The Africans Who Mapped the Universe: Patanjali

Fewer than two hundred short verses, and they changed how the whole world understands the mind.

Patanjali is the name behind the Yoga Sutras, the most influential text on yoga ever written. In Tamil tradition he is also the serpent sage who rose from the underworld to Chidambaram to watch Shiva’s cosmic dance, and some lists count him among the eighteen Siddhars. In Sanskrit tradition the same name belongs to a great grammarian and a physician. Was this one man, or several?

In Book 4 of The Africans Who Mapped the Universe, Ajarn Shaman Shu and Shri Surya Nuranyana Swamikal untangle the many Patanjalis. Throughout, they keep what history shows, what tradition holds, and what the author argues clearly apart.

Inside you will discover:

• How many Patanjalis? The grammarian, the yogi and the physician
• The Yoga Sutras in brief: stillness, the mind, and the path to samadhi
• The eight limbs: Patanjali’s ashtanga compared with Tirumular’s Tamil eight limbs
• Breath in the Yoga Sutras: what the text actually says, and what it doesn’t
• The serpent sage: Chidambaram, the cosmic dance, and the question of kundalini
• The siddhis: the “perfections” and the famous sutra on drugs and elixirs
• The African question: an honest look at the evidence for and against the series thesis

Quoting only from public-domain translations and drawing on modern scholarship, with a Legend vs. History Ledger, a glossary, and gentle practice pages, this is a clear and honest companion to the world’s best-known yoga text.

Educational only. Contains no recipes, preparations or doses.

About the Author
Robert S. Shumake, publishing as Ajarn Shaman Shu, has lived two lives in one — the builder and the priest — and his books are where the two meet. He rose from a Ford factory floor to become founding president and CEO of Inheritance Capital Group, a Black Enterprise-ranked private equity firm, served as honorary consul for Botswana and Tanzania, and founded Inheritance Media Group, owner of more than 300 publications produced by an AI-run newsroom. In spirit, each tradition that initiated him gave him a name: Buddhist Ajarn in the Theravada and Vajrayana lines, Oluwo Jolaoso Osainbola in Ifá, and Shri Surya Narayana Swamikal in the Tamil Siddha line. He is the founder of Soul Tribes International Ministries and of Buddha Digital Temple and its universities — Orisha University, Buddha University, and Shiva University. He authored Detroit’s Proposal E, the 2021 ballot initiative that decriminalized entheogenic plants in Detroit, and is the author of more than 140 published books and 86+ DOI-registered academic publications. His philosophy: the Double Bottom Line — make a profit, and make a difference. Robertshumake.biz

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