Douglas Veenhof

I have been fascinated by Theos Bernard since reading his Hatha Yoga book, with the sad/scary black notice in the front about his disappearance during the violence of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. There has been very little information available about him, beyond the books he wrote. It seems that his father's partner passed away in 1998, having kept safe the letters and journals of Bernard. However much through these documents and through other sources, Veenhof has given us a wonderful narrative of the life of Theos Bernard - more fabulous than I ever imagined!

Probably the main two jaw-droppers for me: Bernard studied with Geshe Wangyal in Kalimpong, years before Wangyal came to New Jersey, and more years before he taught Jeffrey Hopkins and Robert Thurman. Bernard also worked to get a visa for Gendun Chopel to come the the U.S. to translate Tibetan texts.

The center of the the book is the visit of Bernard to Lhasa and his welcome there, surely the most generous reception of any American, really of any Westerner. And this primarily because Bernard came as a Buddhist. Today for a Westerner to be a Buddhist seems rather unremarkable. Not at all so in 1938!

Veenhof doesn't really engage in much analysis or comparison. Bernard meets Nicholas Roerich and is in Tibet at the same time as one of Tucci's visits. But Veenhof doesn't go into any depth comparing their various approaches to Tibetan Buddhism. Veenhof tells a quite straightforward story of what Bernard did. He sketches enough of the general setting that we can grasp the significance of what happened. There is so much to explore here that is left unexplored! Bernard was in Mysore and tried to meet Krishnamacarya but wasn't able to. Veenhof notes that Indra Devi was a student of Krishnamacarya. He doesn't even mention, though, that Indra Devi was a Western woman! There's someone quite contemporaneous with Bernard who did great work in bringing Yoga to the West.

There is so much material here to study, to understand. Veenhof just gives us the straight run-through. But what a marvelous story it is!… (plus d'informations)