as we practice it today would not be possible without the vision and determination of these four women. They challenged the misconception Not so long ago, that yoga was an inscrutable, males-only practice and forever altered the yoga landscape for us all.

g rIn a Loving t i t u d e

INDRA SWAMI SIVANANDA RADHA

54 yogainternational.com winter 2012-13 ©2012 Yoga International. All rights reserved. by anna dubrovsky

yoga was an esoteric practice, virtually unheard Not ofso in the long United ago,States and other Western countries. A powerful vehicle for enlightenment. For men…in . Fast forward to the mid-20th century: yoga is now global, mainstream, and decidedly coed. Few people have had as much to do with that revolution as the four women featured in these pages. Charged by their revered teachers in India to spread the word of yoga far and wide, they reluctantly agreed. But then a curious thing happened. At some point, each woman began to make the teachings her own, creating practices anyone could do, no their limitations. And all four of them taught us all—male and female, young and old—what it means to be fully alive and truly at home in our bodies. We bow to them here for kicking the doors of yoga wide open and happily walking on through. >>

LILIAS FOLAN

winter 2012-13 yogainternational.com 55 because she wasn’t an Indian man. Born Eugenie Peterson to a Russian noblewoman and a Swedish bank direc- tor, she was every bit a sophisticated Westerner, comfortable traveling the world and mingling with newsmakers and high society. And yet she was never stern or ceremonious, and her warmth and quick wit endeared her to everyone she came into contact with. She at- tracted and welcomed students regard- less of their motivation: from slimming down to Self-realization. Devi’s own interest in Eastern began in her teens, when she came upon the writings of Bengali poet-philosopher and the American occultist who wrote under the pseudonym Ramacha- raka. In 1926, the 27-year-old actress and dancer attended a gathering of the in Holland, where I N D R A D E V I she became enthralled with Jiddu Krish- First Lady of Yoga namurti. The next year, she sailed to India, following the renowned spiritual hen yoga master T. Krishnamacharya, teacher from city to city. moved to Cali- opened China’s first yoga school, and For 12 years, she made India her fornia from China returned to India to teach yoga to Indi- home, marrying a Czechoslovakian in 1947, friends ans themselves before making her way diplomat, starring in an Indian movie urged her to call her to America. (the stage name Indra Devi later became teachings anything It didn’t take long to find a fan base her legal name), and rubbing shoulders but “yoga.” After all, it would be at least here—and it didn’t hurt that some of with such notables as , Wanother 10 years before Richard Hittle- her earliest fans were among the glit- , and Rabindranath man would introduce yoga on television terati. “A great many people seem to Tagore, whose writings first sparked her The Spiritual Emissary and two decades before B.K.S. Iyengar have taken up the study of yoga simply love affair with the country. It helped to wrote . Post-war Ameri- because , , have friends in high places; when Krish- cans would have no sooner signed up for , , Olivia namacharya refused to accept a woman yoga than for fire-eating. de Havilland, Mala Powers, Robert as his student in 1937, his royal patron But Indra Devi remained unde- Ryan, and also the world-famous beauti- intervened on Indra Devi’s behalf. terred. The Latvian-born itinerant felt cian Elizabeth Arden are known to have By the time Devi followed her dip- right at home in uncharted territory. been devotees,” she noted in her 1959 lomat husband to Shanghai in 1939, She’d cracked a centuries-old glass ceil- best seller, Yoga for Americans. Krishnamacharya had warmed up to his ing by becoming the first woman—and Indra Devi made an ideal, albeit sari-wearing student, insisting that she first Westerner—to study with Indian unlikely, ambassador for yoga, in part teach yoga. And so she did—for the rest

Indra Devi brought a woman’s perspective to what had been a man’s world. She also brought her background as a dancer and her deep respect for the

nonsectarian teachings of Krishnamurti. Previous layout, from left: Courtesy of Indra Devi Foundation; Yasodhara ©1990; Kelly Davidson; Elaine Banister; Background: Niels Poulsen mus / Alamy

