We express our gratitude and offer our humble reverences and respect to the great Patanjali Maharishi who endowed us the Yoga for the evolution of the consciousness, serenity of mind, medicine for the physical body, the perfection of health, and the purity of the word and self—knowledge.

Let us offer our humble and respectful reverences before the great Patanjali Maharishi, an incarnation of Ādiśeṣa, whose upper body is of a human form, whose arms sustain a caracole and a disk, who has as a crown a cobra of a thousand heads. Let us offer our respectful reverences before Lord Ādiśeṣa, who manifests on earth as Patanjali, in order to bless the human race with health and harmony.

Let us offer our humble and respectful reverences before Lord Ādiśeṣa of the myriad heads and mouths of a serpent, which carries injurious poisons, breaking of which when descended to the earth as Patanjali, with one single head, to eradicate the ignorance and overcome the misery. Let us offer our most humble and respectful reverences before Him, reservoir of all knowledge, among his association. Come to pray to the Lord, the primordial form of which radiates of pure and white refulgence, the body of which is pristine, who is a master of yoga that bestows his yogic light on us, to allow the human gender to rest in the abode of the soul.

We express our gratitude and offer our humble reverences and respect to the great Patanjali Maharishi who endowed us the Yoga for the evolution of the consciousness, serenity of mind, medicine for the physical body, the perfection of health, and the purity of the word and self—knowledge.

Let us offer our humble and respectful reverences before the great Patanjali Maharishi, an incarnation of Ādiśeṣa, whose upper body is of a human form, whose arms sustain a caracole and a disk, who has as a crown a cobra of a thousand heads. Let us offer our respectful reverences before Lord Ādiśeṣa, who manifests on earth as Patanjali, in order to bless the human race with health and harmony.

Let us offer our humble and respectful reverences before Lord Ādiśeṣa of the myriad heads and mouths of a serpent, which carries injurious poisons, breaking of which when descended to the earth as Patanjali, with one single head, to eradicate the ignorance and overcome the misery. Let us offer our most humble and respectful reverences before Him, reservoir of all knowledge, among his association. Come to pray to the Lord, the primordial form of which radiates of pure and white refulgence, the body of which is pristine, who is a master of yoga that bestows his yogic light on us, to allow the human gender to rest in the abode of the soul.

PATANJALI MAHARISHI

Although Patanjali Maharishi is considered according to the tradition the first encoder of yoga in sutras, he is not the creator of yoga, which forms a part of an eternal wisdom, without a beginning or a founder, the Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism. Most of what we know about Patanjali Maharishi comes from legends, it is believed that Patanjali, also called Gonardiya, or Gonikaputra was born in India between 200 B.C and 200 A.C, although it is not possible to affirm a date with preciseness. It is said the his fathers' name was Anigras and his mothers' Gonika, a pure devotee of Siva, and a great sage that was considered an incarnation of Parvati as Sati. That is to say, the parents of Patanjali were very special. His mother was the daughter of a great erudite of the sankhya philosophy of Kapila called Hiranyagarbha. It was the grandfather of Patanjali who decided to develop from the sankhya a practical aspect, founding the yoga. Meaning, in its origin the sankhya or the yoga were a single school that separated into two.

It is said that on a certain occasion Lord Viṣṇu was seated on top of the Lord of serpents Ādiśeṣa, or Ananta, entrancingly observing Lord Nataraja, which is one of the names of Lord Śiva. Lord Viṣṇu began to move his body to the rhythm of the plunging music due to the ecstasy the dancing produced in him, this auspicious symptoms made him heavier, to the point to which to sustain him became difficult even to Ādiśeṣa. Lord Ananta Śeṣa, confused by such phenomenon asked Viṣṇu regarding what had occurred and these symptoms, Lord Vishnu proceeded to explain to him that this auspicious transcendental dance, its grace and beauty of movements, conduced in him a great transcendental pleasure and the heaviness and trembling were symptoms of a very magnificent experience. Upon hearing the effects of the dance of Nataraja on his Lord, Ādiśeṣa solicited Lord Viṣṇu to reincarnate as a human being so to learn the art of dance to be able to serve and please him in a similar manner. Lord Viṣṇu foretold him that he would reincarnate as a human being and that he would write a grammar commentary and later dedicate it to the dance. It was Lord Viṣṇu who finally conceded Ananta with his desire to reincarnate as a man on earth, in the womb of one of his most loyal and pure devotees, Gonika. She was a great devotee who prayed constantly for a suitable son to whom she could impart her wisdom. At a certain moment Gonika meditated in Surya, the Sun, taking water from his hands as an offering, the wise person and devotee began to direct to him to her prayers and pleads, how great was the surprise when opening her hand and seeing a small serpent which adopted a human form, whom with joint hands offered his humble reverences to her soliciting from her to become her son. Before which Gonika accepted delightedly giving to her son the name of Patanjali, "Pata" means "fallen" and "anjali" means "joint hands in prayer or oration", because her son had descended or fallen from the celestial planes due to her incessant orations.

Patanjali Maharishi can be considered, justly and without exaggerating, the greatest and most important psychologist all through history, although of course we speak regarding a yogic psychologist. The yogic wisdom of the mind springs from the observation or distancing from this one. It proceeds from beings that transformed themselves in the laboratories where their investigations and experiments were carried out.

THE YOGA SUTRAS

It is indisputable that The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, one of the most important spiritual literary monuments of all times together with the sacred Srimad Bhagavad Gita, or the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, conform the basis of yoga. This is a text of colossal importance. Proof of this is that its powerful influence in the yoga is felt still in the present days, studying of it playing such an important role for those interested in yoga nowadays just as it was when they came into writing. Its 196 short aphorisms or sutras shape one of the most important spiritual documents in history. Within the text we find in detail the wisdom of the mind, what it is, what it consists of, how it functions, and how to transcend it. That is to say, when we refer to The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali we speak about a very significant text within the raja—yoga, the branch of yoga that occupies especially of the mind and its function, a reason for which it is being referred to by some as the yogic psychology. Man is denominated in Sanskrit "manava", due to him originating from Manu, who was the first man and son of Lord Brahma. The word "manas" means "mind" and comes from "man" that means to think. That is to say, according to the before said, we arrive to the conclusion that a man, or a human being is one who has a mind.

The significance of the word "sutra" is "thread" or "string", giving the understanding that in the same way that it is possible to place an amount of precious pearls on one single thread, creating a necklace. In the same way this is a system that allows fasten and interlace a great number of truths connected and united on a commun thread, thus creating a jewel as this work of art.

Never has anyone in the history of humanity reached such wisdom regarding the human mind as the yogis did...meaning, about the origin of the pains, sadness, happiness, frustrations, and fears of man...

Because only beings of observation have the ability for such situation where the observer is transformed into the observed...

This state where a distance flourishes between what you are and what you believe to be...

Yogāchārya Bhaktivedanta Ramakrishnananda Swami Maharaja