THE STORY OF ARDHA CHANDRASANA | HALF MOON POSE AND THE GOD GANESHA
ARDHA CHANDRASANA | How Half Moon Pose got its name
Half Moon Pose is one of those asanas I always looked at and thought, in what world does that look like a half moon?
So here’s the story that explains how THAT shape got THAT name.
Half Moon Pose
“Ardha” means “half,” and “Chandra” is the name of the moon god. It’s the story of Shiva and Parvati’s son, Ganesha, the elephant-headed god.
Lord Ganesha
Ganesha tends to resonate really strongly with yogis. He’s said to be the remover of obstacles, and we call on him whenever we help clearing our path.
You might wonder how the son of Shiva and Parvati came to have an elephant head. Remember how Daksha ended up with a goat’s head? Yeah, similar situation here.
The story has it that once, while Shiva was away meditating in the Himalayas, Parvati was home alone and wanted to take a long, luxurious bath. Because she was worried about intruders, she decided to create for herself a son and body guard, by taking the tumeric paste she was using as on her skin and shaping it like clay into the form of a boy. She named her son Ganesha, and asked him to keep watch outside her door, with strict orders to not let ANYONE enter.
Cue Shiva returning home from his meditation.
Shiva arrived home only to find a strange boy preventing him from entering his own home, and declaring battle when he tried. So Shiva fought the boy Ganesha, and chopped off his head.
When Parvati saw the carnage, she was furious, and told Shiva that he had just killed his own son. Shiva immediately set off to make things right by killing an elephant in the woods and giving the head to Ganesha, restoring him with the added powers of a rampaging elephant to destroy any obstacles in the path.
There’s also a sweet story about Ganesha and his brother, Kartikeya as children. They were in a competition to prove which of them loved their parents the most, and to prove their devotion, they decided to race around the world–whoever won would be crowned the most devoted child. Kartikeya was known for riding around on a peacock as his vehicle of choice, whereas Ganesha would balance on a mouse to travel, so it seemed obvious that Kartikeya would win. Kartikeya took off on his peacock at top speed to circumnavigate the globe, but Ganesha simply rode in a small circle on his mouse around the place where his parents sat. When they asked him why, he responded “Because YOU are my whole world.”
Ganesha and Kartikeya race “around the world”
Awwwww. He won.
So on to Half Moon Pose.
It’s often said about Ganesha that he not only destroys our obstacles, but also turns them into sweets. We lay our challenges and obstacles at his feet in the form of offerings: milk, ghee, candy, cakes. So the story has it that one year on his birthday, Ganesha had spent the evening gorging himself on our sufferings, freeing us of them. And that night, he was riding home, belly full of dessert, balancing on his mouse (Mooshak) as usual, a snake came across their path and scared the mouse.
As the mouse went running, Ganesha fell, and his belly broke open, the sweets flying everywhere. The moon god, Chandra, saw this happen and began to laugh at the sad state of Ganesha.
I don’t know who made this “fan art,” but I love it.
Desperate to not release the sweets, Ganesha tied the snake around his waist to hold them in, and reached down to pick up any sweets that had fallen. As the moon god continued to laugh, Ganesha became angry, and he broke off his tusk and hurled it up at the moon to punish him for his insolence.
This is the shape of half moon pose–one hand reaching to the ground to pick up sweets, the other reaching up to throw a tusk at the moon.
The story continues that the moon was extinguished and forced into hiding, casting the world into endlessly dark and dangerous nights. After a few days of this, Ganesh took pity on Chandra, and promised to restore his light to him as a compromise–but only to shine at full brightness once a month, on the full moon, and to be waxing and waning the rest of the time. In this way, the story is an origin tale of the phases of the moon. Hence the name, “half moon pose.”
Half Moon “Sugar Cane” variation, because Ganesha loves his sweets.
Taking the shape of Ganesha in this pose is a reminder of balance–not just the balance of compromise, as he had to learn how to do, but also, the balance between what we see as obstacles and what we see as sweets. Even the physical pose itself is a challenge, right? It’s difficult, it can get sweaty, and finding our balance can feel like an obstacle or a struggle. But in doing so, it strengthens our legs and our core and our ability to find stability and grounding. So even within the challenge, there’s an inherent sweetness, a silver lining. Maybe all of the obstacles we face in life are like that–just lessons that make us stronger. When we can transmute our own obstacles into sweets, like offerings for Ganesha, we relinquish the struggle in favor of greater ease.
Some mantras to call on the power of Ganesha:
Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha
Sharanam Ganesha
Hari Om Ganesha
“Gam” is the bija (seed) mantra for Ganesha, the one-syllable sound with the vibrational resonance to call in his energy. Ganapataye is another name for Ganesha, and I mentioned before “Namaha” is the devotional form of “namaste,” meaning “I bow to you. Sharanam means “refuge or shelter.” And “hari om” means “the remover.” So the above means something like “Om I bow to the energy of Ganesha, my refuge, Ganesha. The remover (of obstacles), Ganesha”
Here are some great modern versions of the mantra for your yoga practice:
Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha– Edo & Jo
Hari Om Ganesha – Janet Stone and DJ Drez
Remember Jah – Satsang