Shri Mayuram :

Ayurveda and Yoga Asanas often work at the level of Prana to treat disease in the body and the mind. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika talks about the benefits of several asanas. It pays special reverence to Mayurasana, which Swatmarama, the author, calls Shri Mayuram ( श्री मयूरम् ), meaning the Venerable Peacock Pose. It is in fact the only asana to which Swatmarama has paid this reverence.

The word Shri is used to address learned people and self-realized people. It is also used to refer to texts that have a life of their own on account of the wisdom contained in them. The world's longest epic, Mahabharatha, is also addressed in Sanskrit as Shri Mahabharatha for it is said that what is found in the Mahabharatha can be found elsewhere but what cannot be found in it can be found nowhere else.

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (Sanksrit verses above) says that Mayurasana stimulates the digestive fire, incinerates the bad food that was consumed and even makes the deadly Kalakuta poison digestible. Kalakuta poison is the posion that was spat out by a huffing and Puffing Vasuki, the celestial serpent who adorns Lord Shiva's neck, when he was used to churn Mount Mandara to extract nectar from the cosmic ocean.

According to Ayurveda, disease originates when the body's fire (Jatara Agni) is imbalanced. [See Breath, Bandhas and Agni: The core of asanas in Hatha Yoga]. This is especially the case with Kapha imbalance (in which the fire runs dull) and leads to weight gain and deposition of ama (toxic waste material like cholestrol etc. in the body). Vata imbalance also results in Vishama Agni, intermittent fire, that fluctuates between weak and strong.

For these reasons Mayurasana is recommended as an important asana to help stimulate the body's fire.