I was reading through Gregor Maehle's Ashtanga Yoga: Practice & Philosophy last night and came across a tidbit of information that I had never been privy to prior to reading it in the book.
It's the story of Patanjali, or rather Ananta, and how (or why) he's depicted as having a thousand heads. Ananta (Patanjali) was a serpent who spied on Lord Shiva as he was instructing his consort Uma a discourse on yoga. For his treachery, Ananta was required to disseminate what he had heard to the humans. Only, he wasn't well received in snake form and therefore, at the direction of Lord Shiva, he took the form of man and imparted his wisdom on mankind.
This was said to be a mythological reason for no one knowing the background of Patanjali's life. Now, I'm not sure how accurate this information is, but Maehle's book seems to be pretty well researched so the lore may hold up as far as lore goes. Not sure how I feel about believing there's truth behind the lore. As a Christian I'm not sur it would be wholly correct for me to believe its true. Then again, I can't for sure say that it is not. I'll leave that as a mystery and take the story for what it is, a story about a man (or serpent, for those who believe without a doubt) that has passed on great knowledge of the systems of yoga to humans. Or at least made it accessible and understandable for us.
Tonight I get to start on the fourth part of Maehle's book... Philosophy: The Yoga Sutras and am a bit apprehensive to read it actually. Not sure why though.
Today was a moon day, I'm not sure how I feel about having a moon day right before Saturday. That is two off days in a row and I was just starting to get back into a routine of practice on a day to day basis moving through to the half way point. I'm tempted to at least do some sort of yoga today and tomorrow. Light, light yoga. More for my baby bump growth than anything. I may just do a night time relax sequence. Nothing to strenuous since it's supposed to be rest days.
Until next time :)
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