Patañjali Chants

Invocation:

yogena cittasya padena vacam
Yoga for consciousness, grammar for speech

malam sarirasya ca vaidyakena
medicine for the ills of the body;

yopa karottam pravaram muninam
he gave us these things the sage

patañjalim pranjalir anato’smi
Patañjali to whom I pay my respects.

abahu purusakaram
His upper body (arms) of human form,

sankha chakrasi dharinam
holding conch and disc,

sahasra sirasam svetam
thousand headed cobra [over his head]

pranamami patañjalim
I pay my respects to Patañjali

Listen to BKS Iyengar chanting the above invocation.

yastyaktva rupamadhyam prabhavati jagato’nekadhanugrahaya
praksinaklesharasirvisamavisadharo’nekavaktrah subhogi
sarvajnanaprasutirbhujagaparikarah pritaye yasya nityam
devohisah sa vovyatsitavimalatanuryogado yogahyuktah

Let us salute Adisesa of the myriad serpent heads and
mouths carrying noxious poisons, discarding which he came
to earth as single-headed Patanjali in order to eradicate
ignorance and vanquish sorrow. Let us pay our obeisance
to the repository of all knowledge. Let us request this primordial form who shines with pure and white effulgence, pristine in body,
a master of yoga who bestows on us yogic light to enable mankind to rest in the house of the immortal soul.