Garudasana#Variations

File:Kerala Folklore Museum 2018-04-02h.jpg]]

The name comes from the Sanskrit words {{lang|sa-Latn|garuda}} ({{lang|sa|गरुड}}) meaning "eagle", and {{lang|sa-Latn|asana}} ({{lang|sa|आसन}}) meaning "posture" or "seat".{{cite book |last=Sinha |first=S. C. |title=Dictionary of Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-zzRvh1fRzEC&pg=PA18 |date=1 June 1996 |publisher=Anmol Publications |isbn=978-81-7041-293-9 |page=18}}

In Hindu mythology, Garuda is known as the king of birds. He is the vahana (mount) of the God Vishnu{{cite book |author=Dalal, Roshen |title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC |year=2010 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-341421-6 |page=145}} and is eager to help humanity fight against demons. The word is usually rendered into English as "eagle", though the name literally means "devourer", because Garuda was originally identified with the "all-consuming fire of the sun's rays".{{cite book |last=Jordan |first=Michael |title=Dictionary of gods and goddesses |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aqDC5bwx4_wC&pg=PA102 |date=August 2004 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-0-8160-5923-2 |pages=102–}}

The name is used for a different pose in the late 17th-century Gheranda Samhita, verse 2.37, which has the legs and thighs on the ground, and the hands on the knees.Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra Vasu (translator) [https://web.archive.org/web/20140124005530/http://brihaspati.net/downloads/Gheranda_Samhita_S_C_Vasu.pdf Gheranda Samhita]

A one-legged balancing pose named Garudasana but closer to Vrikshasana is described and illustrated in the 19th century Sritattvanidhi.{{cite book |last=Sjoman |first=Norman E. |author-link=Norman Sjoman |title=The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace |title-link=The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace |publisher=Abhinav Publications |year=1999 |edition=2nd |orig-year=1996 |isbn=81-7017-389-2 |pages=75 and plate 7, pose 39}} The modern pose is described in Light on Yoga.{{sfn|Iyengar|1979|pp=97-98}}

Garudasana is an asymmetric position in which one leg, say the right, is crossed over the left, while the arm on the opposite side, say the left, is crossed over the right, and the palms are pressed together. Like all poses on one leg, it demands, and may help to build, balance and concentration.{{cite book |last=VanEs |first=Howard Allan |title=Beginning Yoga: A Practice Manual |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T2x_HIoUN7AC&pg=PA66 |date=12 November 2002 |publisher=Letsdoyoga.com |isbn=978-0-9722094-0-3 |page=66 |quote=Builds balance, coordination, and concentration.}} According to Satyananda Saraswati, the two palms pressed together resemble the eagle's beak. The gaze is directed at a fixed point in front.{{sfn|Saraswati|2003|p=294}}

A kneeling variant of the pose is Vātāyanāsana, Horse Pose.{{cite web |title=Vatayanasana |url=https://www.ashtangayoga.info/practice/intermediate-series-nadi-shodhana/item/vatayanasana/ |publisher=Ashtanga Yoga |access-date=4 February 2019 |archive-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204230943/https://www.ashtangayoga.info/practice/intermediate-series-nadi-shodhana/item/vatayanasana/ |url-status=dead }}

The actress Mariel Hemingway's 2002 autobiography Finding My Balance: A Memoir with Yoga describes how she used yoga to recover balance in her life after a dysfunctional upbringing. Each chapter is titled after an asana, the last being "Eagle Pose, or Garudasana", in each case with some life lesson related to the pose. She describes it as "a balancing posture with the arms and legs intricately intertwined [that] requires some flexibility, a lot of trust, and most of all, balance". The chapter recounts how she, her husband and her daughters all came close to drowning in canoes off Kauai, Hawaii. Doing the asana now "reminds me of the unconscious balance I achieved when I began successfully working my way through the surf without fighting. I spread my toes and pull up on the calf muscle."{{cite book |last1=Hemingway |first1=Mariel |author-link=Mariel Hemingway |title=Finding My Balance: A Memoir with Yoga |year=2004 |orig-year=2002 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0743264327 |pages=187–198}}

• List of asanas

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book | last=Iyengar | first=B. K. S. |author-link=B. K. S. Iyengar | year=1979 | orig-year=1966 | title=Light on Yoga: Yoga Dipika | publisher=Thorsons |isbn=978-1855381667 }}
• {{cite book |last=Saraswati |first=Swami Satyananda |author-link=Swami Satyananda Saraswati |title=Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YpR1QgAACAAJ |date=2003 |publisher=Nesma Books India |isbn=978-81-86336-14-4 }}

{{Commonscat|Garudasana}}

• [https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/eagle-pose/?scope=anon Instruction]

{{Asana}}

{{Yoga as exercise}}

{{Hatha yoga}}

Category:One-legged asanas

Category:Hip-opening asanas

Category:Asymmetric asanas