Show Notes
Every posture in yoga has a name. Some are named for sages. Some for animals. Some for gods, rivers, trees, or mountains.
But the name is never only a label. It’s a doorway. A hint at the inner state of the practitioner. A way of remembering that each pose is more than muscle and bone — it is a step on the path, a story lived through the body.
Today, we’ll explore how names in yoga do more than describe. They invite. They unfold. They return us to something deeper.
This is The Shape of Meaning. And today, we walk the path that is also the pose.
More from Diary of a Chubby Yogi PODCAST
Welcome to Thought by Thought: Reading Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra. In this introductory episode, I set out how this series will approach one of yoga’s most influential texts — not simply line by line, but thought by thought. We’ll look closely at the Sanskrit, explore classical commentary, consider the philosophical world around Patañjali, and also ask what these teachings might mean when they meet a modern practitioner today. The aim is not to force ancient ideas into modern language, nor to pretend there is only one possible interpretation, but to follow the thread carefully: what is the text saying, how has it been understood, and what happens when we sit with it now? The words remain the same. We change. And perhaps that is where the conversation begins.
What is in a name? For the last 11 episodes we’ve traced the stories behind the shapes of yoga. We’ve seen gods and mountains, sages and animals, rivers and lotuses. We’ve leapt with Hanumān, stood firm as mountains, spread wings with Garuḍa.
The divine feminine is not limited to gender but is the timeless, universal energy that embodies creation, intuition, compassion, and transformation.
Some leaps are physical — a burst of muscle, a stretch of sinew.
The universe is always in motion — stars spinning, tides shifting, breath rising and falling