Adiyogi: A Story of World’s First Yoga Teacher
As the name suggests, Adi means First in Sanskrit and Yogi means practice, teacher, or preacher, as the case may be. This means that Adiyogi existed before the science of meditation was started. He was the one who started the phase of meditation and calculation. There is a story behind Lord Shiva, the preserver and the keeper of the Earth to transform as the calm and serene Lord of meditation and healing using inner body transitions and changes that mankind ignored out of lack of knowledge and perseverance.
Is Adiyogi real?
The existence of Adiyogi has been in question since the announcement of Lord Shiva’s Adiyogi statue by Sadhguru in 2012. The question of existence deepened further when people believed that the effort taken by some devotional foundations in the name of Lord Shiva is a publicity stunt and not a fact. People hold multiple theories and multiple points with which they keep trying to prove the existence of Adiyogi or deny the existence of Adiyogi. The question still stands controversially unanswered for many.
Interestingly, multiple sources of knowledge that have made efforts to combine information from multiple mythological chapters and excerpts claim that there is a full-fledged story for the existence of Adiyogi: the Lord of Yoga, Yogic science, and the inventor of psychiatry, psychology, meditation, and spiritual thinking amongst the others. Brace yourself for a long, interconnected, interwoven story being presented to you after deep research and collection of information from multiple sources.
The Story of Adiyogi (As per Hindu Mythological sources)
After Lord Shiva had merged Sati’s heart with his creation of the 51 Shaktipeeth, (read the story of 51 Shaktipeeth here) Lord Shiva had said that Shiva was incomplete without Shakti. Even after this, Lord Vishnu saw that Lord Shiva was not coming at rest. He was grieving in pain. Lord Shiva entered in the mode of repentance and hate for everything and he started doing the Shiv Tandav dance. This made everyone afraid of the condition Lord Shiva was portraying. Everyone requested Lord Brahma to step in and provide a suggestion. Lord Brahma asked Lord Vishnu to try the one last tactic. Lord Vishnu laid down under the feet of Lord Shiva after cooling his own body to icy cold. The moment Lord Shiva stepped on Lord Vishnu’s icy cold body, he understood his entire mistake, and suddenly, he cooled down from his rage. He became the Lord of the devotees and the preserver of good, destroyer of evil.
Lord Shiva used to worship Lord Vishnu and Lord Vishnu used to worship Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva realized that he had stepped on Lord Vishnu and he was filled with guilt at the instant thought of it. He couldn’t handle his expressions and emotions and he went to the Himalayas to cool himself down and understand his mindset. He went deep in thoughts and he was very persistent in understanding what is going on with his mind and with his body. He sat down at his Kailash Mansarovar and started maneuvering his thoughts deep into the happenings that had happened over the point of time.
Lord Shiva replayed everything in his mind and started using what he understood. He wanted to know why he felt agitated when he was not invited by Daksha? Why does agitation happen? What are the different emotions and what do they mean? Why do they occur? Can they be controlled? Can they be insinuated? Why do people react the way they do? What drives the action and reaction phase? All these are deeply meditative, psychiatric, general existence type questions and these pretty much drive a person’s behavior, outlook, action, manner, and state of being. Lord Shiva also started analyzing different positions at which the human body can transform, stay and make effect to their present self. This became intensely deep and difficult over time and impractical for most onlookers and passersby.
Lord Brahma got to know after a few months from a lot of his disciples that Lord Shiva was doing something weird which was scaring the entire crowd on a general basis. He switched on his peripheral vision which enabled him to steal a glance at Lord Shiva and Kailash Parvat. The moment Brahma saw what was going on with Lord Shiva, he understood that whatever was happening was nothing similar to all the learning that Lord Shiva mastered and this will need a whole new field of study for a normal person. He understood the need for one person who can understand what was going on. He categorized the entire episode of Lord Shiva in seven categories as per his understanding. These seven categories were emotions, welfare, action and reaction, manners, physical understanding, mental balance, and unexpressed feelings. All these had seven different names in Sanskrit. He then understood that each of these is a separate field of study in the name of psychiatry, psychology, meditation, exercise, emotional science, and behavioral science. He also understood that Lord Shiva is going through a lot and it will not be easy for just one person to get a hold on all the topics at once other than Lord Shiva himself.
Lord Brahma then gave birth to seven saints, also called Saat Manasputra or the child born from the thought of mind. These came to be called the Saptarishis, or the seven saints. Lord Brahma made each of them capable of understanding everything of their domain. When they were sure they had perfected the art of their capability within 15 days of being made, Lord Brahma ordered them to go to Kailash Parvat and observe and note down all that they saw and understood with the ongoing process. They were also told that after Lord Shiva gets to know about these seven constant onlookers and observers, he might ask them to leave, but they will need to prepare themselves to be worthy of understanding what was going on with Lord Shiva and gain knowledge from him when he is done with his meditation.
The Saptarishis were told to take any further instructions from Lord Shiva and follow the path of living Lord Shiva shows them The Saptarishis took their blessings from Lord Brahma and happily departed to start new avenues of learning and knowledge gaining.
