BERNARD, Theos Casimir Hamati (“Oom the Omnipotent”). Pasadena, Los Angeles 10.12.1908 — Kosar, Pakistan ?.9.1947. U.S. Bauddha and Yogi. Son of Glen Agassiz Bernard and Aura Georgina Crable (1878–1940), nephew of the yogi Pierre Arnold Bernard (born P. A. Baker, 1875–1955). After parents’ divorce grew up with his mother in Tombstone, Arizona. Graduated from the University of Arizona Law School (L.L.B. 1931) and Columbia University (M.A. 1936 in Philosophy). Prompted by his father, who was interested in spiritual philosophy and had himself visited India, he went in 1936 to India with his father and wife. When others returned, he remained and was initiated as a lama in Sikkim. In 1937 he was allowed to visit Lhasa. 1938 returned to the U.S.A., lectured as “the White Lama”. Ph.D. 1943 Columbia University (under Herbert Schneider), then lived in Santa Barbara, California. In 1947 returned to India and apparently was killed in Pakistan, on his way to Lahut Valley north of the Pañjab (body never found). Married 1934 Viola Wertheim (1907–1998, divorce 1938), 1942 Ganna Walska (née Hanna Puacz, 1887–1984, a Polish coloratura soprano, divorce 1946) and 1947 Helen Graham Park. His travel book is said to be exaggerated, if not partly fabricated, but the visit to Tibet seems to be true and he was fluent in Tibetan.
Publications: Penthouse of the Gods: A Pilgrimage into the Heart of Tibet and the Sacred City of Lhasa. 344 p. N.Y. 1939; Heaven Lies within Us. 326 p. N.Y. 1939.
– Diss. 1943 publ. Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience. 68 p. N.Y. 1944.
– Hindu Philosophy. 207 p. N.Y. 1947.
Sources: *D.M. DiValerio, “Theos Bernard, the White Lama: Tibet, Yoga, and American Religious Life Reviewed”, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 20, 2013, 654-661; *P. Hackett, Barbarian Lands: Theos Bernard, Tibet, and the American Religious Life. Diss. Columbia 2008; P. G. Hacket in Columbia Univ. homepage with photo; *Lopez 2008, 189; D. Sharit, The United States in Asia. Westport, CT 1990, 42; *D. Veenhof, White Lama: The Life of Tantric Yogi Theos Bernard, Tibet’s Emissary to the New World. 2011; WikiTree; Wikipedia with photo and further references.
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