Rishi Sapiens Yoga Sutras
🙏Pranāms to Maharishi Patanjali🙏
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (PYS)
The ultimate formal guide to Yogic acceleration of the Mind is in PYS.
Although PYS is a Rāja Yoga text focused primarily on the Yoga Mind, unlike the Hatha Yoga texts focused on the body, the perspective of Yoga is that Mind pervades the body, hence a perfected Mind results in a perfected body too.
PYS is usually presented chiseled to its bare essentials, a very dry, clinical view of the Mind.
There are 4 major sections in the Sutras with a total of 196 Sutras, that is aphorisms, for they are quite cryptic in nature that, not only one needs to know the Sanskrit meanings but also interpret them to relevant contexts we find ourselves in.
Here we present it differently.
Our unique contribution is contextualizing PYS with the Rishi Sapiens model.
We have earlier outlined the concept of Rishis as storytellers from the stars. The grandest of them is the Maharshi, a well-deserved title to accord Patanjali for his fundamental contributions to documenting the intricacies of the Yogic Mind that enable our evolution to Rishi Sapiens, as fully Conscious Beings.
Patanjali Story
There is a story about Maharishi Patanjali.
He was transmitting his knowledge to a room full of students.
But he had two conditions.
One, no one should leave in the middle of the session.
Second, no one should lift the curtain from behind which he was seated.
The blast of transmitted energy is really intense!
One of the students leaves, desperate to answer a call of Nature.
Another student cannot resist his curiosity and lifts the curtain.
The entire hall gets blasted by the intense Energy and the students are vaporized.
Except for the one that took a break.
Patanjali decides to communicate the rest of his Sutras to the one remaining student.
Except that the student has to pay a price for his indiscipline.
He must remain a Brhma-rAkshasa until he can retransmit the received knowledge.
Patanjali then departs.
The Brhma-rAkshasa now dangles from a tree in the forest accosting passers-by.
He asks penetrating questions to first determine their worthiness.
None are able to answer his questions and each of them is swallowed up.
Patanjali takes pity on his erstwhile student and re-appears on the scene - now as a student.
At last the Brhma-rAkshasa has found a worthy recipient for his master's teachings - Patanjali himself!
Patanjali re-learns all the Sutras and thus liberates the Brhma-rAkshasa from his fate.
Moksha!
Patanjali wraps up his palm-leaf inscribed Sutras and places them below the tree.
He then goes to the river for a well-deserved bath.
Upon his return, Patanjali finds that a goat has swallowed up a portion of the Sutras.
Yoga Implication
For those who have read our Model, the Brhma-rākshasa psychic virus must be by now familiar.
What about the goat though? The goat is but our ruminating Mind chewing away relentlessly.
As we still that relentless process, we re-discover the missing knowledge for our Self, for Yoga at this level can never be taught - it is only transmitted & received - and always we find, in such knowledge traditions, the student is meant to fill in the gaps.
And if you want some practical techniques along the way ... read this section on Yoga Techniques