Yoga nidra: the corpse pose and a metaphor hangs there

A very important Power Yoga teacher attended my workshop once ( I assume that she was important,  going by the attitude of disdain she carried with her, as some of the new-fangled yoga teachers do these days, ha ha:)  . She came with an assistant and then left, with a smirk, when I settled the class for nidra, indicating that the practice was below the dignity of a power yoga teacher. Apparently, and I have written a bit about this, that in some power yoga classes the participant is asked to go home and do nidra!!!! That is so asinine -- the sort of comic-tragic things u hear from some yoga classes these days. 

A  long nidra can be the most important thing  a yoga teacher did after an intense class. A nidra needs a lot of meditative energy  from a teacher (which may explain why most teachers are incapable of that).  It is not just a transcript. Or about just lying down. Or else, why would classical texts describe the Shavasana (the base pose for nidra) as a third-eye practice? 

Below I give you a link from Life Positive Online, for a column I did on this subject. 

Classical yoga prescribes a period of rest between intense holds in each pose. The reason for the rest breaks is that after any intense physical activity there is a build-up of lactic acid in the blood. It is a natural byproduct of the release of glucose for muscular effort. 

And there is a special reason I have used this image of Kali dancing on her supine lord. Here is Devdutt Pattanaik's erudite explanation on that. I have just excerpted a little from the link I have attached below, so those of you who do not know the story behind the dance may be lost. It is better u read that.. here I am just giving you Pattanaik's connection and interpretation of that dance. I give it here because, it sort of weaves in this connection between the mind and the body that seems so difficult for people to make, when they come to yoga..

The Goddess wants humans to look at humans as humans. This will not happen as long as fear governs the relationship. Simply cutting Brahma’s head will not remedy the situation. Some hand-holding is required. Just as Brahma needs to have faith in Shiva, Shiva needs to have patience with Brahma. For this, Shiva has to first engage with the world, not withdraw from it. Determined to get Pashu-pati to help humans, Shakti dances on top of him. She  hopes to transform Shiva, the insensitive angry god, into Shankara, the god who empathises and is patient.

In the lore of Shiva, Brahma is treated as Shakti’s father and Shiva is her beloved. Brahma behaves as a father should not behave, when he seeks to control his daughter. For this act, Shiva beheads  him. Shiva behaves as a beloved should not behave, when he shuts his eyes to Shakti. The Goddess negotiates with both father and  beloved. The father needs to trust and the beloved needs to pay attention. A relationship is needed for harmony to exist.