Sadhguru: In the yogic culture, Shiva is not known as a god, but as the Adiyogi or the first yogi – the originator of yoga. While many were curious, only seven men deigned to undertake the eighty-four years of sadhana after which they became perfect receptacles for the knowledge of Yoga. The Adiyogi looked at these seven people and saw that they had become shining receptacles of knowing.
The Adiyogi transformed himself into the Adi Guru; the first Guru was born on that day which is today known as Guru Purnima. On the banks of Kanti Sarovar, a lake that lies a few kilometers above Kedarnath, he turned South to shed his grace upon the human race, and the transmission of the yogic science to these seven people began. The yogic science is not about a yoga class that you go through about how to bend your body – which every new born infant knows – or how to hold your breath – which every unborn infant knows. This is the science of understanding the mechanics of the entire human system.
After many years, when the transmission was complete, it produced seven fully enlightened beings – the seven celebrated sages who are today known as the Saptarishis, and are worshipped and admired in Indian culture. Shiva put different aspects of yoga into each of these seven people, and these aspects became the seven basic forms of yoga. Even today, yoga has maintained these seven distinct forms.
The Adiyogi brought this possibility that a human being need not be contained in the defined limitations of our species. There is a way to be contained in physicality but not to belong to it. There is a way to inhabit the body but never become the body. There is a way to use your mind in the highest possible way but still never know the miseries of the mind. Whatever dimension of existence you are in right now, you can go beyond that – there is another way to live. He said, “You can evolve beyond your present limitations if you do the necessary work upon yourself.” That is the significance of the Adiyogi.
Sadhguru looks at how Shiva, the first yogi and first guru is the greatest zen master. He tells the story of how Shiva expounded the mechanics of creation, and explored the 112 ways in which a human being can attain to the ultimate.
