विपरीत करणी
Viparita Karani — Legs up the Wall
viparīta = reversed, karaṇī = doing — the gentle inversion
Lie down, swing the legs up the wall, and let gravity work FOR you for ten minutes.
In the simplest words
Lie on your back close to a wall and walk your legs straight up it, so you make an L-shape. Arms flop open, eyes close. Your tired legs pour their tiredness out. It feels like floating.
What it is
The hatha texts speak of viparita karani guardedly, as the 'reversing practice' that turns the body's flow upside down, and this supported form is its easiest door: hips near the wall, legs resting up it, arms open, everything held by the floor. Tired legs drain, the body reads the shape as rest, and restless evenings soften within minutes. It gives a real share of what dramatic inversions offer, at almost none of their risk, so this site teaches it and leaves headstand and shoulderstand to live teachers.
Before you practise: health first
Even this gentle inversion is skipped with glaucoma or serious eye pressure, uncontrolled blood pressure, and during menstruation if your tradition or comfort says so; in late pregnancy lie on the left side instead. Tingling feet just mean bend the knees and come down.
Getting into it
Sit sideways against a wall, hip touching it.
Swing the legs up the wall as you lie back, and shuffle the hips comfortably close.
A folded blanket under the hips helps; arms open, palms up.
Close the eyes and stay, breath natural, or So'ham riding it.
To exit, bend the knees, roll to the right side, and rest before sitting up.
The breath
Nothing to do: the shape slows the breath by itself; just watch it happen.
What it is kept for
Draining tired legs, pre-sleep unwinding, a safe taste of inversion, and rest that restores.