Patanjali
Author
Patañjali was a sage in Ancient India, thought to be the author of a number of Sanskrit works. The greatest of these are the Yoga Sutras, a classical yoga text.
Born: 200 BC
Died: 150 BC

Patanjali was a great spiritual leader of ancient times who refined the spirit of the spiritual path into the word of wisdom called Yoga Sutras. He defined the steps every soul must go through in its journey back to the infinite spirit. As per one legend, he fell from heaven into the hands of a woman (Anjali) in the form of a little snake, thus named Patanjali.
The life history of Patanjali is almost unknown. It is full of legends and contradictions. There is no clear evidence available about the birth of the Maharshi Patanjali. The dates projected for Patanjali’s birth and life differ by a millennium. Most scholars date the second and third centuries BCE, while others insist that he lived in the 4th to 7th centuries BCE. Maharishi Patanjali lived in Nepal, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, and several places in India.
There is an explanation about Patanjali in Matsya, Vayu, and Skanda Purana that Maharishi Patanjali’s life period proves to be around that of Vyas and Panini. Rishis were tremendously proficient with Yoga power and used to live for thousands of years. They had the capability of living or dying according to their wish. This is the reason for the presence of rishis in modern times. In the Puranas, the life of rishis is believed to be for many ages, and Shri Patanjali is one of these powerful Rishis.
It is believed that Maharishi Patanjali was the incarnation of Adishesha, Vishnu’s serpent, who is the first ego expansion of Lord Vishnu. Ancient texts often refer to Patanjali as an incarnation of the thousand-headed serpent king named Ananta Shesha. He is sometimes depicted as half human and half serpent.
It is said that Patanjali has often been called the founder of the Yoga Sutra. The origin of Yoga had been handed down in an oral tradition over thousands of years from ancient times. Patanjali’s Yoga is one of the famous darshans of Hindu Philosophy. Patanjali synthesised and organised knowledge about Yoga from much older traditions. The yoga sutra is one of the foundational texts of classical Yoga Philosophy.
Maharishi Patanjali is considered the compiler of the Yoga Sutras and the author of a commentary on Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, referred to as Mahabhasya. The Yoga sutras have 196 Sanskrit sutras organised in 4 chapters. The yoga sutras were collected sometime between 500 BCE and 200 BCE. All the four chapters of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra are named according to their subjects; Samadhi Pada, Sadhana Pada, Vibhuti Pada, and Kaivalya Pada.
Samadhi Pada: The first chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras provides a definition and the purpose of Yoga. Various approaches that can be used to achieve the objectives of Yoga are included.
Sadhana Pada: The second chapter includes the practical approach to attaining the goals of Yoga. It also stated about eight limbs of Yoga called Astanga yoga.
Vibhuti Pada: It is about the results, power, and manifestation acquired by Yoga.
Kaivalaya Pada: The last chapter of the Patanjali Yoga sutra includes the path of devotion, the path of Karma, and the path of knowledge.
The eight limbs of astanga yoga are yamas,niyamas, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana,dhyana and samadhi.
– He is known as the Father of Yoga who compiled 195 Yoga Sutras.
– He was the first who had systematically presented Yoga as the great science.
– In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Aum is spoken as a symbol of God. He refers to Aum as a cosmic sound.
– He also wrote a work on medicine and worked on Panini’s grammar known as Mahabhasaya. It is believed that he is an essayist who had written upon the ancient Indian medicine system i.e. Ayurveda.
– It is believed that the Jeeva Samadhi of Patanjali is situated at Tirupattur Brahmapureswara Temple.
The term Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word Yoktra. It is an allied science of Ayurveda which was developed in Ancient India for healing without medicine at the physical and mental level. It also has its roots in the Vedas like other sciences. It also defines Chitta i.e. dissolving thoughts, emotions and desires of a person’s consciousness and achieving a state of equilibrium. Yoga is physical as well as mental. Physical yoga is known as Hathyoga and mental yoga is known as Rajayoga.