Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Indra Devi (Russian-American Yoga Teacher)

Indra Devi (1899–2002,) originally Eugenia Peterson, also Indira Devi, was a pioneering teacher of yoga as a form of exercise. She brought yoga to the West, created much of the self-help and new age spirituality aspect that encompasses the practice outside India today, and gained the nickname “First Lady of Yoga.”

Born in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire, now the capital of Latvia, Peterson went to India in her twenties, becoming a film star there and taking the stage name Indra Devi.

Devi was the first woman to study yoga under guru Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Krishnamacharya at the Mysore Palace, alongside B.K.S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois (they too become world-famous yoga teachers.) She first immigrated to China, where she taught the first yoga classes in that country at nationalist leader Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s house.

Devi immigrated to America in 1947 and settled in California. She organized the first American yoga school in Los Angeles through the philosophers Aldus Huxley and Jiddu Krishnamurti. Teaching yoga to spiritually inclined Americans, including Hollywood celebrities, she initiated the popularization—and commercialization—of yoga in North America.

Devi’s books advocating yoga for stress relief include Forever Young, Forever Healthy (1953,) Yoga for Americans (1959,) and Renew Your Life through Yoga (1963.)

American author Michelle Goldberg wrote The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West (2015.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Indra Devi

It is very important to give light and love to everyone, because everyone needs affection. Let light, love and peace live today and always in our hearts. Let these words not just be words pouring out of our lips. Let light invade your whole being so that everyone may be able to love.
Indra Devi

Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed.
Indra Devi
Topics: Solitude, Relaxation, Rest

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