7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga

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Patanjali The Father of Modern Yoga
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7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/classical-yoga-the-influence-of-patanjali/ 2/13
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 cant 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
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7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/classical-yoga-the-influence-of-patanjali/ 3/13
He just
understood
humanity inside
fantastic. Todays scholars argue that this is not one mans work, that
many people must have worked to make this happen because it is so big, it
cannot fit into one mans intellect. It is one mans work. He is 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 didnt 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 say it
is like a formula. Anyone who
knows the English alphabet, even
a kindergarten child can say
E=mc, but there is an enormous
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7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/classical-yoga-the-influence-of-patanjali/ 4/13
out not as
people but as a
total mechanism
of the human
body, mind,
consciousness
amount of science behind that
little formula, which most people
do not understand. The sutras are
like this, in thread form. Out of
ignorance, people have just taken
these sutras and are 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.
7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/classical-yoga-the-influence-of-patanjali/ 5/13
Patanjali
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 dont 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, thats 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
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
doesnt 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
7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/classical-yoga-the-influence-of-patanjali/ 6/13
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 Patanjalis 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 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
7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/classical-yoga-the-influence-of-patanjali/ 7/13
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 tigers 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 symbolism for unmanifest
energy or kundalini because till it moves, you dont 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
7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/classical-yoga-the-influence-of-patanjali/ 8/13
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 ones whole
perception of life. At least if you dont 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, imagination is an exaggerated
Sounds of Isha
Patanjali Stotram
12,611
8:37
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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.
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sou a year 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.

11
Reply
Prabhu Singapura a year ago
He did not leave anything for anybody to say. What a immensity !!!!

8
Celia W a year ago
Is it the same article as the one in the USA blog?
http://www.ishausa.org/blog/fa...
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7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/classical-yoga-the-influence-of-patanjali/ 11/13
Reply
http://www.ishausa.org/blog/fa...

2
Reply
Seekers a year 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, and how
the heck do they do it? Evolution or what? Awesome, I sure can't keep up with em.

1
Reply
Cibi Singaravel S 24 days ago Seekers
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
Rakesh Bhatt a year ago
Thanks Sadguru for enlightening us by exploring the great Mahirishi Patanjali before
us!
Jai Shiv Shambho!

1
Reply
subhash a year ago
Why glorify Patanjali now? If you have anything more to say than what he
mentioned, let it be said.


Reply
Krishna a year ago subhash
Why not glorify authentically great beings when the present world glorifies
movie stars and singers ?

4
Sam a year ago subhash
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
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7/21/2014 Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga
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Reply
say about Yoga Sutras. ('anything' sometimes means without the thing/s
other than boundless')


Reply
Mrinal Kamboj a year ago subhash
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
indirapriya 22 days ago
Awe-inspiring


Reply
Jonas 24 days ago
Were can I read the sutras? Is there a translation from sadhguru?


Reply
Chandana Nimal Sepala Yoga a year ago
656


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Chandana Nimal Sepala Yoga a year ago
meditation and dreams


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Cecilia Maria a year ago
Image not showed. (?)


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