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Patanjali – The Father of Modern

Yoga

26 Jun 2014 23 Comments

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DEMYSTIFYING YOGA

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Yogi and mystic Sadhguru

explores the incredible life
and capabilities of
Patanjali, the father of
modern yoga and the author of the
celebrated yoga sutras.

Sadhguru: If you look at Patanjali, as

an enlightened being, he can’t be more
enlightened than someone else. There is
no such thing. Realization is realization.
But as a man and above all as an intellect,
he is such an intellect that the great
scientists of today look like kindergarten
children in front of him. The breadth of
his understanding of life is so big that you
cannot believe that this is possible in one
human being. In his mastery of language,
mathematics and in his perception of
astronomy, he is so fantastic. Today’s
scholars argue that this is not one man’s
work, that many people must have
worked to make this happen because it is
so big, it cannot fit into one man’s
intellect. It is one man’s work. He is

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probably one of the greatest intellects ever
on this planet.

He is known as the father of modern

yoga. He did not invent yoga. Yoga was
already there in various forms, which he
assimilated into a system. Shiva, the
Adiyogi or first yogi, transmitted yoga to
the Sapta Rishis or the seven sages many
thousands of years ago. He had the
highest understanding of human nature,
but he didn’t put anything down in
writing. He was too wild to be a scholar.
He found it was too difficult to put
everything he knew into one person, so he
chose seven people and put different
aspects of yoga into them. These became
the seven basic forms of yoga. Even
today, though these have branched off
into hundreds of systems, yoga has still
maintained seven distinct forms.

The Yoga Sutras

Patanjali came much later and sort of
assimilated everything. He saw that it was
getting too diversified and complex for
anyone to understand in any meaningful
way. So he assimilated and included all
aspects into a certain format – as the
Yoga Sutras.

Sutra literally
means a thread.
Or in modern
language we can
He just
say it is like a understood
formula. Anyone humanity
who knows the inside out
English
alphabet, even a
– not as
kindergarten people
child can say but as a
E=mc², but total
there is an
enormous
mechanism
amount of of the
science behind human
that little body,
formula, which
most people do
mind,
not understand. consciousness…
The sutras are
like this, in
thread form. Out of ignorance, people
have just taken these sutras and are

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trying to implement it as it is. A thread is
of no consequence by itself. There can
never be a garland without the thread but
no one ever wears a garland for the sake
of the thread. The thread was given so
that each master makes his own kind of
garland. You can put flowers on it, or
beads or pearls or diamonds. The thread is
vital but that is not a goal by itself.

Unless you are exposed to the culture, it is

a little difficult to understand what kind of
mind Patanjali is. Even though the Indian
scriptures like the Vedas and the
Upanishads are quite phenomenal by
themselves both in terms of grammatical
excellence and in their poetic beauty and
content, the Yoga Sutras are an
absolutely brilliant piece of work
compared to any of the scriptures on the
planet talking about life and beyond.

They are a tremendous document about

life and the most uninteresting book on
the planet. It is the driest and dullest book
you can read. It is not scholarly in the
usual sense. Patanjali does not teach any
practice in them. He did this intentionally,
and his mastery over language and
composition was such that he wrote it in
a way that no scholar would be interested
in it. The idea is, this is a formula to open
up life. If people like the poetry and
literary part of it, all kinds of people,
especially scholars, will read it. Once they
read it, they will make a 100 different
interpretations of it.

The sutra will mean something only to a

person who is in a certain level of
experience. Otherwise it is just a bundle of
words which don’t make any sense.
Someone who is exploring his
consciousness, if he is in a certain state of
experience, if he just reads one sutra, it
will be explosive. You are not required to
read the whole book. If you read one
sutra and make it true with your life,
that’s enough. It will realize you.

And Now Yoga

Just to give you some sense of what kind
of a man he is – he starts such a great
document of life in such a strange way:
the first chapter of the Yoga Sutras is just

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 Patanjali

half a sentence, not even a full sentence.

The sentence is like this, “And Now
Yoga.” What do you make out of it?
Intellectually, it doesn’t make any sense,
but experientially what it is saying is, if
you still think that building a new house
or finding a new wife or getting your
daughter married will settle your life, it is
not yet time for yoga. If you have seen
money, power, wealth and pleasure, you
have tasted everything in your life and
you have realized that nothing is going to
fulfill you ultimately and work in the real
sense, if you have gotten that point, then
it is time for yoga. All the nonsense that
the whole world is involved in, Patanjali
just brushes it aside with half a sentence.
This is why the first sutra is “and now
yoga.” That means, you know nothing
works and you do not have a clue about
what the hell this is. The pain of
ignorance is tearing you apart. Now,
yoga. Now there is a way to know.

