''The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga'' is a bestselling 1960 book by
Swami Vishnudevananda, the founder of the
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres. It is an introduction to
Hatha yoga
Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...
, describing the ''
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The ''Yoga Sutras of Patañjali'' is a collection of Sanskrit sutras (aphorisms) on the theory and practice of yoga – 195 sutras (according to Vyāsa and Krishnamacharya) and 196 sutras (according to others, including BKS Iyengar). The ' ...
'' and the ''
Hatha Yoga Pradipika
The ''Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā'' ( or Light on Hatha Yoga) is a classic fifteenth-century Sanskrit manual on haṭha yoga, written by Svātmārāma, who connects the teaching's lineage to Matsyendranath of the Nathas. It is among the most inf ...
''. It contributed to the incorporation of
Surya Namaskar
Sun Salutation, also called Surya Namaskar(a) or Salute to the Sun (), is a practice in yoga as exercise incorporating a flow sequence of some twelve gracefully linked asanas. The asana sequence was first recorded as yoga in the early 20th centu ...
(salute to the sun) into
yoga as exercise
Yoga as exercise is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures, often connected by flowing sequences, sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises, and frequently ending with relaxation lying down or meditation. Yoga in this form has ...
. While some of its subject matter is the traditional philosophy of yoga, its detailed photographs of Vishnudevananda performing the asanas is modern,
helping to market the Sivananda yoga brand to a global audience.
Context
The book was one of the first three reference works on
asana
An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga ...
s (yoga postures) in the development of
yoga as exercise
Yoga as exercise is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures, often connected by flowing sequences, sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises, and frequently ending with relaxation lying down or meditation. Yoga in this form has ...
in the mid-20th century, the other two being Selvarajan Yesudian and Elisabeth Haich's 1941 ''Sport és Jóga'' (in Spanish: an English version appeared in 1953) and
Theos Bernard
Theos Casimir Hamati Bernard (1908–1947) was an explorer and author, known for his work on yoga and religious studies, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism. He was the nephew of Pierre Arnold Bernard, "Oom the Omnipotent", and like him became a yo ...
's 1944 ''
Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience''. Its author, Vishnudevananda, was a student of
Sivananda
Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He stu ...
's and the founder of
Sivananda Yoga. During the 1965 filming of ''
Help!
''Help!'' is the fifth studio album by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack to their Help! (film), film of the same name. It was released on 6 August 1965. Seven of the fourteen songs, including the singles "Help! ( ...
'' in the Bahamas,
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
met Vishnudevananda, who gave each of the four of them a signed copy of the book.
Book
Publication history
The book was published in 1960 by Bell Publishing/
Julian Press in both hardcover and paperback. It was reprinted in paperback by
Harmony Books
Harmony Books is an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, itself part of publisher Penguin Random House. It was founded by Bruce Harris, a Crown executive, in 1972.
The imprint has been used for such books as:
*Jill Freedman, ''Circus Days'' ( ...
and
Three Rivers Press
Three Rivers Press is the trade paperback imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. It publishes original paperback titles as well as paperback reprints of books issued initially in hardcover by the other Crown imprints ...
/
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
in 1988. It has been translated into at least thirteen languages,
and is said to have sold over a million copies.
Synopsis
''The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga'' first introduces the
philosophy of yoga.
It then covers the three bodies of man, divided into the
koshas (sheaths),
and describes and illustrates the
shatkarmas (purifications of the body).
It describes the differences between the exercises of
hatha yoga
Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...
and physical exercise, explaining how yogic exercises can in Vishnudevananda's view "conquer" old age; this chapter describes over 100
asana
An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga ...
s (yoga postures) with 136 large monochrome photographs, all of Vishnudevananda, each image occupying most of a page.
It then describes relaxation in
Shavasana, corpse pose.
A chapter covers the
sattvic diet.
Pranayama (yoga breathing) is described as one of the
eight limbs of classical yoga.
The book ends with accounts of the astral body,
the absolute,
the self as being, knowledge, and bliss (
satchitananda),
and finally the conquest of death.
The Mahavidya website of scholarly resources on Hinduism notes that the book states (on page x) that yoga "balances, harmonizes, purifies, and strengthens the Body, Mind, and Soul of the practitioner", through what Vishnudevananda considered the five basic principles of yoga, namely proper exercise, proper breathing, proper relaxation, proper diet, and positive thinking and meditation (on page xi).
Illustrations
The book is illustrated with 146 large monochrome photographs of Vishnudevananda performing the shatkarmas and the asanas; a frontispiece shows him meditating in Padmasana (
lotus position
Lotus position or Padmasana ( sa, पद्मासन, translit=padmāsana) is a cross-legged sitting meditation pose from ancient India, in which each foot is placed on the opposite thigh. It is an ancient asana in yoga, predating hatha ...
