In traditional Yoga ashrams during a Yoga class, Yoga Gurus are often heard saying ‘Don’t wipe off the sweat, rub it back into your body to let your body be soaked in the pranic energy that you just created’.
Yoga Tradition on Sweating
“The perspiration exuding from exertion of practice should be rubbed into the body (and not wiped), as by so doing the body becomes strong.”
Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Chapter 2 verse 13
Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the traditional text of Yoga suggests rubbing the sweat created during a Yoga practice, back into the skin. The text states that as the body begins to break out sweat, rubbing it immediately back into the skin to preserves vitality without the loss of prana. The text further states not to push the practice to the limits where body perspires excessively. Excessive perspiration leads to loss of vitality (ojas).
Why do We Sweat
Sweat is the water that body releases when heated. Sweat contains small amounts of minerals, urea & lactic acid & is odorless. When sweat comes in contact with bacteria on the skin, it tends to smell a certain way. Sweat is a way for body to regulate its temperature & when the sweat evaporates the body becomes cooler, making the blood cool down. Through circulation the entire body cools down with the flowing blood. Both in the Yogic understanding & scientifically, sweat is a means to detox the body & mind.
Importance of Sweat in Yoga
According to the traditional texts, Yoga is a process of purification of physical body, the nervous system, and the mind. Energetically, it is understood in Yoga that heat cleanses the body like heat is used to purify the metals, like gold to remove its impurities. Yoga texts also suggest to let the body stay in at the same temperature for sometime after the practice. Heat for our body is the fuel that imparts warmth, liveliness & makes us have the will to do things. This same warmth helps keep our body soft, supple, flexible & free flowing.
Wiping off the sweat after a Yoga practice is not recommended as it exposes the body to coolness of the air & cool down our inner system of its much-needed warmth. To keep the heat of the yoga practice stay in the body, it is recommended to rub the sweat back into the skin that helps create a protective layer on the skin surface & retain heat created with Yogic practice. In a Yoga practice a Yogi wants to preserve energy to preserve life force for higher endeavors, and rubbing sweat after the practice helps the cause.
0 comments