It is improper to call Patanjali’s Yoga

Sutras a book because it is not a book. It
is a complex arrangement of tools – such
fantastic tools arranged in such a brilliant
way that if at all something similar ever
happens, it is too far away. Because
someone with that kind of inner
experience usually would not care or
bother with scholarly nonsense. And
someone who is so scholarly is usually so
lost in his scholarship that he never has
any inner experience. Never before has

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there been one person with an absolute
depth of inner experience, but with that
kind of erudition and scholarly mastery
over language.

He just understood humanity inside out –

not as people but as a total mechanism of
the human body, human mind, human
consciousness – everything – in such
absolute detail and completeness. There is
simply no better way to look at it. It is not
fair actually because whatever you try to
say, the guy has already said it! You think
of the most brilliant idea and try to say
something, but he has already said it. He
did not leave anything for anyone to say
about life.

The musician
They say he played a variety of
instruments and was a great musician
and singer. The veena was one of his
favorite instruments and he composed
many ragas. His intellect was such that
he could find a way through anything. He
was absolutely audacious in everything
and did things in a challenging way that
no one could break through.

There was another sage Vyagrapada who

was his contemporary. Vyagrapada
means “one who has tiger’s feet.” And
there was someone else with a name that
meant “one with horns on his head.”
Once, in their banter, they got into an
argument and teased Patanjali. He then
took a challenge that he will compose
music in any raga without using
alphabets with “horns.” This is almost
impossible but he composed a
complicated series of music. If you listen
to it, you will just see it seems impossible,
but still the music sticks to the tones and
tunes of the ragas without those
alphabets. It is so incredible. That is the
kind of man he was.

Chidambaram temple
In South India, there were five lingas
created for the five elements in nature.
Patanjali consecrated the linga for space
which is in Chidambaram.

In the yogic system, the snake is used as a

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symbolism for unmanifest energy or
kundalini because till it moves, you don’t
even realize that it is there. Patanjali was
such a great being, for him divinity is not
an upward movement. He is a cascade of
divinity. He is a kind of human being that
gods would be envious of. He is
symbolically depicted in the famous half-
man, half-snake form indicating that he
has risen above the duality of life and
attained to ultimate oneness, and in doing
so, has opened the door for others to
achieve the same. Half of his body has
been symbolically made into snake,
because he is not seen as a person
anymore. He is seen as the very basis of
the yogic system.

Chitta Vritti Nirodha

Patanjali defined yoga as Chitta Vritti

Nirodha, which literally means that if you
still the modifications and activity of the
mind, you are in yoga. Everything has
become one in your consciousness. We
may be pursuing many things in our lives
and going through processes that we call
achievements, but to go beyond the
modifications of the mind is the most
fundamental and at the same time the
highest achievement one can attain,
because this releases a human being from
what he is seeking – from what is within
and what is outside – from everything. If
only he stills his mind, he becomes an
ultimate possibility. The mind becomes a
plain mirror, not a wavy mirror. A wavy
mirror will distort one’s whole perception
of life. At least if you don’t look at it, you
may have some idea how you are, but if
you look at it every day, it will give you a
completely distorted vision of everything.

Right now, most human beings are using

their mind only between their memory
and imagination. Memory and
imagination are not two separate things.
Memory is accumulated past,

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imagination is an exaggerated version of
that. If you bring your mind to a state
where you are neither contaminated by
memory nor deluded by imagination,
then it is a truly intelligent, penetrative
mind. It sees everything there is to see –
life and its source. For the survival
process, your memory and imagination
are good enough, but if you want to
explore other dimensions of life, then
memory and imagination are not
sufficient because they are only a
recycling of your past. Once you recycle
your past, there is a pattern to your life.
And it is an unbreakable pattern if your
mind is just engaged in memory and
imagination. Once you are trapped by a
pattern, it does not matter who created
the pattern, it is a kind of slavery.
Essentially, realizing that one is trapped in
psychological realities and missing out on
the existential experience of the grandeur
of creation is the first step towards
liberation.

This is the reason why, of all the beautiful

ways in which it could be expressed,
Patanjali chose the description Chitta
Vritti Nirodha for yoga – a technology
which can take you towards your
liberation or realization.

Editor’s Note: “Mystic’s Musings”

includes more of Sadhguru’s insights on
the history of yoga. Read the free sample
[pdf] or purchase the ebook.

