We women must listen to our inner voice. It is easier for women
to do this as they are not afraid to say what they feel. We
must keep both our femininity and our strength.
Indra Devi
1899 - 2002
Indra Devi, who has been called the “First Lady of Yoga,” opened her Yoga studio in Hollywood in 1947. She taught stars like Gloria Swanson, Jennifer Jones, and Robert Ryan, and trained hundreds of teachers.
Born as Eugenie Peterson in Riga, Latvia, Indra Devi was an early disciple of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya of Mysore, and herself became a renowned yoga teacher.
The daughter of Vasili Peterson, a Swedish bank director and Alejandra Labunskaia, a Russian noble woman, Eugenie attended drama school in Moscow as a girl and escaped to Berlin with her mother as communists came to power in 1917. In Berlin, she became an actress and dancer. Her fascination with India began at 15, when she read a book by poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore and some yoga books later. In 1927, she sailed for India.
Upon moving to India she disguised her Baltic roots by adopting a stage name that would sound Hindi and spiritual (using "dev", the Hindi root for "god") and acted in Indian films. In 1930, she married Jan Strakaty, a commercial attache to the Czechoslovak consulate in Bombay.
In 1987 she was elected president of honor of the International Yoga Federation and Latin American Union of Yoga under the presidenceship of Swami Maitreyananda at Montevideo, Uruguay.
- excerpted from Wikipedia, 2006
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Indra Devi's Legacy
The "First Lady of Yoga," daughter of Russian nobility, teacher of the stars and national treasure of Argentina, passes away at age 102
By Adriana Aboy, Argentina
Indra Devi was one of the greatest spiritual propagators in the West. The simplicity of her methods and the charisma she used to transmit yoga were keys for reaching thousands of people. Her life spanned the entire Twentieth Century, and her influence was felt from India to Europe, from Hollywood to South America. Mataji, as she was known, passed away April 25, 2002, in Argentina, her home for the past 17 years, at the age of 102.
In February, 2002, Mataji suffered a stroke which paralyzed her right side. Her health worsened progressively until her heart stopped beating the twenty-fifth day of April. Since she taught that the soul needed three days to detach itself from the body, her devotees performed vigil for exactly that period of time. Prominent celebrities from the country came to pay their respects. "She was like a national treasure," the New York Times quoted one Argentina writer in its story on her passing. "It wasn't just yoga, she was known by the population at large." In accordance with Hindu tradition, her body was cremated and her ashes scattered in Río de la Plata, the immense "Silver River" that flows through Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
Indra Devi was born in the Russia of the Czars, on May 12, 1899. She was the daughter of Alejandra Labunskaia, a member of the Russian nobility, and Vasili Peterson, of Swedish origin. Her parents baptized her Eugene Peterson according to the rites of the Russian Orthodox Church. She lived through the bloody Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, which brought the communists into power. She and her mother were able to leave the country in 1920. A trained actress and dancer, she became part of a theatrical troupe and toured all over Europe.
In 1927, attracted by India's culture and spirituality, specifically the teachings of J. Krishnamurthi, she decided to relocate on the subcontinent. Under the stage name Indra Devi, she became a rising star in Indian films, marrying the Czechoslovakian diplomat, Jan Strakaty, who was posted to India. In time, due to a cardiac illness, she started practicing yoga under the tutelage of Sri Krishnamacharya at the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore in South India. Some of the great exponents of yoga today were fellow students, including B. K. S. Iyengar and K. Pattabi Jois. After experiencing a complete recovery, she was urged by her guru to teach yoga the first Western lady to do so in India. She befriended many, including Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru. After some years, she accompanied her husband to China and there opened Shanghai's first yoga school—during the Japanese occupation—in the house of Madame Chiang Kaishek, wife of the nationalist leader.
After the end of World War II, Indra came back to India, where she wrote her first book. In 1947, her husband died and she moved to California and became the guide and teacher of several big Hollywood stars. In 1953 she married a renowned doctor and humanitarian from Los Angeles, Sigfrid Knauer, became an American citizen and changed her name legally to Indra Devi. Always wearing her trademark sari, she again set out to teach.
