Praising the feet of Mommulan (3 divine featured personalities having Moola/Moolan as their birth star), writing this history of our Sath Guru for readers excitement cum knowledge.

• a) Ganesha
• b) Bhajrangpalli / Hanuman
• c) Pathanjali

Visiting Earth

Once AadhiSesha (Magnificent 1000 thousand headed serpent, the mattress of Lord Vishnu) witnessed over weight (felt heavy) of Lord Vishnu and requested for the reason of being so, Lord replied that, it is because of fulfilled heart by visualising dance of Thandavamoorthy Lord Nataraja (Shiva). Surprised Aadhisesha with curiosity prayed to Vishnu for him to witness that, Lord Vishnu blessed the requisite, granted to visit earth and born as baby to Aththri Maharish & Anushya Devi and attain the pleasure. Did so with bliss along with contemporary Vyakarapathar Muni, who was also in penance for the same darshan to Lord Shiva, which was blessed by this historical incident. It was daily routine of both them, that they consume food only after the darshan of THANDAVAM (Cosmic Dance of Lord Shiva as Natarajar). Beyond which Maharishi Sri Pathanjali use to take yoga (art of mind regulations) classes for his disciples at the principle hall of Chidambaram Temple.

Early Life

Devi Anushuya, wife of Aththri Maharishi (one among Saptha Rishis) was the Mother of Hindu's Trinity Gods Shiva, Vishnu & Brahma. i.e., Durvasa, Dattatreya & Chandra, was also the mother of Pathanjali Maharishi.

Born in Panguni (April) Month Moolam (Mula) Star, Pathanjali Maharishi lived for a span of Five (5) Yugas and Ten (10) days.

After his gurukulam lessons from father Athri Maharishi, was at penance at Chidambaram to enjoy the beautiful Aanadha Thandavam (cosmic dance) of Nataraj. Beyond which he was enlightened by YOGI Nadhi Bhagavan with YOGA ART cum WISDOM. Making Lord Nandhi his Guru. Attaining the Yoga Wisdom he started giving away his wisdom in written form of text called as YOGA SUTRA (FOR MIND), VYAKARNA BASHYAM (FOR SPEECH) & SARAHAM (FOR BODY)

Name : Pathanjali

One who continuously worships the feet of lord shiva.

Born/Blessed for a mother on worshipping hands.

The Three Features

Our yoga guru has three types of features so for which are the Divine, Incarnation & Rishi feature (அம்சம்-Amsam), thereby standing quite special and peculiar of all other Rishis.

First and the foremost is the divine feature, Maharishi Pathanjali basically does his principle duty of being a mattress to Lord Sriman Narayanan and serves him in his divine profile 24×7 as Sri Aadhiseshan, and the word aadhiseshan means the residual in beginning. Every single time when there is a destruction of universe(பிரளயம்-pralayam), all the five elements(பஞ்சபூதம்-panchabootham) and its living beings gets united with almighty, unlike this unity Aadhisesham alone remained back & survived, this establishes his “Divine Feature” (தேவாம்சம்-Devamsam).

Secondly for incarnation feature, out of Sriman Narayanan’s 10 incarnations, he was a younger brother Lakshmana to Bhagavan Ram and the elder brother Balarama to Bhagavan Krishna…served his eternal duty to his brothers with lot of love & passion…. thereby establishing his “Incarnation Feature” (அவதார அம்சம்-Aavatharamsam).

Third and finally as rishi feature, for the world to get benefited out of various Sashtras and Vedhas, Lord Mahadev incarnated Pathanjali Maharishi to be born as a son to one of Sapta Rishi’s, Sri Aththri Maharishi and Srimathi Anushuya. In this incarnation, his creations were Yoga Mudras, Sky(வான-Vaana)Sashtra, Tamil Review (தமிழாய்வு-tamilaaivu) and quite many..  3 out of which are very important and popularly known by our people, they are the YOGA SUTRA which is 2^ndto 6 Sasthras & 1 of 7 Darshans and another text called Viyaakarana Bashyam, which is a simplified format of hard terms used in Sound Grammer Text written by Sri Paaneni  Maharishi and thirdly the medicine book called SARAHAM which is Ayurvedha Sashtra, a cure for human diseases….thereby establishing his “Rishi Feature”(ரிஷியாம்சம்-Rishiyamsam)…

Belief

It is also believed that below incarnations are none other than but Pathanjali Himself for the prosperity & betterment of devotees / his followers to attain moksha prapthi / salvation

1. Revolutionary Vaishnavate, Sri Ramanujar (1000 CE i.e., 11^th Century), entered light body at SriRangam near Trichy province.

