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Gorakhnath |
The practice of yoga in the West is typically associated with the postures or poses (asanas) of hatha yoga. It's often hard to get a good understanding of hatha yoga's place in the Hindu tradition, however, because of the superficial or promotional nature of much of the literature available. There has been a revival and "re-presentation" of hatha yoga in modern times, in India first, then in the West. Its origins, however, are somewhat obscure, going back at least to the involved and secretive bodily yogas of the legendary Gorakhnath (11th-12th century), founder of the Kanphata Yogis.
Here are some reliable sources.
Web Resources
Modern Yoga and Meditation in Context (Cambridge Univ.)
Yoga and the Nath Sampradaya (Mike Magee)
Books and
Articles
General
Jones, Lindsay, ed. 2005. Encyclopedia of Religion. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. [look up yoga, hatha yoga, kundalini, siddhis, etc. There's an index in the final volume]
Modern and Contemporary Developments
Alter, Joseph S. 2000. Gandhi's Body: Sex, Diet, and the Politics of Nationalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. [Somewhat misleading title: Does an excellent job of historically and socially contextualizing the modern thing we call "yoga"]
Alter, Joseph S. 2004. Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Bernard, Theos. 1968. Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience. New York, S. Weiser [or New York: Columbia University Press, 1944]
Burley, Mikel. 2000. Hatha Yoga: Its Context, Theory and Practice. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. [A guide to yoga history, theory, and practice by a knowledgeable contemporary exponent, with a practitioner's viewpoint]
De Michelis, Elizabeth. 2005. A History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism. New York: Continuum.
De Michelis, Elizabeth. 2005. “Modern Yoga.” In Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements, ed. Peter Clarke. Oxford: Routledge.
Forsthoefel, Thomas A. and Cynthia Ann Humes. 2005. Gurus in America. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Kadetsky, Elizabeth. 2004. First There Is a Mountain: A Yoga Romance. New York: Little, Brown. [a semi-autobiographical account of a journalist's stay with Iyengar in Pune and her attempts to get to the bottom of modern yoga's history]
Newcombe, Suzanne. 2005. "Spirituality and 'Mystical Religion' in Contemporary Society: A Case Study of British Practitioners of the Iyengar Method of Yoga." Journal of Contemporary Religion 20/3:305-321.
Sjoman, Norman E. The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1999.
Sjoman, Norman E. 2005. Yoga Touchstone. Black Lotus. [extends some of his ruminations from Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace as well (SS)]
Strauss, Sarah. 2005. Positioning Yoga. Berg Publishers.
Yogananda, Paramahansa. 1994. Autobiography of a Yogi. Nevada City,
CA: Crystal Clarity Publishers.
History and Origins
Banerjea, Akshaya Kumar. 1999. Philosophy of Gorakhnath: With Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Briggs, George Weston. 2001. Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. [In its last section, deals with Goraksasataka and gives an English translation and annotations, and discusses the physiological concepts, chief aims and methods.]
Bouy, Christian. 1994. Les Natha-yogins et les upanisads: Etude d'histoire de la litterature hindoue, PICI 62 Paris: Editions de Boccard. [On the question of the Yoga-Upanisads and their relation, on the one hand, to the Natha Yogin movement (which authored them) and the Vedic tradition (to which they connect themselves) on the other, this ground-breaking work is crucial (obviously, this is in French)]
Flood, Galvin. 1996. An Introduction to Hinduism. New York: Cambridge University Press. [See pp. 98-102 for a brief overview of hatha yoga.]
Eliade, Mircea. 1969. Yoga, Immortality, and Freedom. Trans. W. R. Trask. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. [See pp. 227-249 on hatha yoga]
Gheranda. 2004. Gheranda Samhita. Trans. by James Mallinson. Woodstock, NY: YogaVidya.com
Gheranda. 1992. Pure Yoga: A Translation from the Sanskrit into English of the Tantrik Work, The Gherandasamhita, with a Guiding Commentary. Trans. by Yogi Pranavananda, edited with introduction by Tony Rodriguez and Kanshi Ram. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Larson, Gerald. Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophy, volume on yoga (forthcoming). Has a chapter on hatha yoga.
Mallinson, James, trans. 2006. The Khecarividya of Adinatha: An Early Hathayogic Text. London: Routledge. [Good introduction on tantric origins of hatha yoga]
Ruff, Jeffrey Clark. 2002. History, Text, and Context of the Yoga Upanisads. Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara. [Proquest Dissertations and Theses Full Text 3073645]
Svatmarama, Svami. Hathayogapradipika. Trans. by Brian Dana Akers. Woodstock, NY: YogaVidya.com. [best to look for the Lonavla translation by Swami Digambarji, if possible (EM)]
White, David. 1996. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
Kundalini
Avalon, Arthur (Sir John Woodroffe). 1974. The Serpent Power. New York: Dover Publications.
Silburn, Lilian. 1988. Kundalini, The Energy of the Depths: A Comprehensive Study Based on the Scriptures of Nondualistic Kashmir Saivism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
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Updated May 12, 2008 |