Indra Devi realized it wouldn't be easy to promote yoga in America. Fortuitously, she received the support of Elizabeth Arden, the well-known cosmetology expert who by then already had her famous and fabulously successful line of beauty products and spas. Elizabeth, one of America's wealthiest women, familiar with the virtues of yoga, soon became a follower and advocate of Indra Devi's yoga methods, incorporating them in her upscale health spa programs. This helped Americans learn about Indra Devi's work and open themselves to the ancient Hindu science. Shortly thereafter, noted and troubled actress Jennifer Jones arrived at Mataji's studio in Los Angeles. Recommended by her psychotherapist, she was in search of tranquility and peace. Indra Devi, also once an actress, felt an immediate empathy and through asanas and meditation was able to help her young disciple attain better equilibrium. That success quickly elevated Indra to the teacher of great stars of the day, such as Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson (one of her best friends), Ramón Novarro, Linda Christian and Robert Ryan.
During a visit to Moscow in 1960, Devi held a conference for Kremlin functionaries which led to the granting of legal status for the teaching of yoga in Russia. She traveled tirelessly around the world giving multiple conferences, aided by her fluency in five languages English, Spanish, Russian, French and German.
As with most yoga teachers, she did not directly promote Hinduism. She once said, "I do not belong to any religion. Everything is between God and myself." In 1966 she became a devotee of Satya Sai Baba and began calling her teachings "Sai Yoga."
Argentina would be the next chapter in her life. When Doctor Knauer, her second husband, passed away in 1984, Mataji was living in Sri Lanka. Despite being eighty years old, she felt she should continue her same intense teaching. Argentina became her choice, for when she first visited in 1982, in her own words, she "fell in love with the country and its people." According to a New York Times report, "Her popularity snowballed after a single television appearance." She settled in Buenos Aires.
As soon as she arrived in her new homeland, she was showered with invitations to conduct conferences throughout the country. She hardly grasped the phenomenon that was generated around her. Lecture halls had no room for all the people wanting to hear her words. She soon established a studio that was crowded with visitors, not only to attend classes, but also to see her, seeking comfort, looking for happiness, tenderness and hope.
In 1987, Francesca Baldi, who helped Mataji during her first days in Buenos Aires, could no longer continue as her aide. Indra Devi, who did not enjoy taking care of the organizational phase of her work, found a competent assistant in David Lifar, the husband of a dear disciple, Iana Lifar. With him by her side, she established the Fundacion Indra Devi (www.fundacion-indra-devi.org/), dedicated to promoting her teachings in the art of living healthy and in full. During the 15 years she lived in Buenos Aires, she continued to travel around the world spreading the wise principles of love, enlightenment and peace.
Indra Devi had the singular gift of reaching people's hearts. Many skeptics of Indra and her message completely changed their view shortly after meeting and listening to her. She respected those who shared her ideas and those who did not. By not imposing, the warmth of her presence and her sense of humor disarmed and convinced even the harshest of critics.
Esther Riskin of Buenos Aires said, "I don't know what would have happened to us without Mataji's yoga teaching. The various exercises really saved the life of my husband, who suffered from a serious depression and was on the verge of suicide. No one can imagine how lucky I feel after meeting Mataji and discovering yoga through her words."
A devotee from San Pedro said her presence in the city was so intense that he defined time as "before the coming of Mataji and after, at which point it was charged with enlightenment and love." She had the power to soften hardened hearts, as for one student who could never emotionally accept her daughter because she was born out of wedlock. After meditating with Mataji while listening to a tape of her teachings she opened her heart to the little girl.
Atencio Carlos Antonio Comodoro Rivadavia of Chubut said, "Her legacy, which transcended all kinds of frontiers, will always be present through the Indra Devi Foundation. In six major centers they run yoga courses for adults, children, youth, pregnant women, elderly, executives. They teach anti-stress techniques and they certify teachers. The Foundation helps the community by offering free classes, visiting prisons, and donating clothing and food to disadvantaged families. Thus the legacy of Indra Devi continues into the third century after her birth.
-- Hinduism Today, Oct.-Nov.-Dec. 2002
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