Who was Patañjali?
Patañjali is the systematizer, organizer, or arranger of Yoga, and almost every discipline of Yoga (and every teacher training in the East and West) recognizes or studies him and his work. He created the Yoga Sutras, the core text of the Yoga Darshana (darshana means view or viewing) — one of the Six Classical Indian Schools of Philosophy.
Many sacred Yogic texts have expanded upon one another over the centuries (for example, the Upanishads built upon the Vedas, and so on and so forth). But while these texts are filled with different ideas and teachings, there is no particular order or instruction to them. Patañjali compiled all of these Yogic teachings and texts from over thousands of years and systematized them into the Yoga Sutras.
To this day, no one actually knows if Patañjali was a single man or if Patañjali was a group of men. It was common in Indian culture at that time in history for a collective group of scholars to refer to themselves under one name. It was also customary to create a myth or legend around great sages to honor their existence. Although Patañjali was an actual flesh and blood being (or beings), creating a legend about how he came to be was even more necessary because so much was unknown.
According to the legend, Patañjali is the incarnation of Ananta Shesha, which means remainder infinite in Sanskrit. Ananta Shesha is the Hindu deity of a giant serpent king who serves as Vishnu’s couch between the world cycles. Vishnu is one of the three main male deities in Hinduism, and he is conceived as the protector. (Vishnu is very important; he’s up there with Shiva, the destroyer, and Brahma, the creator.)
There was a wise and powerful virgin yogini named Goniki, and she prayed to the gods for a son to whom she could pass along her great wisdom. As she prayed, she held her hands in anjali mudra, a symbol of reverence and honor. When she opened her hands, she saw a tiny snake, which then turned into a human child.
Ananta Shesha has fallen to Earth and landed in Goniki’s hands.
In Sanskrit, pat means fallen and anjali means offering, so the name Patañjali means fallen offering.
Beautiful, right?
Because of this legend, Patañjali’s image is often depicted as the lower body of a snake; the chest, shoulders and arms of a man; and one thousand luminous snake heads from the neck up. He has four arms, and the hand of each arm holds a different object: one holds a mussel horn (conch), one holds a fiery discus, one holds a sword, and the last hand is in abhaya mudra (which means fearlessness).
Each of these images or objects has a significant meaning:
The conch or mussel horn represents the original tone or universal sound of OM (when you blow into a conch, the sound it makes is OM). The blowing of a conch is also a battle sound, and th battle is to fight off the poison of conditioning and illusion in the mind to find your True Self, Spirit, or Knowing.
The fiery discus represents infinity, or infinite knowledge. It is also representative of a chakra and the energetic or subtle body.
The sword represents discernment or differentiation. The sword of discernment cuts through the veil of illusion helping us see Spirit versus mind or matter.
The hand in abhaya mudra represents Patañjali as a fearless warrior of Yoga. He is fearless because he has the knowledge of Yoga. He knows what is Spirit and what is not, and the illusion of fear falls away.
The one thousand luminous snake heads are said to mean that Patañjali could teach one thousand students at the same time, in the same place, individually. It is also a metaphor for his teachings in the Yoga Sutras. One of the six characteristics of a sutra is it is universal facing; it applies to every situation that arises, and it is true and experienceable. So Patanjali depicted as a one thousand-headed being implies that the teachings he passes down will speak to each and every person in an individual way.
In addition to the arranger of Yoga, which removes the impurities of the mind, Patañjali is also the arranger of Sanskrit Grammar, which removes the impurities of communication, and the arranger of Ayurveda, which removes the impurities of the body.
Through all of these arrangements, Patañjali provides practitioners a path to come out of suffering and into healing and freedom.
Namaste,
Kelly
*If you have been misguided on your yogic path, or have felt frustrated with the current yoga scene, I invite you to download my free e-book: How Yoga Philosophy Can Transform Your Teaching.