Patanjali: An Einstein in the World of Buddhas
Patanjali is rare. Patanjali is like an Einstein in the world of Buddhas. He is a phenomenon. He could have easily been a Nobel Prize winner like an Einstein or Bohr or Max Planck, Heisenberg. He has the same attitude, the same approach of a rigorous scientific mind. He is not a poet; Krishna is a poet. He is not a moralist; Mahavira is a moralist. He is basically a scientist, thinking in terms of laws. And he has come to deduce absolute laws of human being, the ultimate working structure of human mind and reality.
And if you follow Patanjali, you will come to know that he is as exact as any mathematical formula. Simply do what he says and the result will happen. The result is bound to happen; it is just like two plus two, they become four. It is just like you heat water up to one hundred degrees and it evaporates. No belief is needed: you simply do it and know. It is something to be done and known. That’s why I say there is no comparison. On this earth, never a man has existed like Patanjali.
He is neither theist nor atheist. He is not creating a religion, he is simply showing you all the paths that are possible and all the laws that work in your transformation. He does not insist on any concept. That’s why YOGA SUTRAS of Patanjali are rare, unique. Such a book has never happened before and there is no possibility again, because whatsoever can be written about yoga he has written; he has left nothing. No one can add anything to it. Never in the future there is any possibility to create another work like Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. He has finished the job completely, and he could do this so totally because he is not partial. If he is partial, then he could not do it so totally.
If you are partial, you cannot cover the whole ground. Patanjali is not partial. He is less concerned with you, more concerned with the past designs of the path. He will not use a lie; he will not use a device, he will not compromise with you. No scientist can compromise. Science cannot compromise; otherwise it will become a religion itself. Patanjali is not interested in stories, not interested in myths. just the bare facts. He will not use even a single superfluous word. Hence, the word, ”sutras”. Sutras means the basic minimum.
Philosophers have created many. stories, and it is a game. If you like the game of atheism, be an atheist. If you like the game of theism, be a theist. But these are games, not the reality. Reality is something else. Reality Is concerned with you, not what you believe. The reality is you, not what you believe. The reality is behind the mind, not in the contents of the mind, because theism is a content of the mind, atheism is a content of the mind – something in the mind.
Patanjali is concerned with the beyond, not with the content. He says, "Throw this whole mind. Whatsoever it contains, it is useless." You may be carrying beautiful philosophies, Patanjali will say, "Throw them. All is rubbish."