Jayanti Patel
Jayanti Kalidas Patel was an Indian actor, playwright and yogi.
Early life and education
Patel was born 24 May 1924 in Ahmedabad, India. He received his BA from University of Mumbai in 1947, and was awarded a PhD for his work in Natya Yoga from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan at the Mungalal Goenka Institute in Mumbai.Quit India Movement
As a young man, Patel joined Mahatma Gandhi and the Quit India Movement in protest of the British rule of India. During one march, Patel was shot in the leg, sustaining an injury that produced a lifelong indentation and limp.All India Radio and "Ranglo"
In the 1940s and 1950s, Patel portrayed the comic character "Ranglo" on All-India Radio and in subsequent stage and television productions. He took this name also for his cartooning persona, and continued to explore this character throughout his life.Travels and work in the West
In 1967, Patel was awarded a John F. Kennedy Scholarship and traveled to the US to continue his work in Natya Yoga. While there, he began a long association with the Ananda Ashrama in Monroe, New York and in San Francisco."Inner Broadway"
Traveling throughout the U.S., France, England and Germany, Patel continued to develop his work in theater as a form of yoga."He feels that both natya and yoga have a common purpose – to shatter the ego, to experience bliss and thereby universalize the individual person and transcending the limitations of time and space. Natya like any other form of an art is Yoga in Indian thought. It is a transpersonal art according to Jayanti. Instead of Ego, it takes you beyond Ego."
His works included those exploring the modern experiences of time, technology, and alienation, as well as the tools to transcend these challenges and find inner peace.