![]() |
Pathanjali Siddhar:
To the noblest of Sages, Patanjali, who gave Yoga for serenity of mind, grammar for purity of speech, and medicine for the health of the body, I prostrate with folded hands. To this white Patanjali, who has a human form, holding conch, disc and sword and having a thousand heads, I bow. Sri Pathanjali is considered the first siddhar. The information on Pathanjali is available only in Purana's. Pathanjali is considered as a form / incarnation of Adiseshan (the snake associated with Lord Vishnu). Lord Vishnu sleeps over Adiseshan. |
||||||||||||
Once, Lord Vishnu saw the Siva Thandava (the divine dance of Lord Siva) and got extremely happy. Adisheshan could not bear the weight of Lord Vishnu in such a state. So, when Adiseshan informed Lord Vishnu of his difficulty, He was told about the Siva Thandava. Adiseshan also wanted to see the Siva thandava. So he did penance and Lord Siva appeared before him and granted his wish to see the divine dance.
Lord Siva told him that he and Viyakramabathar would see his dance in the southern city of Thillai. Thillai is the other name of Chidambaram and it houses the famous Nataraja temple (please refer to the note below for details about the dance of Lord Siva).
There are varied schools of thought that the Pathanjali who wrote "Maha Bashyam" in North India is different from the Pathanjali who wrote "Gyana Sutra" in Tamil. As siddhars have been known to live for ages, the period of the life of Pathanjali and the exact duration of his life can not be known.
Moreover, there are no definitive texts available about Pathanjali. Both Pathanjali and Viyakramabathar had lived in Tamil Nadu in a period where siddhars had also lived there. Both of them had observed the divine dance of Lord Siva at Thillai in Tamil Nadu. Both of them attained their Samadhi at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. Hence the argument that Pathanjali could not have written texts in Tamil could not be true. |
|||||||||||||
![]() |
About Siva Thandava (as given in templenet):
The dance of bliss, or the Ananda Tandavam of Siva is said to symbolize the five divine acts of creation, sustenance, dissolution, concealment and bestowment of grace. The dance of Shiva has been frozen in metal and held in worships in Nataraja Sabhas, in virtually all of the Saivite temples in Tamilnadu.
|
||||||||||||
|