The story of Patanjali

Once upon a time, all the munis and rishis approached Lord Vishnu to tell him that even though He
(incarnated as Lord Dhanvanthari) had given them the means to cure illnesses through Ayurveda, people
still fell ill. They also wanted to know what to do when people got sick.
Sometimes it is not just physical illness, but mental and emotional illness too that needs to be dealt
with. Anger, lust, greed, jealousy etc. How does one get rid of all these impurities? What is the formula?
Vishnu was lying on the bed of snakes the serpent Adishsha with a 1,000 heads. When the Rishis
approached Him, he gave them Adishsha, the symbol of awareness, who took birth in the world as
Maharishi Patanjali.
So Patanjali came to this earth to give this knowledge of yoga which came to be known as the yoga
sutras. Patanjali said he was not going to discuss the yoga sutras unless 1,000 people got together. So
1,000 people gathered south of Vindhya Mountains to listen to him.
Patanjali had another condition he would put a screen between him and his students and told them
that nobody was to lift the screen or leave. Everybody had to stay in the hall till he finished. So Patanjali
stayed behind the curtain and he transmitted his knowledge to the 1,000 gathered. Each of them
absorbed this knowledge. It was an amazing phenomenon and even amongst the students, they could
not believe how they were getting this knowledge, how the master was making each of them
understand without uttering words from behind the curtain.
Everybody was amazed. Each one of them experienced such a blast of energy, such a blast of
enthusiasm, that they could not even contain it. But they still had to maintain the discipline.
But one little boy had to go out to attend natures call. So he left the room. He thought to himself that
he would go quietly and return quietly. Another person became curious. What is the Master doing
behind the curtain? I want to see! He got so curious that he lifted the curtain to see the Master. Just as
he did so, all 999 disciples were burnt to ashes. Now, Patanjali became very sad. There he was ready to
impart knowledge to the whole world and all of his disciples were burnt.
At this moment, that one little boy returned. Patanjali asked him where he had gone. The boy explained
and asked his forgiveness. Patanjali was compassionate and felt that at least one of his disciples was
saved.
So he gave him the rest of the yoga sutras, the rest of the knowledge. But, the student had violated the
law and Patanjali was not willing to forget that. He said, Since you have violated the law, you will
become a Brahmarakshasa, a ghost and hang on the tree. And the only way he could liberate himself
from the curse is to teach one student. Saying this, Patanjali disappeared.
Now Brahmarakshasa, hanging on a tree, would ask everyone who passed by a question and when they
could not give an answer, he would eat them. He had no choice. For a few thousand years, this was the
story. He could not find a single person to whom he could teach the yoga sutras. So, he remained in the
tree as a Brahmarakshasa. (The lesson here is that when one who has great knowledge does something
wrong, the state of Brahmarakshasa will come. An intelligent person becoming a criminal is more
dangerous than an innocent person becoming a criminal. If a person, who knows all knowledge and then
turns a criminal, it is much more dangerous). Brahmarakshasa was hanging there and waiting for relief.
Then out of compassion, Patanjali himself becomes a disciple and comes as a student to
Brahmarakshasa who told him all the yoga sutras, which Patanjali wrote on palm leaves. The story goes
that to redeem one disciple, the Master became the disciple of a disciple.
Patanjali wrote the yoga sutras sitting on the top of the tree as that was where Brahmarakshasa sat.
Brahmarakshasa worked only in the night. So, he dictated the sutras at night and Patanjali wrote them
on leaves. He plucked all the leaves and made a small scratch, drew blood and wrote. This went on for
seven days. At the end of it, Patanjali was tired. He put everything he had written into a piece of cloth,
set it down and went to bathe. When he returned, he found that a goat had eaten most of the leaves.
Patanjali then took the cloth bag and the rest of the leaves and walked away.
In this story, there is a lot of depth. The puranas do not give an explanation. They just give a story and it
is for us to unlock the meaning. So, let's get started!