Yudhisthira, the King of Hastinapur, and his dog are set out on their final journey to the top of Mount Kailash – the gateway for their ascension into heaven. 

As they reach the pinnacle, the King of all the gods, Lord Indra, approaches them. Descending from his chariot, he praises Yudhisthira for being “a virtuous and just ruler.” He compliments him on his “honesty, tolerance, and discernment.” Indra then invites Yudhisthira to join on his chariot without the dog, so they could ascend back to the heavenly realms together. 

Yudhisthira refuses to abandon his dog, who had been his faithful companion through his devastating journey, through which all his brothers died.  And with that, he turns away from Indra and starts backing down the Mountain. 

At this moment the dog reveals his true form as Yama, the God of death, Dharma, and Justice, and also the true father of Yudhisthira. Yama is the judge that weighs the good and evil deeds of the dead to determine their fate.

Yama addresses Yudhisthira, “You are my true son. Your righteousness under every circumstance and dedication to justice surpasses all of humanity. You have been completely selfless in your dealings with people, and have always upheld the cosmic law and natural order of the universe. You are blessed, and will go to heaven.”

The DOG is the companion, the humanly domesticated universal energy within us, that wisdom in our sacred space watches over us all the time. It is there no matter if we are aware or not. 

We align our consciousness, our subconsciousness with our winner wisdom superconsciousness, the God within, in our actions during the day to stay true to who we are. We connect with our Inner Wisdom through Love in our hearts and actions of kindness.

This pose is the decline away from promised heaven that has no bearing on our values. Down Dog takes us back to look at our foundation in the most challenging pose ever. In Down Dog we are given the opportunity to fold over, on our feet and legs and look straight to them, to check our core, our heart, our spine, to align in a triangle creating a mountain with a stronger foundation and with our hips as the pinnacle towards the heavens. 

Down Dog is the ultimate stretch, the test of our integrity to be able to build more and more and to hold on to the creation process with all our integrity. Being fair, kind, strong, humble, grateful, and loyal to our soul, is to be true to the self.