56 yogainternational.com winter 2012-13 of her remarkably long . Devi died just shy of her 103rd birthday in Buenos start a new fashion Aires, , her home since 1985. Devi’s teaching style bore little In Yoga for Americans, Devi addressed everything from to the resemblance to that of Iyengar or perils of soft mattresses. The section on diet included recipes and Ashtanga yoga maestro K. Pattabhi sample menus—and a taste of her humor. “The Indians claim that people Jois, who also studied with - afflicted with arthritis should always keep a raw unpeeled winter-crop macharya in the 1930s. That could be potato close to their skin,” she wrote. “I myself have seen a woman, who because Krishnamacharya was gentler previously had hardly been able to move her fingers, open and close her with her, or perhaps Devi recognized fists a week after she started playing around with a potato…. Since there that rigorous discipline and unquestion- is no risk of any kind involved in holding a potato, and since you may ing obedience would not sit well with even start a new fashion by wearing one around the neck like a medal- most Westerners. She certainly recog- lion, you could safely try this experiment…. And let me know the results.” nized the difference in lifestyles between Westerners and Indians. “I have taken into account not only the pace to which and, in the latter third of her life, her While disciples of Iyengar and Jois life in the United States is geared, but devotion to , the fuzzy- refer to their teacher as Guruji, Devi’s also the fact that most of you have not haired holy man who preached, “See call her Mataji, an affectionate and rever- had a chance to keep your muscles lim- with the eyes of love, hear with the ears ent term for mother. And, like the best ber and your joints supple,” she wrote of love, work with the hands of love.” of mothers, she taught them about un- in Yoga for Americans. Her Sai yoga was not the vinyasa flow conditional love. “It’s not only asana that Devi brought a woman’s perspec- she learned from Krishnamacharya. she tried to teach us,” says David Lifar, tive to what had been a man’s world. She still used the breath to move within director of the Indra Devi Foundation in She also brought her background as a and between the poses, but her char- . “The goal of Mataji—the dancer, her deep respect for the non- acteristic trademark was gentler and most important thing of her teaching— sectarian teachings of Krishnamurti, more devotional. was to give love to everyone.”

TheSWAMI SpiritualSIVANANDA RADHA Emissary ust two months into her stay in India, Sylvia Hellman’s made an unexpected request. “Start an ashram or school [in Canada] for the divine teachings of yoga and .” It was a tall order. The year was 1955, and practically no one had heard of yoga in North America. Besides, Hellman had not gone to India to be- come a spiritual pioneer. She had gone to see Swami Sivananda , hoping for insight into the meaning of life, which she had good reason to question. Born in Berlin in 1911, she had witnessed both World Wars and Jlost two husbands: the first killed by the gestapo for helping Jewish friends leave Germany and the second felled by a stroke. When he asked her to start an ashram, Hellman tried to reason with the for- mer physician. She pointed out that she didn’t even know or Vedanta. She hadn’t studied the . “It would be the blind leading the blind,” she insisted. Three months later, Swami Sivananda threw her another curveball. “When you

Left: Stringer / Reuters; Right: Yasodhara Ashram ©1995 go back to the West, do not work anymore for money,” he told her. “God will look

