 Cover of first edition, showing the author in Ardha Padmasana | |
| Author | Theos Casimir Bernard |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Hatha yoga |
| Publisher | Columbia University Press |
Publication date | 1943 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| OCLC | 458483074 |
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. 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.
The book has been called an important forerunner of the major guides to modern yoga by B. K. S. Iyengar and others. 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. However, Bernard's biographer Douglas Veenhof states that Bernard invented the Indian guru whom he had refused to name, as he had instead apparently been taught by his father.
The 37 high-quality monochrome studio photographs of Bernard executing the poses are among the first published images of an American doing yoga.