Patanjali quote (fwd)

Wed Jul 11 16:17:49 UTC 2007

  While    looking  at the indology  study I find    not much work has taken
up  on Orissa, a state of eastern India  where   the culture of north and
south  India meet together  in its religion, art and sculpture, literature ,
painting  and dance etc.
  Regarding   folklore  I dont  see any  reference on  Orissa.
 Can any body help me in getting scholars on  orissa studies i  the context
of Indology  and   orissan folklore?
 mahendra  mishra

On 7/10/07, Elizabeth De Michelis <elizabeth.demichelis at oriel.ox.ac.uk>
wrote:
>
> I am staggered at how this 'non-Patanjali Patanjali', or 'modern yoga
> Patanjali' is being quoted as representative of the Yoga Sutras. I
> did a quick Google search and that was enough to reveal extensive
> quotation of this sentence in many 'yoga'  and some non-yoga fora -
> including by the President of India who should definitely know
> better, or have persons around him who do!  I do not know to whom
> exactly this extremely free paraphrase (if that) may be attributed,
> and the guesses brought forward by Gary Tubb and Kengo Harimoto may
> well provide actual answers.
>
> In a more general sense, however, the quote is too commonplace to be
> attribuable to anyone purely on the basis of vocabulary and content,
> and it could have been written by 'anybody'. It is pure 'New Age /
> self-help / inspirational modern yoga style' of the lightest kind,
> rather than 'Patanjali' in any meaningful sense...
>
> My guess is that this passage may have been (extremely freely)
> inspired by Vyasa's commentary on Yoga Sutra 4.3, in which the famous
> 'farmer' metaphor is elaborated. Dermot Killingley wrote an article
> on Vivekananda's interpretation of this passage (along with YS 4.2):
>
> 'Yoga-s��tra IV, 2�C3 and Vivek��nanda's interpretation of evolution'
> Journal of Indian Philosophy
> Volume 18, Number 2 / June, 1990 :151-179
>
> DK translates Vyasa's commentary to YS 4.3 as follows:
>
> "As a farmer who wishes, by filling it with water from one field, to
> flood another field on the same level, or [the next] below, or lower,
> does not carry the water away with his hands, but breaks the barrier
> holding the water, after which the water spontaneously floods the
> second field; in the same way dharma breaks the barrier holding the
> prakrtis - namely adharma - after which the prakrtis spontaneously
> fill up their respective effects (vikara)."
>
> Or I may be wrong- it may simply be a statement in relation to the
> whole of Pada 3 on Vibhutis (siddhis), to some other passage
> discussing 'mind', or to YS as a whole!
>
> Needless to say, Patanjali/Vyasa's discussion is altogether different
> from the quotation in question, whether in terms of vocabulary,
> semantic content or philosophical context. It just goes to show,
> however, how pervasive modern yoga 'ideology' is becoming - and
> anyway it may be worth pointing out that the present instance may not
> be all that different, mutatis mutandis, from the ways in which
> earlier forms of yoga may at times have been 'processed' at popular
> level, i.e. adapted to contemporary temper and vocabulary.
>
>
> Dr Elizabeth De Michelis
> Oriel College, Oriel Square,
> Oxford, UK         OX1 4EW
> Tel: 01865-276550
> email: elizabeth.demichelis at oriel.ox.ac.uk
> http://www.oriel.ox.ac.uk/content/290
>
>
> On 8 Jul 2007, at 22:21, Gary Tubb wrote:
>
> > In forwarding this question to the list I forgot to add my own
> > attempt at an answer, which is as follows:
> >
> > I suspect this little summary was originally composed by Wayne W
> > Dyer. It is featured prominently in his 1998 book _Wisdom of the
> > Ages_ (where he attributes it to Patanjali) and is very much in the
> > style of his other paraphrases.  It's possible he took it from
> > someone else, but it sounds so much like Dyer himself that I take
> > it to be his own synopsis of the Yogasutra.  In any case it has
> > since been attributed directly to Patanjali in many books (e.g.,
> > _Ignited Minds_, a 2002 motivational book by the President of
> > India, APJ Abdul Kalam).
> >
> >
> > On Sun, 8 Jul 2007, Gary Tubb wrote:
> >
> >> A colleague has asked to have the following question posed to the
> >> list.
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Stig Toft Madsen [mailto:Stig.Toft.Madsen at nias.ku.dk]
> >> Sent: 26 June 2007 20:12
> >> To: INDOLOGY-request at liverpool.ac.uk
> >> Subject: Patanjali quote
> >>
> >> To the Indology list
> >>
> >> Is there any way I can post the query below on your list?
> >>
> >> yours sincerely
> >> Stig Toft Madsen
> >>
> >>
> >> ________________________________
> >>
> >> Fra: Stig Toft Madsen
> >> Sendt: ti 26-06-2007 14:47
> >> Til: Indology
> >> Cc: stig.toft.madsen at nias.ku.dk
> >> Emne: Patanjali quote
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I am looking for the origin of the following quotation:
> >>
> >> "When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary
> >> project, all your thoughts break their bounds. Your mind
> >> transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every
> >> direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful
> >> world. Dormant forces, faculties, and talents come alive, and you
> >> discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever
> >> dreamt to be."
> >>
> >> In books and at websites this quotation is ascribed to Patanjali
> >> and his Yogasutras. To me it sounds decidedly modern. I wonder who
> >> authored it and how it has reached the internet.
> >>
> >> I was suggested by a colleague to ask you all for help and
> >> assistance (at email-address: Stig.Toft.Madsen at nias.ku.dk). Can
> >> anyone recognize this quote?
> >>
> >> Stig Toft Madsen
> >> Senior Researcher
> >> NIAS - Nordic Institute of Asian Studies
> >> Leifsgade 33, DK-2300 Copenhagen S. Denmark
> >>
> >
>