winter 2012-13 yogainternational.com 57 hidden language men. Two years before she died in 1995, Swami Radha named a woman, Swami Shortly before Swami Radha left India, her guru handed her a hum- Radhananda, as her spiritual successor dinger of an assignment, Swami Lalitananda recalls. “He said, ‘Now I and decreed that a woman should always want you to discover the spiritual and mystical levels of the and remain behind the spiritual wheel at report back to me.’ She said, ‘Gurudev, I don’t even know what you’re Yasodhara. “There have been other very talking about. You have to give me an example.’” And he gave her the strong women leaders, but they haven’t example of the headstand, Swami Lalitananda says. “He said, ‘When necessarily passed their lineage to you go into the headstand, it’s like you’re turning your world upside women,” says Swami Lalitananda, who down. So what would happen if your world was turned upside down? lived and studied with Swami Radha for You’re seeing the world in a completely different way. Also, from this more than 20 years. “She really wanted perspective, you can’t go anywhere. You can’t walk away. So in this women to recognize their leadership po- position, it’s like you’re making a commitment. And your feet, which are tential as spiritual leaders.” usually grounded in the earth, are now grounded in heaven.’” Though inspired by her guru and Swami Radha took it from there, developing a gentle and meditative informed by her intense training at style of practice called Hidden Language Hatha Yoga. She would invite his ashram, Swami Radha tailored her students to choose an asana and ask them to notice what its name teachings to Westerners. “She under- evokes. How do they feel as they move into the pose; what does that stood how the Western worked,” pose reveal about their ? A twist, for example, may become a met- Swami Lalitananda says. “We question. aphor for a twist in one person’s life or the way another’s mind twists We don’t just accept things. In our cul- things. Students would jot down their observations between asanas and ture we are not trained to bow down at share them at the end of class. “People’s personal experiences come the feet of our teachers. She was more forward, and they understand something about themselves in a different practical.” Rather than focus on ab- way,” Swami Lalitananda says of the practice she still uses today. “It’s stract philosophies, she guided people like unlocking the secrets in their life that their body’s holding.” toward a better understanding of themselves and an appreciation of their personal strength. “The main thing I try to do is have my students bring after you.” Hellman, who chronicled dian ashram. In 1963, the ashram moved quality into their lives,” she told Hindu- her six-month stay in Radha: Diary to its present location on the shores of ism Today in 1988. “To me, people are of a Woman’s Search, wasn’t so sure. Kootenay Lake in southeastern British not spiritual if this quality is not there “America and Canada are very money- Columbia and called itself Yasodhara, a in their lives—even if they meditate six conscious,” she said, “Nobody would name which it shares with Buddha’s wife hours a day.” understand if I start living on alms.” But and Krishna’s mother. Courses and retreats at Yasodhara Swami Sivananda would not be swayed. Swami Sivananda Radha, as Hellman combine practices found in ancient “You cannot tell people to live on faith in was known after her vows of renuncia- yogic texts—the , for God alone if you don’t do it yourself.” tion, went on to write more than a dozen example—with those found in modern Hellman concluded that day’s di- books; create a publishing house, Time- textbooks, in particular ary entry with a panicked question: less Books; launch a quarterly journal journaling and dream analysis. And “How can I ever hope to get out of that would become the international then there are practices found nowhere this whole thing?” yoga magazine ascent; and open a string else, such as the Divine Light Invoca- But she didn’t. Instead of shrinking of urban yoga centers. tion, a standing meditation that Swami from her guru’s formidable assignments, In the early years, most of Swami Radha learned during a visionary expe- she dove right in. Within weeks of re- Radha’s disciples were men. “We rience in India. turning to Montreal, the newly initiated called ourselves Snow White and the “There are many women who have sannyasi was teaching yoga classes, lec- seven dwarfs,” she told in come and helped. They have stayed and turing on yoga philosophy, and discuss- 1981. In time, more and more women learned so much about themselves and ing her experiences in India on TV. The found their way to Yasodhara, drawn their strengths. The ashram still runs following year, she moved to Vancouver, by courses like “Women and Spiritual on the very ideals that Swami Radha opened the city’s first metaphysical Life” and Swami Radha’s strength of wanted,” says Swami Radhananda. “It’s bookstore, and founded the first Cana- character. Today, they outnumber the as though she were still here.”