). The book contains also five full-page "charts", line drawings of the body and the
subtle body with its
chakra
Chakras (, ; sa , text=चक्र , translit=cakra , translit-std=IAST , lit=wheel, circle; pi, cakka) are various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, or the esoteric or ...
s. An appendix provides six tables of training schedules.
Reception
The yoga
scholar-practitioner Mark Singleton writes that "it is of course Vishnu-devananda, author of ''The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga'', who is generally credited as the ''asana'' pioneer within Sivananda-inspired yoga".
The yoga scholar-practitioner
Norman Sjoman
Norman E. Sjoman (born July 6, 1944, Mission City) is known as author of the 1996 book ''The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace'', which contains an English translation of the yoga section of ''Sritattvanidhi'', a 19th-century treatise by the ...
notes in his analysis of
modern yoga
Modern yoga is a wide range of yoga practices with differing purposes, encompassing in its various forms yoga philosophy derived from the Vedas, physical postures derived from Hatha yoga, devotional and tantra-based practices, and Hindu nation- ...
that the asanas of
B. K. S. Iyengar's ''
Light on Yoga
''Light on Yoga: Yoga Dipika'' (Sanskrit: योग दीपिका, "Yoga Dīpikā") is a 1966 book on the Iyengar Yoga style of modern yoga as exercise by B. K. S. Iyengar, first published in English. It describes more than 200 yoga postur ...
'' were already published in ''The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga'' "with different names". Sjoman comments that Vishnudevananda was a student of Sivananda, "a
Dravidian belonging to the Diksitar family, the traditional custodians of the
Cidambaram temple", and suggests that the book must have been describing those inherited traditions. Sjoman analyses the origins of the asanas in the book, comparing them to Iyengar's and to those of the
Sritattvanidhi
The ''Sritattvanidhi'' (, "The Illustrious Treasure of Realities") is a treatise written in the 19th century in Karnataka on the iconography and iconometry of divine figures in South India. One of its sections includes instructions for, and ill ...
of the
Mysore Palace
The Mysore Palace, also known as Amba Vilas Palace, is a historical palace and a royal residence (house). It is located in Mysore, Karnataka. It used to be the official residence of the Wadiyar dynasty and the seat of the Kingdom of Mysore. Th ...
.
The historian of modern yoga
Andrea Jain
Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide for both males and females, cognate to Andreas, Andrej and Andrew.
Origin of the name
The name derives from the Greek word ἀνήρ (''anēr''), genitive ἀνδρός (''andrós''), that r ...
writes in her 2015 book ''
Selling Yoga
''Selling Yoga : from Counterculture to Pop culture'' is a 2015 book on the modern practice of yoga as exercise by the scholar of religion, Andrea R. Jain.
Background
Since Elizabeth De Michelis's 2004 ''A History of Modern Yoga'' and Mark Singl ...
'' that Vishnudevananda and other students of Sivananda were among the first to build yoga brands and to
mass-market
The term "mass market" refers to a market for goods produced on a large scale for a significant number of end consumers. The mass market differs from the niche market in that the former focuses on consumers with a wide variety of backgrounds wit ...
these to a global audience, effectively tying yoga to methods for achieving
physical fitness
Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of Outline of sports, sports, occupations and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate ...
.
The historian of modern yoga
Elliott Goldberg writes that the book "proclaimed in print" a "new utilitarian conception of
Surya Namaskar
Sun Salutation, also called Surya Namaskar(a) or Salute to the Sun (), is a practice in yoga as exercise incorporating a flow sequence of some twelve gracefully linked asanas. The asana sequence was first recorded as yoga in the early 20th centu ...
" (the salute to the sun) which Sivananda had originally promoted as a health cure through sunlight. Goldberg notes that Vishnudevananda modelled the positions of Surya Namaskar for photographs in the book, and that he recognised the sequence "for what it mainly is: not
treatment for a host of diseases but fitness exercise."
See also
* ''
Light on Yoga
''Light on Yoga: Yoga Dipika'' (Sanskrit: योग दीपिका, "Yoga Dīpikā") is a 1966 book on the Iyengar Yoga style of modern yoga as exercise by B. K. S. Iyengar, first published in English. It describes more than 200 yoga postur ...
'' - B. K. S. Iyengar's encyclopedic 1966 yoga reference book
References
Primary
These references are supplied to indicate the parts of the ''Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga'' text being discussed.
Secondary
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga
Modern yoga books
1959 non-fiction books