Right hand was kept for vigorous, difficult, or hard actions. Left hand was kept for gentle, mild actions. This is not a cultural thing. Well, it has become a cultural thing over a period of time. But it is a yogic principle, that you do not use your left hand for doing hard things.
It is a yogic principle, that you do not use your left hand for doing hard things
Why this is so is – because of the cardiac function being on the left side, if you are a left-hander, if you are using your left hand for all the more physically difficult actions – there is a research which shows that left-handed people on an average live seven years less than right-handed people. Because the left has the responsibility of cardiac function, which is not a small thing. So the left should not be in vigorous action. You must balance the two in terms of strength and balance. But in general usage, it’s best to use the right hand for all that, that involves a certain physical difficulty or stress. You use the left in a milder fashion.
In most actions which need balance, in this culture, they’re compelled to use two hands. If you have to receive something, nobody in India stretches out their hand like this [extending right hand]. It’s always like this [both hands together], you must use both the hands. If you want to offer something, you don’t give like this [with one hand], you give it with both your hands. So anything which needs balance, you use both your hands. Anything that needs physically difficult action, you use the right. For certain other actions, you use the left. This is an understanding which has come by observing the body in a certain way.
If you use your left hand, your left brain or right brain does not get active. It doesn’t work like that. Otherwise all left-handers should have been, boom in their brain. It doesn’t necessarily happen like that.