58 yogainternational.com winter 2012-13 The JuliaLILIAS Child FOLAN of Yoga had it right. Yoga teachers in the West, both series. “People felt that they knew and particularly in the United States, her as an individual, as a friend, as a con- have put their stamp on the ancient In- fidante, as an adviser.” He puts her in dian discipline, steering it from fringe to the company of children’s TV host Fred mainstream, and sparked a billion-dollar Rogers and legendary newsman Walter industry in the process. Few have done Cronkite. A 1974 Time magazine article more to popularize the practice than Fo- on the growing interest in yoga (“The lan, whose 1970s PBS series Lilias, Yoga Manhattan telephone directory lists 27 and You brought yoga into living rooms yoga instruction centers,” the writer around the country. A handful of sta- marveled) likened her to the beloved

“It’s not about the down dog,” Folan says. “That’s the outer shell of you and me. It’s about answering the question: Who am I? Who am I really?”

uring a tour of India tions still carry her follow-up series, Lil- cookbook author and TV personality in the 1970s, Lilias ias! Yoga Gets Better with Age, produced Julia Child, and the comparison stuck. Folan struck up a in the late ’80s and early ’90s. At 76, she still receives fan mail. conversation with a Though Folan reached millions, she “You have been an important part of my monk. gave the impression of teaching to one. entire adult life,” a 62-year-old Michigan “You know,” he told the “Lilias had the capacity and talent to man wrote in July. “Your instructions Cincinnati-based yoga teacher, “we have be able to play to the camera as an indi- were—and are—always the easiest to Dtaken yoga as far as we can in India. It’s vidual, so the person watching the televi- understand, and the lessons most valu- up to you in the United States now to sion set really felt that Lilias was talking able to me.” take it and run with it like a football.” to that person and that person alone,” To Folan, whose earliest yoga teach- The remark confounded Folan, but says Jack Dominic, station manager at ers took a one-size-fits-all approach, the several decades later, it seems the monk CET in Cincinnati, which produced comfort and safety of her students was

resurrection breath

These days, Lilias starts and ends most classes with a practice she learned from Goswami of Chicago’s Temple of . Known as resurrection breath, it helps practitioners focus on the present. To begin, take a comfortable seat. Draw an imaginary line through the center of your body, through your brow, chin, heart, and navel. The area over your left shoulder symbolizes dying to the past, and the area over your right shoulder symbolizes letting go of the future. Turn your head comfortably to the left, and gen- tly blow over your left shoulder a few times, as if blowing out a candle, mentally letting go of the past. With an inhalation, bring your head back to center, sensing the moment, and then turn your head to the right. Gently blow over your right shoulder a few times, and imagine that you’re letting go of the future. “Then come back to center once again, the heart center, the now, the present moment,” Folan says. “Breathing in, let the corners of your lips turn up slightly, smile from the center of your heart, and as you exhale, say,

Circe Hamilton ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so grateful for this moment now.’”