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TAGS: Classical Yoga

Comments Community Login

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Join the discussion…

sou • 2 years ago

On a different note, can
anybody authentically
comment why Sadhguru and
Sri Sri Ravishankar though
being renowned Gurus never
meet or share common dias.
There is a story that both were
old time friends.
18 • Reply • Share ›

Prabhu Singapura
• 2 years ago
He did not leave anything for
anybody to say.” What a
immensity !!!!
8 • Reply • Share ›

Celia W • 2 years ago

Is it the same article as the
one in the USA blog?

http://www.ishausa.org/blog/fa...
3 • Reply • Share ›

Chandana Nimal
Sepala Yoga
• 2 years ago
656
1 • Reply • Share ›

Seekers • 2 years ago

Wow, every time I read about
someone who is a master of
masters it definitely puts me in
my place...how did I end up to
be so average and ordinary I
wonder?...: ) Where do these
enlightened people come
from? Other planets perhaps,

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from? Other planets perhaps,
and how the heck do they do
it? Evolution or what?
Awesome, I sure can't keep up
with em.
1 • Reply • Share ›

Cibi Singaravel
S > Seekers
• a year ago
for Shiva and Patanjali,
they didnt have the
usual human birth the
legend says ! :D
Sadhguru said
Patanjali is equal to
Shiva himself ! But
Sadhguru just had a
regular birth ! We
follow him :D
• Reply •
Share ›

Rakesh Bhatt
• 2 years ago
Thanks Sadguru for
enlightening us by exploring
the great Mahirishi Patanjali
before us!

Jai Shiv Shambho!

1 • Reply • Share ›

krishjohnly
• a month ago
Yoga keeps mental balance
and also gives physical
fitness. Here are the uses of
yoga exercise that you derive
by doing daily.
cyclicx(dot)com/health-
updates
• Reply • Share ›

Iswari S • 2 months ago

Love the Patanjali Satkam
above so... much! So...
soothing to the soul.
• Reply • Share ›

Iswari S • 2 months ago

On Trichy-Chennai National
Highway, there's a village by
the name "Thirupattur" and
that's closer to Trichy. At
Thirupattur, there are some
temples. I'm to talk of two of
them here:
1. Kasi Viswanathar Temple...
Lord Shiva here is called Kasi
Viswanathar. There are other
deities as well. But another
specialty of this temple is that
one can visit Sage
Vyagrapada's Samadhi here.
There's a pond nearby(not
usable now), which this Sage
and Patanjali had used at their

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and Patanjali had used at their
times. I learnt that both sages
see more
• Reply • Share ›

Iswari S > Iswari

S • 2 months ago
Chidambaram Nataraja
(Lord Shiva as The
Cosmic Dancer is
Nataraja.) with Sage
Vyagrapada and Sage
Patanjali (left).
Nataraja's consort
Parvathi is also
depicted here (right).
FROM Wikipedia.

⛺
• Reply •
Share ›

Prajwal • 2 months ago

Indians are the ones who are
great in anyway :) :D
• Reply • Share ›

BLiss I AM
• 3 months ago
Yes but patanjali and shiva
exist only in myth and not in
this dimension , they exist in
hyperbole and storytelling
• Reply • Share ›

Jaya • 3 months ago

For the survival process, your
memory and imagination are
good enough, but if you want
to explore other dimensions of
life, then memory and
imagination are not sufficient
because they are only a
recycling of your past. Once
you recycle your past, there is
a pattern to your life. And it is
an unbreakable pattern if your
mind is just engaged in
memory and imagination

TERYYYYYYYYY
• Reply • Share ›

Gilana • a year ago

His eager disciples asked a
great master was asked why
he did not meet another great
master who was in body and
nearby. He replied, "What
would we talk about?"
• Reply • Share ›

indirapriya • a year ago

Awe-inspiring
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Awe-inspiring
• Reply • Share ›

Jonas • a year ago

Were can I read the sutras? Is
there a translation from
sadhguru?
• Reply • Share ›

Chandana Nimal
Sepala Yoga
• 2 years ago
meditation and dreams
• Reply • Share ›

Cecilia Maria
• 2 years ago
Image not showed. (?)
• Reply • Share ›

subhash • 2 years ago

Why glorify Patanjali now? If
you have anything more to say
than what he mentioned, let it
be said.
• Reply • Share ›

Krishna >
subhash
• 2 years ago
Why not glorify
authentically great
beings when the
present world glorifies
movie stars and
singers ?
6 • Reply •
Share ›

Sam > subhash

• 2 years ago
There are so many
things to say or
discover about
Patanjali and so little to
say about Yoga Sutras.
('anything' sometimes
means without the
thing/s other than
boundless')
• Reply •
Share ›

Mrinal Kamboj
> subhash
• 2 years ago
Why not glorify the
great being like
Patanjali, Why the
world should not know
about him, at least
Sadhguru not
attributing the
Patanjali's great work
to himself.
• Reply •
Share ›

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