Patanjali, who created the Universe?

(Anand Universe Official)

Patanjali and the Yoga Sutras for union with the divine

 

"Yoga" is much more than poses and balance.

The Indian Sage Patanjali, author or compiler of the Yoga Sutras or "Aphorisms on Union" since they are not discourses (sutras) but rather terse sayings followed by brief explanations on the ultimate goal of Yoga ("Union").

All that we in the West call "yoga" are the poses, some breathwork (pranayama), and some chanting or repeating the names of the divine (japa).

But, in fact, the Eightfold Path of Yoga (Ashtanga, Raja, or Integral Yoga) combines a system of practices mirroring the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path, which was radically popular at the time, two millennia ago when the ancient yogi rishi Patanjali compiled his text to set out the ancient Vedic approach to "union with the divine."

They are not the same path, and they do not lead to the same goal, but they often use the same general terms, such as moksha (Pali vimutti) to describe "liberation from samsara." For the Brahmin priests of olde, "liberation" or "emancipation" was rebirth in Brahma's heaven.

• Brahma means "supreme" and was the personal God of the Brahmin priests, The Supremo, even though some understood that there was a higher truth, an impersonal "Ultimate Reality" behind all the illusion of maya called Brahman, the godhead or godhood; this distinction is crucial but as the words are so similar, some may miss the distinction and fall into wrong views about what the Vedas taught and how the Brahmin caste priests interpreted the ancient "Knowledge Books" of ancient proto-India when it was Maha Bharat and a likely remnant of the more ancient Indus Valley Civilization.
• The Hindu concept of BRAHMAN being impersonal brings it very close to a Buddhist understanding of the universe, whereas the Buddha rejected the Vedas, the concept of Great Brahma as the creator of the universe, and most Brahminical ideas of the Old Vedic Religion which he revivified by explaining in novel ways lost to the Brahmin rishis and scholar priests who were unable to explain many tough passages and instead speculated and wrangled and had fallen into wrong views.

The Buddha made known the path to all destinations

The Buddha and Early Buddhism did not advocate any spiritual seeker to remain in samsara (the Cycle of Rebirth and Death), which is what "rebirth with Brahma" means.

• Buddhist cosmology

Moreover, the Buddha taught the way to rebirth in Brahma's retinue, the path to rebirth as a brahma (including Great Brahma, of which there is only one per each "world system" or cakkavala. This is possibly a reference to a "universe" in the multiverse, a solar system, or a galaxy like the Milky Way, of which there are countless all like bubbles).

Brahmins (now Hindus) believes this will then be their final permanent destination, the end of further rebirths in samsara, with no possibility falling away, other brahmas, devas, and Noble Ones in the Pure Abodes -- as well as rebirth on the human plane, 30 other Planes of Existence -- and best of all, ultimate bliss and peace: the END of all further rebirth (nirvana).

• Anand Universe Official; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly