The goal of pranayama, he states, is kevala, the suspension of breath he became able to hold his breath for four minutes at a time, but found doing this repeatedly "almost impossible". He then learnt ujjayi breathing (meaning "victorious"), sitkari (hissing sound) and sitali (cooling breath), followed by the cleansing bhastrika and the soothing bhramari (buzzing like a bee ). In pranayama, he learnt surya bhedana (the so-called sun-piercing breath), sitting in siddhasana and employing the abdominal lock uddiyana bandha to help move the air. īernard learnt all six purifications, dhauti (cleaning the digestive tract), basti (colonic irrigation), neti (nasal wash), trataka (fixed gazing), nauli (abdominal massage by the abdominal muscles), and kapalabhati (skull-polishing breath). He then worked in detail on sirsasana (headstand) and its variations. These mastered, he took on the meditation asanas, the most important being the cross-legged siddhasana and padmasana, though he also learnt other meditation seats, muktasana, guptasana, bhadrasana, gorakshasana, and svastikasana, and the kneeling meditation poses vajrasana and simhasana. the spinal cord", namely sarvangasana (shoulderstand), halasana (plough), pascimottanasana (forward bend), and mayurasana (peacock) and "reconditioning asanas" to "stretch, bend, and twist the spinal cord", namely salabhasana (locust), bhujangasana (cobra), and dhanurasana (bow). He describes his experiences with asanas "calculated to bring a rich supply of blood to the brain and. There is a short biography of the author and an academic bibliography with primary sources - the Yoga Sutras, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Siva Samhita, and the Gheranda Samhita - and the secondary sources available to him, including Kuvalayananda's 1931 Asanas and Sir John Woodroffe's 1918 Shakti and Shakta. Asanas are seen to be just one component of hatha yoga. There follow chapters on purifications ( shatkarmas), yoga breathing ( pranayama), yogic seals ( mudras), and meditative union ( samadhi). The main part of the book recounts Bernard's own experience, starting with a chapter on asanas and the reason he was "prescribed" them by his teacher.
An introduction explains the principles of hatha yoga. Summary ĭespite its title, Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience was less personal and more technical than Bernard's fictionalised 1939 account of hatha yoga, Heaven Lies Within Us. It was one of the earliest references in the West, possibly the first in English, on the asanas and other practices of hatha yoga (preceded by Sport és Jóga in Spanish in 1941). in a single year at Columbia University under the supervision of Herbert Schneider. The 37 high-quality monochrome studio photographs of Bernard executing the poses are among the first published images of an American doing yoga.įurther information: Theos Casimir BernardĪfter visiting India and Tibet, Bernard completed his Ph.D. However, Bernard's biographer Douglas Veenhof notes that Bernard invented the Indian guru whom he had refused to name, as he had instead been taught by his father. Scholars including Norman Sjoman and Mark Singleton have considered the book a rare example of a complete yoga system actually being followed, and being evaluated at each stage by a practitioner-scholar. The book has been called an important forerunner of the major guides to modern yoga by B. It is one of the first books in English to describe and illustrate a substantial number of yoga poses ( asanas) it describes the yoga purifications ( shatkarmas), yoga breathing ( pranayama), yogic seals ( mudras), and meditative union ( samadhi) at a comparable level of detail.
Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience is a 1943 book by Theos Casimir Bernard describing what he learnt of hatha yoga, ostensibly in India.