The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West

by Michelle Goldberg

Hardcover, 2015

Status

Available

Call number

613.7

Collection

Publication

Knopf (2015), 336 pages

Description

"The incredible story of the woman--actress, dancer, yogi, globetrotter--who brought yoga to America and to much of the rest of the western world. Born Eugenia Peterson in early 20th century Russia, Indra Devi was a rebel from earliest childhood. In the 1930s she fled to Berlin, and then--driven by her passion for yoga and a fascination with yogic philosophy (and Theosophy)--she journeyed to India, at a time when unaccompanied young European women were unheard of. In India she performed perhaps her greatest feat--convincing even the most recalcitrant yogis, from Krishnamurti to Krishnamacharya, to reveal to her the secrets of their art. She would go on to share what she learned with men and women around the world--teaching Gloria Swanson and Greta Garbo in Hollywood, then moving to Mexico and later to Buenos Aires--helping to usher in the craze for yoga that continues unabated in the U.S. and throughout the world today. Written with vivid clarity, and describing the extraordinary spread and popularization of a philosophical movement, The Goddess Posebrings Indra Devi's little known but wholly remarkable story to life"-- "Biography of Indra Devi, a European woman who, over the course of her century-long life, helped introduce yoga to the U.S"--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Writermala
"The Goddess Pose," is billed as the story of Indra Devi who helped bring Yoga to the West. Indra Devi however turns out to be much more. She is an "activator," who activates and quickens things wherever she goes. Either as a result of her presence or by coincidence, she is in the middle of
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historic events for almost a century (she lived to be over a 100) and the author has described these events in a very interesting manner. All this makes for great reading - even I who grew up in India learned a lot about Yoga Masters and "God-men" of that country from this book.
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LibraryThing member weeta
A fascinating discussion of the ongoing evolution of the speed and style of what we call yoga today, traced from its roots in Indian spirituality to influences by Dutch gymnastics instruction, to what Indra Devi brought to the Arden spa in the 1950s, to the contemporary fast-paced power yoga we see
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so much of today. What Devi brought to the spa (and what caused yoga to really catch on in the U.S.) was apparently yoga without the religious underpinnings; an empowering alternative to the housewives-on-tranquilizers age. Devi "turned a very male discipline into an uplifting ritual for the cosmopolitan, spiritual-not-religious woman."

More fascinating was Devi's life itself and the numerous lives and subcultures she influenced across continents and countries, from Russia to Weimar Berlin to Shanghai to Mexico. Devi lived a life she based on love and nonattachment - fiercely independent and at times possibly a little bit too non-attached. She refused to be tethered by past memories or experiences and would not let nostalgia interrupt her focus on living in her present. Far from a quiet zen master, as she grew older refused to 'get old' and couldn't retire because "there are always more things to do."

"If yoga isn't just exercise, if it isn't religion, and if it isn't, in its current form, even all that old, then what the hell is it?" In short, a fusion and ongoing evolution of an already-evolving yoga of 100 years, influenced by the previous traditional understanding of yoga. Its contemporary links to "the same cultural matrix of organic food, holistic spas, and biodynamic beauty products - things that seem to go together so naturally" are linked so strongly in large part due to Devi pushing her brand of yoga in the 1950s at spas, and gained traction only when the spirituality element was thickly veiled or taken out entirely.

But as Goldberg points out, there is no such thing as unchanging authenticity - yoga is a creative dialogue and so far from its beginnings that it shouldn't need to be thought of in terms of purity or corruption.
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LibraryThing member brangwinn
Indra Devi was the person responsible for making yoga popular. Born in 1899, she was a feminist from the get go. Well researched, the story was interesting.

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

8.5 inches

ISBN

0307593517 / 9780307593511

Local notes

FB Uncorrected proof
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