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The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West
Knopf
June 2015
On Sale: June 9, 2015
336 pages
ISBN: 0307593517
EAN: 9780307593511
Kindle: B00N6PEVQA
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction History | Non-Fiction | Self-Help
When the woman who would become Indra Devi was born in
Russia in 1899, yoga was virtually unknown outside of India.
By the time of her death, in 2002, it was being practiced
everywhere, from Brooklyn to Berlin to Ulaanbaatar. In
The Goddess Pose, New York Times best-selling
author Michelle Goldberg traces the life of the incredible
woman who brought yoga to the West—and in so doing paints a
sweeping picture of the twentieth century.
Born into
the minor aristocracy (as Eugenia Peterson), Devi grew up in
the midst of one of the most turbulent times in human
history. Forced to flee the Russian Revolution as a
teenager, she joined a famous Berlin cabaret troupe, dove
into the vibrant prewar spiritualist movement, and, at a
time when it was nearly unthinkable for a young European
woman to travel alone, followed the charismatic Theosophical
leader Jiddu Krishnamurti to India.
Once on the
subcontinent, she performed in Indian silent cinema and
hobnobbed with the leaders of the independence movement. But
her greatest coup was convincing a recalcitrant master yogi
to train her in the secrets of his art.
Devi would
go on to share what she learned with people around the
world, teaching in Shanghai during World War II, then in
Hollywood, where her students included Gloria Swanson and
Greta Garbo. She ran a yoga school in Mexico during the
height of the counterculture, served as spiritual adviser to
the colonel who tried to overthrow Panamanian strongman
Manuel Noriega, and, in her eighties, moved to Buenos Aires
at the invitation of a besotted rock star.
Everywhere
she went, Indra Devi evangelized for yoga, ushering in a
global craze that continues unabated. Written with vivid
clarity, The Goddess Pose brings her
remarkable story—as an actress, yogi, and globetrotting
adventuress—to life.
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