The Academy of Yoga and oriental Studies, in collaboration with the Orissa Sanskrit Academy organized All Orissa seminar on “Patanjali” in the Conference hall of Dr. A.C. Homeopathy medical College and Hospital, Bhubaneswar on 06.01.2008.
The seminar started at 10.00 AM and was inaugurated by Prof. Alekh Chandra Sarangi, former vice Chancellor of Shree Jagannath Sanskrit Viswavidyalaya, Puri with lighting of candles and floral offerings on the images of Goddess Saraswati. Pundit Harekrisna Dhupal Sharma and Sri Bharat Bhusan chanted the Vedic Mangalacharana.
Dr. Pramod Ch. Mishra, general secretary of Orissa Sanskrit Academy delivered the welcome address. Dr. Indulata Das, Director Academy of Yoga and Oriental Studies spoke about the purpose of organizing a seminar on Patanjali. Yog is popular through out the whole world but people are not very much conversant about the real concepts of Yoga system and have very little knowledge about
‘Patanjali’ who is the founder of the Yog system. In order to diffuse the right knowledge about Yoga and its founder the Academies have organized the seminar, she said.
Prof. Alekh Chandra Sarangi presided over the seminar and the key note address was delivered by Dr. Pralay Kumar Nanda, reader Dept. of Sarvadarshan, Shree Jagannath Sanskrit Viswavidyalaya. Referring to Yogasutra, yogabhagya and Charaka samhita, Dr. Nanda drew analogy between Yoga Darshan and Charak Samhita. Referring to commentator Rasa Govinda Trivedi and other sources Dr. Nanda opined that the sage Patanjali belonged to 2nd century B.C. and he belonged to Pataliputra. Yoga Darshan and Charak samhita show striking similarity in language, spirit and purport concluded Dr. Nanda.
Dr. Prafulla kumar mishra, reader, Department of Sanskrit, Utkal university in his speech highlighted the popular misconceptions about Yoga which as per the present day trend is believed to be confined to Pranayam and Asanas. He stressed the need for inter-disciplinary research in the field of Yog.
Dr. Gopal Chandra Rath, Principal, Indira Gandhi Ayurvedic College had an elaborate discussion on Charak Samhita and strongly argued that Patanjali was not Charak and the Yogasutra is different from that of Charaka’s. Dr. Maheswar Das discussed various concepts of Yog like ‘Chitta’ and tried to correlate them with human physiology.
Prof. Gopal Krushna Dash of Utkal University described Yoga as a link and categorically mentioned that Yog and Patanjali are not used in a limited sense. There was a time, said Prof. Das when compartmentalization of knowledge was not there. Therefore it is imperative to understand the tradition. He described Patanjali as an incarnation of Sesha and a great Yogi. Describing Patanjali
as a system Dr. Dash identified Patanjali with a tradition. Others who spoke in the first session were Advocate Divyasingha Mishra and Prof. Dr. Sudarshan Dash.
In the afternoon session Dr. Indulata Das discussed on the ‘Yogasutra’ of Patanjali and Dr. Nirmal Sunder Mishra made a comparison between the Patanjala Yog and the Kashmiri Saivism. Apart from these the afternoon session concentrated mainly on presentation of research papers by young scholars. Many student scholars availed the opportunity of presenting their papers in the session.
Scholars from Bhuvaneshwar, Puri, Cuttack, Jagasingpur and many other places of Orissa participated in the seminar.
Although it was an All Orissa seminar, scholars from outside Orissa also showed great interest in the same. A few papers from Rastriya Sanskrit Vidyapitha also found place in the session. In his presidential address Prof. Alekh Ch. Sadangi discussed about the Patanjali, the writer of Mahabhasya and stressed on the fact that more study should be carried on to find out whether there was one Patanjali or more. Dr. Pramod Ch. Mishra extended the vote of thanks. The seminar ended with Vedic Santipatha by Pundit Harekrisna Dhupala Sharma.