2. Saiva Pathinen (18) Siddhars, one Sri Thirumoolar (700 CE i.e., 8^th Century), tomb / jeeva Samadhi at Thiruvaduthurai near Mayiladuthurai, Sri Gomuktheeswarar temple. Some say that his tomb is beneath Thillai Natarajar Deity.

Disciple

Going by the order of lord mahadev, maharishi picked up 1000 disciples who were the followers of yogic life and sat at the principle mandapa (hall) of Chidambaram Temple for lecture/preach, with a surprising scenario which is that there will be giant screen in front of guru thereby making a partition between guru and shisyas, reason behind was that being a high yogic format of body (fire/light body) agni jvala (fire waves) & also being a 1000 head serpent (highly poisonous) incarnation expelled rays from guru’s stula (physical) body & so a screen was placed in between as a protection for disciples not to get affect out of that fire to ashes. After days together of lesson, in one such fine day one of the disciples who mistakenly opened the screen for asking some permission, went as a dead sentence for the entire team to ashes by guru’s fire or poisonous rays except only one who came late for that class. He was Sri Gauda Pathar who was believed to existed till 600 BCE, his Tomb/Jeeva Samadhi is in Sakkudi, small village near Madurai district in the route of Rameshwaram next to Silaiman. He is popularly known “PATTAIYAH SIDHAR” means a sage who sings instead of prose format while speaking or as “GNANATHANDI” by people.

Sri Gauda Pathar (lived upto 500 CE or 6^th century)

Tomb / Jeeva Samadhi

Maharishi Sri Pathanjali being attained light format of body from Yogic wisdom, he sat in penance at various places in around Madurai, and there are no chances or remote chance of attaining tomb or jeeva Samadhi by him. He visited Madurai to witness the holy marriage of Lord Shiva (Somasundareshwarar) with Parvathi Devi (Meenakshi) along with his contemporary muni Vykrapadar. As being at Madurai Vyakarar pleaded for the holy dance, agreeing Nataraja performed his dance at RAJATHASABAI so called as Silver Thorne (Velliambalam), which we can witness at our beloved Meenakshi Temple, Madurai inside Chokkanathar’s shrine.

However there are 4 main traces where he was at penance years together for us to witness his presence at South India (Tamilnadu)

1. Palanganatham, Madurai were Pandya king Sadaiya Varma Vikrama Pandian established temple called Kasi Vishwanathar shrine, in which Maharishi is blessing his devotees in a divine statue form for which rituals done regularly from time to time as on date, the temple was taken over by Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments Department , Government of TamilNadu and maintained by Shri & Shrimathi TS Krishnan for time being.

2. Thirupattur, Sri Brahmapureeswarar Temple, a Shivan temple have lord Brahma’s shrine the only place on earth were he blesses his devotees in statue form. Besides  Brahma we have a Linga in the top of the basement is said to be tomb / jeeva Samadhi of Pathanjali Maharishi from ancient days. Two hundred feet north west to this temple is Sri Kasi Vishwanathar temple, where we can worship the tomb / jeeva Samadhi of sage Sri Vyakarapadha.

3. Rameshwaram Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple, where his tomb is present beneath / behind Natarajar Statue. It is a belief that at this place he was at penance for a maximum period of 500 years in his life span.

4. Finally, Chidambaram Sri Anantheswarar Temple, this temple is just behind to the famous Natarajar Temple, one can worship the holy water, Pathanjali Tank(theertham) next to the entrance. Sri Pathanjali bliss the devotees in a statue format at here too. It is said that he wrote the YOGA Sutras here in this place. Maharishi Pathanjali goes in procession with Lord Nataraja during festival seasons namely Aani Thirumanjanam & Marghazhi Thiruvadhirai.

An additional information about our Maharishi at Chidambaram is that, every one believe that only Lord Nataraja as principal deity of the temple whereas it is Aadhi Moolanathar deity @ Linga form is the principal deity, present inside pakara of temple. Where Maharishi Pathanjali & Sage Vyakrapadhar sat in penance for the worship of Holy Dance by Lord Shiva so called Nataraja. As a benefit of their penance lord gave his darshan at a Thai Poosa Day (a Poosam star day of tamil month Thai falling between 14 Jan & 13 Feb). Recapping this resemblance every year exactly from one week before to this day THAI POOSA a wonderful ritual & deepa aradhana is given to Aadhimoolanathar, Ambal & then to these three sages Pathanjali, Vyakarapadar & Jayamuni who comes in procession inside the temple prakara every day (1week prior to thai poosa) at around 8PM. Worshipping this ritual is really a pleased moment for every spiritual oriental humans & yogis on earth.

People those penance or meditate for at least 24 minutes in all these three places are believed to have received blessings of Maharishi and lead an eternal life way forward with better education, wisdom & yoga art.