The Continuing Story of Buddha Bose

As many of you already know, in 2015 we edited and published a manuscript of 84 asanas and 10 mudras by Buddha Bose. We were (and continue to be) excited and inspired by the book because it is a window into the yoga of Bose and BC Ghosh in the 1930s, a time from which we have little other material evidence. We presented the book as closely to the manuscript as possible, acknowledging to the reader that it was clearly an incomplete work in progress. Even in its incomplete form, and perhaps because of it, the book is a raw and unvarnished view into the yoga of that time.

Recently, the Yoga Cure Institute, a yoga school founded by Bose and still run by his daughter Rooma, published a notice about some "major mistakes" in the book, promising to publish a completed and "authentic" version of the book, updated by Rooma. Below is quoted from their website:

​​"Authentic 84 Asanas - The Legacy of Buddha Bose by Yoga Therapist Mrs. Rooma De nee Bose ..... Soon to be published​...Some claims that the book was lost. But the fact is that Buddha Bose's "84 Asanas" manuscript was not lost. It was in fact the author's rejected manuscript. Due to some major mistakes in the manuscript, the author Buddha Bose never published the '84 Asanas."

While it is impossible to know the complete truth, there were undoubtedly other circumstances that led to the non-publication of Bose's manuscript: his turning toward spirituality, WWII, the Ghosh school expanding to Japan, Bose's airplane crash in 1947 and subsequent healing at the Holy Kailash, the death of Ghosh (1970) and the split of the families. Perhaps even disapproval from Yogananda, who finally gave Ghosh permission to teach yoga in the 1940s. Bose never published another book on yoga, not even a corrected or updated version of the manuscript.

We eagerly await any addition to this lineage, and any insight and clarification that Mrs. De will bring to the yoga and the history.