Patanjali quote (fwd)

[Sven Sellmer]

Please have a look at the homepage of the (meanwhile finished) German Orissa 
Research Project where you will find names and e-mail addresses of quite a 
few scholars concerned with Orissa: http://orp.uni-kiel.de/
Best wishes,
Sven Sellmer

**************************************
Dr. Sven Sellmer
Adam Mickiewicz University
Department of Oriental Studies
ul. 28 Czerwca 1956 nr 198
61-486 Poznan
POLAND
sven.sellmer at amu.edu.pl


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mahendra Kumar Mishra" <mkmfolk at GMAIL.COM>
To: <INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 6:17 PM
Subject: Re: Patanjali quote (fwd)


>  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
>> >>
>> >
>>
>