Anjaneya was half god and half mortal. He was a precocious youngster and often got into big trouble.
He gazed upward one day and mistook the sun for a glowing piece of mango, his favorite fruit. He decided to make a giant leap for it, hoping to snatch it out of the sky. This he did repeatedly, unharmed by the sun’s scorching rays that would have dissolved mere mortals. Suryadeva, the sun god, threw a lightning bolt to strike Anjaneya down.
Meanwhile, Anjaneya boasts his own pose. Anjaneyasana (Lunge Pose), a pose that expresses the human desire to leap up and capture that glowing fruit high in the sky.
Anjaneyasana combines grounding and expansion. Its skyward reach comes from its earthbound stability. It lengthens the quadricep and psoas muscles, extends the low back and expands the chest and abdomen. It energizes as it stabilizes balance.
