The Vira means the Heroic and the Lila means the Playful.

To practice Vira is a powerful practice because there is either victory or defeat. Victory is not the perfect pose, but the fullness of the practice. What do I mean by that? To make a Vira practice is 1) to establish the whole grounded presence (shtira), 2) to set an intention (sankalpa), 3) to enter into the fullness of oppositional expression with effortless effort (sukha), until 4) we identify limitation, resistance, obstruction, pain (dukha), and 5) to exit, either to return to the original position or to carry forward into another intention.

With Vira there is no retreat, no wiggle, no adjustment as I go. With clarity I can observe my intention and the quality of its expression. There is victory in that observation. There is a foothold or grip. I can make the adjustment next time. There may be failure, or a break in the pose. If so, I release and start again from the beginning. Kumar would say, “There is no shortcut, man.” The purpose is to activate discipline and functional will, not merely to achieve a desire or outcome. Through concentration and discipline one achieves, but ultimately, the Vira practice isn’t about the glory of the posture but the instincts of life.

To practice Lila is to play out an intention, and not to play in a random, crappy, anything is ok way. That isn’t honorable play. To practice Lila is to play, to carry shtira with effortless effort, and to continuously adjust oneself into greater shtira. Lila is the willingness to observe, to explore, to discover, and to seek adjustment in the moment, to seek the shtira in the expression and the effortless effort. To practice Lila is to approach dukha and respond in presence. With Lila I maintain the vessel of intended asana and improvise within that form, using breath and adjustment with curiosity and discovery.

Vira is to withhold adjustment while learning the clarity of specific limitation, dukha. With that learning, I can adjust myself internally so that my next repetition includes the adjustment.

Lila is to improvise well and within an intentional form.