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I atafijali's Yoga Sutra is the heart of yoga. The heart, hrdaya, is that which does not change and Patafijali gave a permanent definition and form to yoga in his Sutra. The heart without prana, however, is not alive and is without relevance for us. Desikachar explains that the teaching relationship is the prana or life of the Yoga Sutra; it is the teacher who brings the heart into life. The Yoga Sutra is a potent tool for the teacher who is able to make it relevant to the student and thus transmit the transformative power of the heart. Desikachar emphasizes that what follows is an introduction because the Yoga Sutra is vast in its scope. Krishnamacharya says that there is an ocean between atha and iti, the first and last syllables of the Sutra. In the study of the Sutra with one's teacher, meaningful and powerful insights seem to leap out of the words, sometimes in very unexpected ways. It is recommended that one study with a teacher who has likewise studied and practiced with a compe tent teacher, whose tapas (practice), svadhyaya (self-understanding), and Tsvarapranidhana (surrender) have produced clarity. Patafijali presented his work in the style known as sutra, that which has very few words, yet is free from ambiguity, full of essence, universal in context, and affirmative. The sutra (from which we get suture) links the teacher, the teaching, and the student. As yoga study and practice develop, the message of the Sutra takes on a deeper resonance and becomes more relevant, more revealing. There can be no haste or exaggerated effort to gain its understand ing; it must be a natural process. There is uncertainty as to who Patafijali was. There are some who think of him as the divine incarnation of the serpent Ananta who supports the whole universe. He is the Adhiseยงa, "the first servant of God," who "being so close to God, knows the teaching of God best." We can assume that Patafijali did not originate the yoga teaching but inherited it from the vastness of the Vedas. On the instruction of a great teacher, he identified all the teachings in the Vedas about the mind and presented them in this precise, organized form. Yoga concepts such as Isvara, kleยงa, karma, gunas, purusa, samadhi, siddhi, and kaivalya are all contained in the ancient Upanisads in different forms. The 145