Patanjali
Little is known about the historical Patanjali, and it is not clear, whether he actually existed as a person. According to Hindu myth Patanjali was the incarnation of Adi Shesha, the king of snakes, who was a devotee of Vishnu. After Vishnu’s recounting of seeing and experiencing Shiva’s Cosmic Dance in the Daruvana forest, Adi Shesha begged his Lord’s permission to go and see the Cosmic Dance for himself. After performing strenuous tapas (ascetic practice) Shiva gave him the boon of being born as a son to the sage Atri and his wife Anasuya. After giving birth to a half snake and half human being, she dropped him from shock as she took him in her hands for the first time. From there came his name Pata-anjali, Patanjali, Fallen from Folded Hands. In spite of this traumatic after-birth-experience, Patanjali became the founder of the Nataraja Mandir (temple) in Chidambaram and the reputed author of the third-century Hindu text called the Yoga Sutra, which laid the foundation for the whole Yoga tradition. The Yoga Sutra is unquestionably one of the most important texts in Indian philosophy and spirituality. The terse collection of aphorisms systematizes the theory and practice of yoga, a mental and bodily discipline with a history extending back hundreds of years before the Common Era. The term yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj (unite) and is cognate to the English word “yoke.” In this sense, yoga is the process by which one “unites” or “yokes” the individual appearance with the divine. The second meaning of “yoke” is “to control, to discipline” like a yoke controls two oxen in front of a cart. So, by controlling one’s senses and intellect the yogi realizes the transcendental Divine Self. The human entity is thus a “mind-body complex,” fundamentally operating from infinite and formless consciousness.
Part of a painting of Patanjali by Rabi Behera
The following verses are an excerpt from part 2 of the yoga sutras:
II.15 The wise see suffering in all experience, whether from the anguish of impermanence, or from latent impressions laden with suffering, or from incessant conflict as the fundamental qualities of nature vie for ascendancy.
II.16 But suffering that has not yet arisen can be prevented.
II.17 The preventable cause of all this suffering is the apparent indivisibility of pure awareness and what it regards.
II.18 What awareness regards, namely the phenomenal world, embodies the qualities of luminosity, activity, and inertia; it includes oneself, composed of both elements and the senses; and, it is the ground for both sensual experience and liberation.
II.19 All orders of being – undifferentiated, differentiated, indistinct, distinct – are manifestations of the fundamental qualities of nature.
II.20 Pure awareness is just seeing, itself; although pure, it usually appears to operate through the perceiving mind.
II.21 In essence, the phenomenal world exists to reveal this truth.
II.22 Once that happens, the phenomenal world no longer appears as such; it continues to exist as a common reality for everyone else, though.
II.23 It is by virtue of the apparent indivisibility of the phenomenal world and pure awareness that the former seems to possess the latter’s powers.
II.24 Not seeing things as they are is the cause of this phenomenon.
II.25 With realization, the appearance of indivisibility vanishes, revealing that awareness is free and untouched by phenomena.
II.26 The apparent indivisibility of seeing and the seen can be eradicated by cultivating uninterrupted discrimination between awareness and what it regards.
II.27 At the ultimate level of discrimination, wisdom extends to all seven aspects of nature.
II.28 When the components of yoga are practiced, impurities dwindle; then, the light of understanding can shine forth, illuminating the way to discriminative awareness.
(translation Chip Hartranft)
Hatha Yoga: The historical root of most modern physical yoga. It was originally designed to balance the solar (ha) and lunar (tha) energies of the body through postures and breathwork, preparing the nervous system for deep meditation. However, generalized “Hatha” classes in the West often strip away this esoteric framework, reducing it to gentle physical stretching and stress relief.
Iyengar Yoga: Developed by B.K.S. Iyengar, this school focuses intensely on precise physical alignment, often utilizing props like blocks and straps. While it appears obsessed with physiological perfection, its underlying philosophy treats this intense bodily focus as “meditation in action,” forcing the wandering mind to anchor entirely in the present moment.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga: Popularized by K. Pattabhi Jois, this is a highly athletic, heat-building sequence of continuous postures. Though it borrows its name from Patanjali’s eight-limbed path (Ashtanga), its modern application is intensely physical. It is largely responsible for the modern fitness-yoga boom, often attracting practitioners seeking a rigorous workout rather than non-dual realization.
Sivananda Yoga: A holistic, traditional approach that explicitly retains its spiritual scaffolding. Rather than isolating the physical body, it integrates basic postures with four other mandatory pillars: proper breathing (pranayama), deep relaxation, a vegetarian diet, and positive thinking combined with meditation (Vedanta and Dhyana).
Kriya Yoga: Popularized globally by Paramahansa Yogananda, this branch largely bypasses physical gymnastics. It focuses instead on esoteric internal breathing techniques and energy routing along the spine. Its direct aim is to accelerate the practitioner’s spiritual evolution and unbind awareness, aligning closely with Patanjali’s ultimate goals.
Sahaja Yoga: Founded in 1970 by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, this movement operates almost entirely outside the realm of physical postures. It focuses exclusively on spontaneous self-realization through the awakening of the Kundalini energy, relying purely on seated meditation and the balancing of the subtle energy system.