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The beautiful stone figure depicts Patanjali as the Adishesha. Patanjali, apart from being the Yogacharya, is also known as the Adishesha, which can be understand as "the primordial snake" or the primordial form of Lord Vishnu.

In Hindu mythology Adishesha, sometimes also known as "Ananta" (The Endless One), is the thousand-headed ruler of the Nagas, the serpent race that is thought to guard the hidden treasures of the earth. Since yogic knowledge is the ultimate the secret treasure, many yogins still bow to Adishesha before beginning their daily yoga practice. "Salutation to the king of the Nagas, to the infinite, to the bearer of the mandala, who spreads out this universe with thousands of hooded heads, set with blazing, effulgent jewels."

Here the body of patanjali is shown as being coiled to form an expansive comfortable couch on which the god Vishnu rests and reclines during the intervals of creation. The serpent's thousand heads symbolize infinity or omnipresence. These heads reach up and out like a protective canopy or umbrella over Vishnu and on that "umbrella" rests our earth.

The snake's body is soft and gentle enough to serve as a couch for a god and at the same time, firm and steady enough to support the whole earth. We endeavor to bring both of these same qualities to our asana practice : softness, comfort and ease(sukha) must be balanced with firmness, strength and steadiness of effort (sthira).

The Yoga-Sutra is a significant landmark in the protracted evolution of the yogic tradition. It formed the foundation text for an extensive commentarial literature stretching from the Yoga-Bhasya of Vyasa to modern traditionalist interpretations in Hindi and other Indic vernaculars as well as various European languages, notably English.

The present volume by Swami Veda Bharati provides a learned commentary on the second chapter of the Yoga-Sutra i.e., Sadhana Pada. This contains the core of Patanjali’s philosophical and meta-psychological framework, and it also defines both the components of kriya-yoga and the first five components of eight limbed astanga-yoga. This chapter demonstrates very clearly that in Yoga, theory and practice form a homogenous whole. The theoretical concepts were largely distilled from practical experience and, in turn, informed further experimentation on the path. How could we hope to travel the path mapped out by Patanjali without recourse to such pregnant concepts as citta, vrtti, pratyaya, samskara, vasana, asaya, nirodha, parinama, guna, pratiprasava? All these ideas were shaped in the intense practice environment of Yoga over many generations.

Swami Veda Bharati brings to his exegesis a singular sensitivity and wonderful comprehension of yogic concepts, which are rooted in his extensive traditional training as a Sanskrit scholar and also his personal yogic practice. This latest contribution to our comprehension of Patanjali’s teachings takes us a lot further than other similar endeavors.

About the Author

Born in a Sanskrit-speaking family in 1933, Swam Veda Bharati started teaching the Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali from 1942, at the age of nine. In 1946 a number of article appeared in the Hindi press proclaiming this child prodigy's exceptional knowledge of the Vedas. He then began to be invited to address crowds of thousand as well as colleges and universities throughout north India.

From February 1947 he travelled worldwide giving discourses and establishing meditation centres. He has, to his credit. 4,000 hours of recorded lectures on history, philosophy and practices of meditation and has written eighteen boo including a 1,500 page commentary on the first two padas of the Yoga-Sutras, a highly scholarly and meticulous work.

Between 1965 and 1967 he obtained all his degree: BA (Honours) London, MA (London), D.Litt. (Holland), and FARS. He has varying degree of depth in seventeen languages.

In 1969 he met his yoga guru Swami Rama of Himalayas (author of Living with Himalayan Masters) who initiated him into the highest path of dhyana-Yoga.

Swami Veda Bharati taught meditation from within the religious. spiritual and literary traditions of different world cultures-from China to Africa to different parts of Europe. In each culture he taught meditation from within that culture, for example, in Italy he taught Dante' Il Paradiso as a text of the experience of divine light in meditation; he was visited by masters of the Sufi orders; and has forty-five hours of recordings of lectures on Christian tradition of meditation.

He has also been engaged in neurological research in meditation and maintains a sophisticated laboratory in his asrama for testing brain waves and other neuro-physiological patterns during meditation.

He run over fifty meditation groups and centres in twenty-five countries; hold the prestigious title of Mahamandalesvara in the community of the Swami Order of monks. He was spiritual guide to two asramas in Rishikesh where seekers from twenty-five countries come to learn meditation and undergo varying periods of guided silence.

Swami Veda Bharati also maintained keen interest in the relationship of science and meditation, run a research laboratory practices of meditation.

In that context, he has been the subject of several experiments in the neurology of meditation in institutions like the Institute of Noetic Sciences, California; in a unique experiment, sitting outside a Faraday Chamber, nine times in a row, proving the power of the volition of consciousness over material energies. The result of this experiments have been published in the Scientific Press.

He spent much of his time travelling worldwide, lecturing and participating in relevant conferences and giving guidance to sixty meditation groups on all continents. Swamiji passed away on July 14th, 2015 in Rishikesh at his asrama.

SPECIFICATION:

• Publisher : ‎ Om Books International
• By : Swami Vivekananda
  
• Cover : Paperback
  
• Language : English
  
• Edition : 2020
  
• Pages : 464 pages
  
• Weight : 330 g
  
• Size : 20.3 x 25.4 x 4.7 cm
  
• ISBN-10 : ‎ 9353764815
  
• ISBN-13 : 978-9353764814
  

DESCRIPTION: 

Swami Vivekananda combines the yogas of the Bhagat Gita and patanjali's yoga sutras, with the wisdom of India's rich philosophical tradition in yoga: the spiritual path, a definitive guide to self-realization