Rathasapthami - 108 Sun Salutations!

Sunday was Rathasapthami. It is essentially a day to worship Surya the sun god and what better way to do this than by Suryanamaskara - sun salutations. For those who are not, as I wasn't, yoga aficionados, the sun salutation is series of 12 yoga poses.

Sunday was the 6th annual Adarsh Vista Rathasapthami celebration/devotion and my first!

The target was 108 suryanamaskara's. 108 (I had to google here) is an auspicious number for many reasons in Hinduism but also Sikh, Islam and Buddhism.  After trolling through a few pages of the many reasons and rationals my favorite was : 1, 0, and 8: 1 stands for God or higher Truth, 0 stands for emptiness or completeness in spiritual practice, and 8 stands for infinity or eternity.

I couldn't make any of the official practices to ensure I made it to 108 in style but had a friend in the neighborhood who is yoga regular give me a few lessons and at 8.00am prompt on Sunday, along with 62 other Vista folks was ready to go.

It was actually quite an experience in sync (almost) with the others as we all worked our way through the poses to a recording keeping us more or less in time and also kept count. 

I'm not sure this will inspire me to the world of yoga but there was definitely an energy but also sense of calm and peace. At at the end of each sun salutation the group 'om' vibrated throughout.

We all made it through to 108, which took an hour plus. No aches or pains but was certainly a work out!!

And I do have the t-shirt to prove my participation. 

In a corner of the room the pooja for Lord Surya was laid out along with, can you see the silver bowl, prasad and sweets. Not sure what the net calorie position was at the end of the morning!!!

 As in so many instances, I once again thank my neighbors for letting us share in their festivals and traditions, making us feel so welcome in our second home!