Known as The Mother of Yoga, Indra Devi (1899-1902) is credited with
bringing Hatha Yoga to the Americas and popularizing it, creating the
foundation for a plethora of ways to experience yoga today. She lived as a
serene – albeit audacious – model of yoga practice in its many forms.
Born Eugenia Peterson, she lived a life of traumatic events and was plagued
with heart-palpitating anxiety. She played down her trials, living with courage
and resilience.
Born in Russia to the minor aristocracy, Eugenia lived with her grandmother
and spent on-and-off time with her traveling actress mother. In 1914 , she
was captivated by a book on Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism. “I have
to go to India”, she exclaimed. And her path was set.
Destitute and hungry during the collapse of Russia, Eugenia left for Ukraine
to find her mother. On the train, a German guard was checking permits,
which she didn’t have. She walked to the car reserved for German officers
and sat down, acting as if she belonged. Assuming she was the girlfriend of
someone important, the guard moved on. This audaciousness became her
normal style: a combination of determination, quick thinking, risk taking, and
luck. And that style supported her through her most turbulent times – from
the Russian revolution to the rise of Naziism in Germany to the popularizing
of gurus in India to World War II in Shanghai to the civil war in Sri Lanka to
the JFK assassination in Dallas to the Panamanian conflict.
Stealing across borders without papers, Eugenia travelled across Europe with
her mother, acting and dancing. When she learned of Jiddu Krishnamurti,
whom some Theosophists believed was a messiah, she travelled to Holland
to hear him speak (1927). His voice was straight from the India of her
imagination, and during a meditation, she had a transcendent experience.
She considered herself a transformed woman.
She made her way to India, and quickly was in the center of the elite action,
a position she claimed wherever she went. She starred in an Indian film
before marrying a Czech diplomat. Transitioning from a free spirit to a wife
and high society companion, she became gravely ill for four years. After an
“energy healing”, she began a spiritual quest and landed in the center of the
hatha yoga renaissance.
In 1932, Eugenia began yoga practice, and with the help of the Maharaja of
Mysore, was able to advance to working with the “yoga guru” – Sri
Krishnamacharya. The guru tried to drive her off with a severe diet and strict
discipline, but she persevered. Impressed, he took over her instruction,
making her the first woman chela (pupil) and the first Western woman at an
Indian ashram.
REFLECT:
What spiritually audacious thing(s) have you done?
How did if affect your connection to Spirit?
What is one spiritually audacious thing you would like to do?
When it was time to join her diplomat husband in China, where he had been
assigned, her teacher insisted she teach yoga there and in other countries.
Though terrified, she didn’t feel she could refuse her guru. She had kept a
notebook during her studies, which they expanded to include the details of
asanas, diet, breath, relaxation, and meditation. This would be the
foundation for her future books.
In her early years, she was known for her charm and indomitable spirit. After
reinventing herself as Indra Devi, she was known for her radiance and
playfulness. Letting go (non-attachment) was the core of her spirituality and
conscious living.
In Shanghai, she moved easily among the expat community. To fill her yoga
classes, she staged a conference for the diplomats to explain what yoga was.
When the Japanese took over and conditions deteriorated, yoga gave her
serenity and equanimity. When the internments began, her yoga students
taught in the camps. During this time, she divorced.
When Shangai was liberated, Devi returned to India to write a yoga book
(Yoga: The Technique of Health and Happiness), and continued her studies
with another swami. Then she moved to Los Angeles where she was an
instant hit – an exotic newcomer with an Indian name and saffron sari, and
an Eastern European accent and aristocratic heritage. Paul Bragg, a
nationally famous health food guru, hosted a three-night series for her at
LA’s 1500-seat Embassy Auditorium. From there, her fame soared. Hollywood
stars became clients: her book became a best seller.
There, she met her match in Sigfrid Knauer, a pioneering German physician
and Theosophist, who combined acupuncture, homeopathy, kinesiology and
Russian Folk Medicine. They married, forming an alternative medicine power
couple. Asked to write a more detailed book, she wrote Yoga for Americans,
another best seller, followed by Indra Devi Presents Concentration and
Meditation. The cover described her as the World’s Foremost Authority on
Yoga and the Founder of the Crusade for Light in Darkness. She travelled and
taught extensively, including preparing others to teach yoga, thus
establishing a huge yoga following.
Learning of India’s latest guru. Sai Baba, she returned to India to follow him.
But disillusioned by sex scandals around the guru, she left for Sri Lanka, just
as the civil war broke out. And with “luck” yet again, she was invited to speak
in Argentina by Piero De Benedictis, a young rock star. They became spiritual
companions, and after her second husband’s death, she relocated to Buenos
Aires and established six yoga studios. She was 85.
Devi befriended Roberto Diaz Herrera, the second-in-command to Manuel
Noriego, the corrupt US backed president of Panama. She became his
spiritual advisor and visited him in Panama. Integrating her lessons, and
despite the risks, he made public accusations against Noriega that led to the
US prosecuting him for narco-trafficking and racketeering.
Devi lived to see her goal of making yoga known to the west explode – as
yoga went mainstream. Ever active, she joined global yoga luminaries in
Switzerland for the inauguration of he International Yoga Federation in 1988.
She went on to India to celebrate her yoga teacher’s 100th birthday, where
they chanted together. She spent her 91st birthday in Moscow being
interviewed on TV, serenely sitting in the lotus pose. In 1995, she joined yoga
teachers at a Jerusalem conference to bring Jews and Arabs together. In
1998, she visited Diaz Herrera in Panama.
After Devi reached 100, she gave talks to small groups of students, but
mostly rested peacefully. She died at 102, and her corpse was left alone for
three days for her soul to review the life she had lived. I don’t think three
days was nearly enough!
REFLECT:
Reflect on how Devi was a Conscious Leader –
* how she felt guided / impelled to act
* how she was effective in inspiring and motivating others to act for the
highest good
APPLY:
Commit to a spiritually audacious action.
Make a plan to do it.
Take one concrete step toward the plan.
The Goddess Pose, Michelle Goldberg, Alfred A Knopf, New York, 2015.
