The Hindu God Patanjali - The Father of Yoga

"When you work only for yourself, or for your own personal gain, your mind will seldom rise above the limitations of an undeveloped personal life. But when you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break your bonds: your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you every dreamed yourself to be."

~Patanjali, Sanskrit grammarian and Author of The Yoga Sutras 2nd Century, BC~

bronze statue of Patanjali Father of Yoga

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Pantanjali's life story is somewhat unknown, leaving many details unexplained and disputed.

Pantanjali was born to Atri and Anusuya; both masters of Ashtanga yoga. The details surrounding his birth have assumed mythical dimensions. It is said that in order to teach yoga, Pantanjali fell from the heavens in the form of a little snake, and fell into his virginal mother's open palms.

His most known accomplishment is the compilation of the Yoga Sutras, a major work which contains aphorisms on the philosophical aspects of mind and consciousness, and is the assumed writer of work on the ancient Indian medicine system. Recently Yoga Sutra has become popular worldwide for the precepts of Raja Yoga, and also the philosophical basis of the Yoga movement, which aids in the health of harmonizing of the body mind.

Pantanjali is also said to be an incarnation of Adi S'esha who is the first ego-expansion of Vishnu, Sankarshana. Pantanjali is worshiped by the dancers of India as their patron saint. However, Pantanjali's reputation as a great dancer is doubted by scholars who know him as the author of the famous Sutras. It is said that once while watching a dance by Lord Shiva, Adi Shesha found it unbearable to support the weight of Lord Vishnu.

Adi Shesha was amazed by this and asked Lord Vishnu the reason. He said it was because of his harmony with Lord Shiva's energy state, due to the practice of yoga. Then the benefits of Yoga became clear to Adi Shesha, and he decided to be a born amongst humans as "Pantanjali".

By Kyle Tortora, [email protected]

See All Of Lotus Sculpture's Patanjali Statues

Shiva	Vishnu	Ganesh
Parvati	Lakshmi	Saraswati
Nataraja	Krishna	Brahma
Kali	Durga	Shakti
Murugan	Hanuman	Patanjali