Upon reaching the Kailash Parvat, the Saptarishis were astonished at what they saw. They knew they had never seen anything such and they were in for both, a treat of an experience from Lord Shiva first handedly and that their lesson learning was going to be difficult in addition to fun to learn. They found their place and sat near Lord Shiva absorbing in the divinity of the experience they were facing. They made sure to capture everything they learn in the best possible manner and prepare themselves for the best learning experience of a lifetime.
The Saptarishis kept practicing and perfecting themselves for years and years together. They tried understanding the deep concepts of what they saw. They kept their questions to be asked piled up so that one day when Lord Shiva wakes up, they will ask the question. They waited for Lord Shiva with patience and kept working on their own Sadhna to be better at understanding concepts that Lord Shiva preaches about.
84 years hence, when Lord Shiva realized that the zenith of knowledge has been achieved by him, he opened his eyes on a full moon day, a Purnima. He saw the seven saints and was happy at the fact that they didn’t give up despite the hardships and that they were making the best of their available resources to stay updated with their tasks and witness the process of knowledge gaining first handed. Lord Shiva told them that he was impressed and that he would give them the teaching of what he has learned. The Saptarishis worshipped him and called him their Guru (someone who teaches and provides real knowledge). Thus, the day came to be known as Guru Purnima, the day of reckoning or the teachers' day.
Lord Shiva was highly pleased with the prayer and he took them with him from Kailash Mansarovar glacier top to the bottom, to Kanti Sarovar, where the water of the glacier deposited. While on the way, he posed seven small and trivial challenges for the priests in a manner that each of them had to face at least one of the challenges. The Saptarishis made sure to stick with each other and help the one saint in trouble course out of the trouble. When all the seven stages of challenges were fulfilled by all the saints, they had already reached the bottom of the glacier. Lord Shiva spoke to them about everything he had learned, understood, and evaluated. He told them what he felt and then what he did and thereby, what he understood as a result. After continuously speaking for long, when Lord Shiva finished all the details, the Saptarishis asked all the questions that they had in their hearts. At the end of the knowledge transfer sessions, Lord Shiva told the Saptarishis that he will advance to a new journey in his time left as a human form of God.
The Saptarishis were bound to ask him what they had to do thereafter. Lord Shiva told them to go to different directions of the Earth and make their disciples. They were to transfer this knowledge to these disciples in a manner that they get the complete benefit of this knowledge and then they can distribute it to the human beings slowly at relevant times. These Saptarishis, therefore, invented a huge group of the network that came to be known as constellations or Nakshatra (in Hindi). These disciples took their set of knowledge and spread it to the whole world to make the name of their teachers.
Before departing, the Saptarishis had a doubt. They asked Lord Shiva if he will leave them, how will they be able to communicate with him and get advancement on their knowledge or help from them in case of need. So, Lord Shiva told them a way to practice Shiv Pooja and asked them to meet at one place every full moon day and pray for Lord Shiva using that procedure. This will bring Lord Shiva to come to them and comply with the need.
Also, the Saptarishis asked Lord Shiva what would he call the entire knowledge repository he received. They believed that this entire thing is a science and this science should be named according to the feeling of goodness and happiness they have all received. Hence, Lord Shiva called it Yog (the total). He said this will represent the total of everything he knows and he understood and he has preached. Overtime, Yog changed its form to Yoga and there began the journey of science with new changes, new insights, and new dimensions to the same. The inventor of this science was called the Yogi, the one who knows about Yog. Since Lord Shiva was the first-ever Yogi, he was referred to as Adiyogi- The first-ever Yogi.
Is Adiyogi a God?
So as per the above story, it is very clear that Adiyogi is a form of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is one of the three first-ever Gods of the universe who were responsible for making the rules of the Earth. A form of Lord Shiva is a form of God and hence, it can be conveniently concluded that Adiyogi is also a form of God who oversees the meditation, worship, and Yogic side of the universe. Although a different school of thought also exists who are adamant about the fact that Adiyogi is not a God but a normal human being just like us, there are a lot of debates around the topic and a conclusion can be the belief of the user.
Is Adiyogi a Preacher?
When Lord Shiva attained knowledge, he disseminated the same in the seven Manasputras of Lord Brahma. He taught them everything he learned over 84 years. He preached to them about feelings, guilt, emotions, and a lot of other things that the common public did not know. He laid down the foundation for psychiatry and psychology in the initial days. He spoke all he knew and he created seven disciples to spread this knowledge in their capacity to all they could and make them perfoliate this knowledge in bits and pieces themselves. This is the essence of preaching and hence, yes, Adiyogi can also be regarded as a preacher.
Is Adiyogi a Saint?
Here again, there are two schools of thought. Adiyogi is considered a saint because it is believed that it was in his human form while meditating in those 84 years that Lord Shiva attained knowledge, which is equivalent to being a saint. There is another belief also that since Adiyogi was a form of God and not a human while trying to attain knowledge through meditation, so he cannot be regarded as a saint. Here again, the decision relies upon the believer.
Since we have witnessed all the different forms and flavors of Adiyogi we at Rudraksha Hub do not like to pull the topics real long and bore our readers. We believe we have researched the best and the most informed angle of Adiyogi, so this is our second and the last blog on the series of Adiyogi. Have a happy reading. In case there is any question or doubt or feedback, kindly send it to us on 8542929702 WhatsApp and we will be enlightened to gain and share new pieces of knowledge.
