Indra Devi Quotes

Eugenie V. Peterson, known as Indra Devi was born in Riga, Latvia. She was a Latvian yoga teacher who was an early disciple of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. Devi's fascination with India began at 15, when she read a book by poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore and a yoga instruction book by Yogi Ramacharaka. In 1930, she married Jan Strakaty, a commercial attache to the Czechoslovak consulate in Bombay. The famous Yoga guru Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya accepted her as a student, only after the Maharaja of Mysore spoke on her behalf, and in 1938 she became the first foreign woman among dedicated yogis. In 1987, she was elected president of honor of the International Yoga Federation and Latin American Union of Yoga under the presidency of Swami Maitreyananda at Montevideo, Uruguay. She died in Buenos Aires, Argentina.