Alex & the Great.

Alexander and Monsters circa 330 BC

A Yogi absorbing the transition from night to day on the banks the Ganges. copyright adobe.

Yoga- the process of focusing the consciousness.

• Harappan Horned Diety- 3300 BCE (first appearance of Yogic postures)/earliest form of Pashupati, which evolved to Lord Shiva.

  • Obstaining from violence for 2000 years, matriarchal, first form of Horned Deity may have been a Mother Goddess

• Rig Veda 1500-1000 BCE

• Alex 356-323 BCE

• Sage Patanjali- 185 BCE (Greeks surrounded a fortress called Chittor and Patanjali made note of this). Patanjali did not invent Yoga but did classify it into a system.

• First: did it even happen? were Dandamis and Calanus even real individuals or just metaphors for the Ethos absorbed by the Philosophers that accompanied ATG to India?

• Would ATG have even listened had he not been introduced to philosophy by his father and mysticism by his mother?

• Would the transmission of the Eternal Truths have even been transferred had the Sadhus of India not been willing to look past the fact this man was invading their homeland?

• Could ATG have been more violent than we all think?

• Was he a great philosopher?

• Did the Macedonian Philosophers and historians* completely miss the mark in their representations?

First; I’m no expert, just someone like you that likes to learn new things.

Alex of Macedon (“the Great” was added way later) inherited his father’s army, his mother’s mystical intelligence, and murderous tendencies from both. It is not wrong to view the 2,000,000 square mile empire Alex acquired both as a great conquest and a murderous-alcohol fueled-blood bath. This is because Alex was a Serial Killer and Philosopher King.

Tutored by Aristotle. Said of Diogenes “if I weren’t Alexander, I’d be Diogenes”. And had interest in the Yoga of India.

Aristotle was obviously one of the great thinkers of all time. Just because some of these great minds are household names doesn’t mean it is easy to remember where they fit or what their ideas were so here are a few:

• Socrates: 470BCE, basically asked folks to question their beliefs until nothing left to question

  • Plato- Socrates’ student

    • Aristotle was Plato’s student

• Confucius 551BCE, living in harmony

• Rene Descartes 1596 “I think therefore I am”

The Diogenes story:

Alex once came upon a great thinker and stoic named Diogenes, this dude Diogenes lived in a barrel and had no possessions… Alex asked Diogenes “what can I do for you sir?” Diogenes replied “actually there is something you can do.. move over a bit to one side, you’re blocking the sun.”.

Do I love that a lot of the English language material available about history is Greco-Roman centric with a heavy emphasis on empire? Nah, not really; but the ancient greeks and romans definitely taught us that it takes being 2 parts conquerors, 1 part administrators, 1 part record keepers, and (everyone else forgot this part) 1 part hype man with an eye on eternal glory. The record keepers of ancient China were boring, Ancient Asyrian scribes I’ve read too damn terrifying, and far too many historical entities kept no records at all so we only hear about them from the Greeks and Romans.

So while filtering through some material about old Alex I discovered a couple tidbits that I had not heard before so I wanted to share them:

Some of these came from Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast in which his was quoting these sources. Although much like Plutarch, I have heard these stories recounted various times and there’s no telling how much is truth, myth, and slant from Alex’s well oiled PR machinery. Which brings us right to the first fact:

1- Alex had a PR specialist that was also a botanist.

• I like plants a lot so this is bias

• name: Aristobulus son of Aristobulus or Aristobulus of Cassandreia

• refurbished Cyrus the Great’s tomb

• Definitely was a “yes man” to Alex

• Wrote a positive biography of Alex

• Used by many other sources as a primary source

• Most invaluable re: exploits into India
  
  
  

Aristotle on a 1947 Greek coin. copyright Adobe 2025.

2- Alexander was at least interested in the Yogis of India, even if the characters are made up.

• 327 BCE- 325 BCE The campaign of Alex into India

• 1st Yogi story: Alex sent his people to find a specific Yogi named Dandamis. Upon informing the Yogi that Alexander the King of the Universe would like to see him and ask him questions, the Yogi replied that if Alex wanted to ask him questions to come to him as Dandamis would not be going to any king that upon gaining power proceeded to kill other humans, the proceeded to suggest that Alex just keep right on going on across the Ganges to quench his thirst for resources and power… for all his accomplishments, Alex never did make it across Ma Ganga.

• Troops mutinied due to a feeling that Alex was pushing too far and had become a Tyrant.

• 2nd Yogi story: The whole reason Alex knew of Dandamis was that he had an Indian Holy Man with him already that let him know how legit Dandamis was. This Yogi that put him on to Dandamis was named Kalanos. Kalanos stayed with Alex a while and then one day told everyone in camp goodbye and without flinching once, self-immolated right in front of their eyes.. well he told everyone bye except Alex, Kalanos told Alex he would see him in Babylon later.

• Alex of Macedon died 323 BCE in Babylon.

Cool ai that fit the vibe for me, adobe stock licensed.