Virabhadrasana: The Warrior Poses

There are several stories about the warrior poses, but the my favorite is how Shiva (via his incarnation Virabhadra) crashes a party and chops everyone's heads off. Morbid right? It's a story of revenge and (eventually) humility that teaches us the lesson to accept responsibility for our actions and make moves to right our wrongs. 

The priest, Daksha, dislikes the union between his daughter Sati and her beloved, Lord Shiva. Daksha hopes that we can persuade Sati to marry someone else, so he throws a party for all her suitors to come to try to win her heart, but spitefully does not invite Shiva. 

When Shiva gets wind of the party, he goes into a vengeful rage and yanks one of his locks out of his head, tosses it on the ground and it becomes the warrior Virabhadra, who rises from the earth to fight for Shiva. Virabhadra crashes the party and in his vengeful rage, his arms turn into swords and he chops off everyone's head - including Daksha. 

Sati is distraught over the death of her father and pleads with Shiva to let him live. In his haste to anger and revenge, he has wronged his beloved, so he humbles himself to her and agrees to allow her father to live. So Shiva replaces Dakha's decapitated head and breathes new life into him. 

The warrior poses are named for Virabhadra. Warrior 1 is the embodiment of Virabhadra rising from the earth and Warrior 2 is the embodiment of crashing the party and angrily chopping everyone's head off with sword/arms. Both posures embody strength, stamina and determination. 

Peaceful/reverse Warrior can be understood and Shiva realizing that he had acted harshly out of anger and is the embodiment of his turn towards humility. Finally, Warrior 3 is the act of Shiva replacing Daksha's head and making amends for his actions. With these postures we settle into humility and we learn how we can take responsibility for all of our actions, especially when they are destructive.