and reducing the risk of hyperventilation. Slow your pace or stop and rest entirely if your breathing becomes labored or shuts down altogether. As you move through the sequence, watch your breath closely. The transition from posture to posture is facilitated by either an inhalation or an exhalation.
Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose). Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog Pose). Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose). The eight basic postures, in order of performance, are: In this sequence, we’ll start and end in Tadasana. Our sequence here consists of 12 “stations” composed of eight different postures, the last four being the same as the first four but performed in reverse order. Janita Stenhouse, in Sun Yoga: The Book of Surya Namaskar, illustrates two dozen or so adaptations (though several are quite similar). However old Sun Salutation is, and whatever it may originally have looked like, many variations have evolved over the years. Skeptics of this dating maintain that Sun Salutation was invented by the raja of Aundh (a former state in India, now part of Maharashtra state) in the early 20th century, then disseminated to the West in the 1920s or 1930s. Traditionalists contend that the sequence is at least 2,500 years old (perhaps even several hundred years older), that it originated during Vedic times as a ritual prostration to the dawn, replete with mantras, offerings of flowers and rice, and libations of water. There’s some disagreement among authorities over the origins of Sun Salutation. See also: A Step-by-Step Guide to Flowing Through Surya Namaskar A History and Practice of Surya Namaskar But in the end, the brain is inherently limited in what it can know and is prone to what Patanjali calls misconception ( viparyaya) or false knowledge of the self. This kind of knowledge is worthwhile for dealing with mundane affairs, and is even necessary to a certain extent for the lower stages of spiritual practice. But in yoga, the brain is actually symbolized by the moon, which reflects the sun’s light but generates none of its own. It might seem strange to us that the yogis place the seat of wisdom in the heart, which we typically associate with our emotions, and not the brain. Here is the seat of consciousness and higher wisdom ( jnana) and, in some traditions, the domicile of the embodied self ( jivatman). The outer sun, they asserted, is in reality a token of our own “inner sun,” which corresponds to our subtle, or spiritual, heart. The ancient yogis taught that each of us replicates the world at large, embodying “rivers, seas, mountains, fields…stars and planets…the sun and moon” (Shiva Samhita, II.1-3). 
This placement is no accident only the heart can know the truth.
The Sanskrit word namaskar stems from namas, which means “to bow to” or “to adore.” (The familiar phrase we use to close our yoga classes, namaste-te means “you”-also comes from this root.) Each Sun Salutation begins and ends with the joined-hands mudra (gesture) touched to the heart. One of the means of honoring the sun is through the dynamic asana sequence Surya Namaskar (better known as Sun Salutation). Moreover, since everything that exists originates from the sun, as Alain Danizlou wrote in The Myths and Gods of India, it “must contain the potentiality of all that is to be known.” For the Hindus, the sun is the “eye of the world” ( loka chakshus), seeing and uniting all selves in itself, an image of and a pathway to the divine. That’s why one of Surya’s many other appellations is Savitri (the Vivifier), who, according to the Rig Veda, “begets and feeds mankind in various manners” (III.55.19). But for thousands of years, the Hindus have revered the sun, which they call Surya, as both the physical and spiritual heart of our world and the creator of all life itself. When we look at our closest star, we may see nothing more than a big yellow ball. Our primary source of light is, of course, the sun. “Opposition between light and darkness has informed the spiritual world of all peoples and molded it into shape.” “The world begins with the coming of light,” wrote Jungian analyst Erich Neumann in The Origins and History of Consciousness. In many cultures, light has long been a symbol of consciousness and self-illumination. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
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