Mudras: The path to a fulfilling life

The movement and arrangement of your body during yoga practice has implications for the quality of your life. This arrangement is known as ‘mudras’.

That yoga is great for both the body and the soul is well known. However, for those who are not yoga practitioners, it seems to be some mystic exercise form that involves many contortions of the body and meditating by saying ‘Om’ with the eyes closed. However, this rather cartoonish depiction of yoga as propagated by the mass media tells an untrue story. Yoga is not about just the exercise and meditation; it is ingrained in the smallest movement to the unleashing of power using Kundalini practices.

On the subject of small movements, let us shed light on the concept of ‘mudras’. Mudras are the embodiment of every movement one makes during the practice of yoga. Your every breath and even the positioning of your hands and fingers during the exercise or deep breathing impacts the overall quality of yoga. Yogis especially believe in the tremendous force that the human hands are capable of holding. This explains why the popular mantra ‘Karagreh vasate Laxmi’ extols the virtues of the human hands as the resting place of the Gods. 

The hands are the most important components of mudras. In brief, mudras are the science of arranging each body part during meditation or asanas to get the maximum benefit from the activity. The specific positioning of the hands and even the shifting of the fingers and palms can have a direct connection to the way the rest of the body responds to those movements. Consequently, the hand mudras have an effect on the way the body functions.

Does this sound farfetched to you? Let us explore the science behind hand mudras: yogis believe that the movement of the hands influences how energies flow from the body to the universe. Thus, the hands can actually change the direction and intensity of our energies. When mudras are coupled with the right breathing patterns, there is a lot of scope to channel energy in the desired direction!

Thus, the hand mudras are crucial to the success of the yoga asana or meditation. It is safe to say that the single touch of an energised finger has the potential to change the world.

There are thousands of mudras in yoga, and matching the right one with the intended action and result is important. The right mudras can take you closer to achieving your goals, but they must be taught by an experienced teacher who understands the rhythms of your body. And remember that mudras must always be coupled with breath control to unlock the most amount of latent energy inside you.

In our daily lives, we can see that the human hands are capable of great destruction, but also unparalled kindness. The mudras are thus the starting points in our journey to spiritual wellbeing.