Mother's Of Yoga

The yoga sutras date back over 1500 years, and just in the last 100 or so years women have participated in the practice of yoga.  Before then it was a man’s endeavor.  In 2020, 38.4 million Americans, or 11% of the population practiced yoga. 75% of yoga practitioners  are women. We have many people to thank for bringing yoga into our lives and I’d like to tell you about 2 very important women in the world of yoga.  Life isn’t about finding yourself, It’s about CREATING yourself.

Indra Devi was born Eugenia Vassilievna, in the spring of 1899 in Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire.  Raised in the home of her grandparents, she appreciated the comforts of a wealthy and well connected family.  Eugenia’s mother, Sasha was in and out of her life from early on.  Both women were aristocratic and apolitical, and thus they moved virtually unobstructed throughout Russia and Europe during war as actors and performers on stage.  In 1923 they arrived in Berlin, perhaps the most artistically vibrant city in the world at the time.  They performed in Weimer Berlin cabaret.  After the war, Eugenia became interested in spiritualism and theosophy. She had always been drawn to India, and she traveled there in 1927.  She met and traveled with many interesting people, including Krishnamurti, Alice Adiar and Gandhi, and was offered several parts in Indian silent films, the emerging Bollywood.  This is where she became Indira Devi.  She had a knack for showing up in places that were the center for monumental change in the world, much like Forrest Gump today. 

The yoga we practice today, hatha yoga, was not the conventional practice of yoga in the early 1900’s.  It was through Indra Devi’s work, and others, that developed a more physical practice to heal the body and prepare the mind. A crucial piece of the history of yoga in the US is the 1893 world’s fair in Chicago, that Vivekanada brought ‘modern yoga’ to the World’s Fair in Chicago. Swami Vivekananda spoke of karma yoga, or giving back and social service. In 1924 the US immigration imposed a quota on Indian immigration, making it impossible for easterners to travel to America.*  If westerners wanted to learn yoga, they had to travel to the east.

Indira Devi followed the teachings of Theosophy, Kirshnamurti being her most admired. Eventually she made her way to India and found her first yoga teacher Swami Kuvalayanada,. Much like yoga teachers today, Kuvalayananda dreamed of melding modern rationalism and ancient wisdom. He offered yoga classes to both genders and Indira was soon one of his students. She studied with him until 1936 her diplomat husband was called to China.  She stayed behind in India, and because of her societal connections, she was invited to the wedding of the nephew Maharaja of Mysore, and there met Krishinamacharya, whose brother-in-law is B.K.S. Iyengar.  At first he denied her tutelage as he only accepted male students, but she went over his head and ask the maharaja to advocate for her, and he ordered Krishnamacharya to teach her.  Iyengar described Iyengar as “unpredictably moody, and sometimes violent”.  He directed Devi to adhere to a strict regime and schedule.  After eight months under the guru, the benefits of her new lifestyle began to show.  Krishmamacharya encouraged her to teach, and when she joined her husband in Shanghai, that is just what she did.  Unlike most contemporary teachers, she led her students through deep relaxation before starting them on asanasa, having them lie on their backs and systemically let go of tension in each part of the body, beginning with the toes. 

As world War II spread throughout the world, tensions rose in Shanghia.  Devi’s husband a Czech citizen, returned to his homeland, and Devi returned to her beloved India in 1946. It was here, in Bombay, that she wrote her first book Yoga: The Techniques of Health & Happiness.  Still trying to find a home for she and her mother Sasha, undamaged by war, Devi arrived in Los Angeles in 1947.  Once again, she found herself in the middle of the action, as southern California was becoming a spiritual center.  It didn’t take her long to use her connections to form a community and open a yoga studio on Sunset Boulevard. Her classes began to fill, as she went to great pains to explain the practice in scientific rather that spiritual terms. “Yoga is first and foremost a commonsense exercise and relaxation system, utterly practical and wholesome, promising transformative results without the grunting agony of physical regimes.” 

The results of her teaching caught the attention of many successful individuals, and her client list grew to include Gloria Swanson, Valentina, Jennifer Jones, and Greta Garbo.  She published her 2nd book:  Forever Young, Forever Healthy in 1953.  This book offered chapters in healthy living, including diet and healthy habits for living, and feminism.  Her teaching spread to Mexico, where she set up a retreat center with her new husband, physician Sigrid Knauer.  The 1960’s and 70’s brought about a new way of thinking toward health, and stress.  The first anti-depressant, Midtown, was developed and widely prescribed. Yoga offered a non-medicinal way to relax and reduce stress.  Devi offered classes and trained many teachers to fill the need.  

Her travels led her to her new guru Sathya Sai Baba, and she stayed on and off with him in his ashram Prasanthi Nilayam, India thru the early 1980’s.   Sai Baba never traveled to the United States, but he had many devotees.  Devi continued to travel the world and taught light and love and service.  Later in life, she found a home in Argentina, and at the age of 103, she passed on quietly and peacefully.

A 1965 revision of U.S. law removed the 1924 quota on Indian immigration, opening our shores to a new wave of Eastern teachers.  In 1966, Swami Satchidananda arrived in New York for a couple of days and ended up staying permanently. He opened the Woodstock Festival in 1969, echoing Vivekananda’s greeting of 75 years earlier:  “My beloved sisters and brothers.”

Share your reflections below; your yoga journey is a story worth sharing!