winter 2012-13 yogainternational.com 59 paramount. And because she was in the when she turned to yoga in the mid- discourses.” It kept the blahs at bay. unusual position of teaching to people ’60s. Not sleeping well wasn’t the worst Folan was more than a little reluctant she couldn’t see—unable to gauge their of her problems. Her back bothered to move to Cincinnati for her husband’s experience, unable to offer corrections— her, and she tired easily. She smoked work. “But the truth of the matter is, her instructions had to be clear, detailed, half a pack of cigarettes a day. She had a when I moved to Cincinnati, some really and accommodating of every body: male fine husband, two sons, a house with a exciting things began to happen in my or female, 18 or 80, stiff or bendy, strong white picket fence, and even a boat, but life.” Most notably, she was discovered or pain-stricken. “I have made 500 tele- she couldn’t escape what she describes by the wife of a CET producer while vised yoga classes, and I don’t think I’ve as a “gloom cloud.” She went to her doc- teaching yoga in a school cafeteria. The ever received a letter that said, ‘I have tor, hoping to “solve it all with pills,” rest, as they say, is history. been injured from watching your televi- but instead he prescribed exercise. “You Folan is still teaching yoga, though sion show,’” she says. are suffering from a case of the blahs,” she’s careful not to overextend herself. In the early days, not all of the mail he concluded. She’s focusing on her husband of 53 was flattering. “I remember getting let- Before long, Folan was taking yoga years, their grown sons, and their seven ters signed by the church choir saying classes at the YWCA near her Con- grandchildren. Earlier this year she was that yoga is the work of the devil and necticut home and making her way to diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer does not belong on public television. in New York, where she met and had to lay off her asana practice as There was a lot of misunderstanding such notables as Swami Satchidananda, she recovered from surgery and chemo. of what yoga was and what it wasn’t,” founder of ; Swami Vish- It was a reminder that as much as yoga she says. “I was determined to make it nudevananda, founder of the Interna- has changed—from the way poses are normal, to make it useable, to make it tional Vedanta Centres; taught to the way practitioners dress— for the young mother who doesn’t sleep and Swami Chidananda of the Divine it’s essentially the same. “It’s not about well, for the athlete for flexibility—so Life Society. “At that time, India was the down dog,” Folan says. “That’s the that it would be Americanized and still coming to New York,” she says. “There outer shell of you and me. It’s about keep its heart.” were all sorts of wonderful —swa- answering the question: Who am I? Who Folan was herself a young mother mis—and I could sit and listen to their am I really?”

The OtherGEETA Iyengar IYENGAR

hen Geeta Iyengar (known as Geetaji) began teaching in the early 1960s, very few Indians felt that women should practice yoga, much less teach it to others. She spent a lot of time answer- ing questions like, Will standing on the head pre- vent a woman from getting pregnant? Geeta was a mere teen back then, but her words carried a lot of weight. She is, after all, the eldest daughter of B.K.S. WIyengar, now 94-years strong, who has taught Indian royals, politicians, and celebrities, as well as such international personalities as violin mae- stro and philosopher . Geeta Iyengar is hardly a household name, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Since 1973, when her mother died, she has been the woman behind the man. She has cooked her father’s meals, edited his manuscripts, and run the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute

in , India, the nerve center of . She sidesteps praise Elaine Banister

60 yogainternational.com winter 2012-13 and recognition, redirecting them to Guruji, her father-slash-guru. But she never too late has long been a yoga master in her own Yoga is a gift for old age. One who takes to yoga when old gains right. At a time when women outnum- not only health and happiness but also freshness of mind, since ber men in most yoga classes, she is ar- yoga gives one a bright outlook on life, and one can look forward guably the foremost authority on yoga to a happier future rather than looking back into the past which has for women. already entered into darkness. The loneliness and nervousness, Geeta Iyengar’s yoga training began which create sadness and sorrow, are destroyed by yoga as a new virtually at birth. “It was always around life begins. Hence it is never too late to begin. Yoga, if started in old me,” she told an interviewer in 1995. age, is a rebirth that teaches one to face death happily, peacefully, “I remember very well how I used to and courageously. imitate Guruji while he was practicing. Therefore, nobody is exempted from doing yoga and there are no Guruji used to make me bend and twist excuses for not doing yoga. How useful is yoga can only be under- and make me topsy-turvy on his feet stood by practicing it. when he did headstand and shoulder- —from Yoga: A Gem for Women by Geeta Iyengar (Timeless Books, 1990) stand.” But her childhood was far from idyllic. Like her father, she was a sickly kid, enduring everything from colds and stomachaches to typhoid and diph- theria. At 10, she was diagnosed with They are also known for a sort of all- biness. Her teachings on how women nephritis, a potentially deadly inflam- seeing-ness—an ability to spot strug- should adjust their practice throughout mation of the kidneys. After a flare-up gling students in a class of hundreds, the menstrual cycle have inspired at least left her unconscious for four days, her to catch you the moment your atten- two books. father put “the list of medicines aside tion drifts, to “call you on your stuff,” Though she has never married— and said sternly, ‘From tomorrow on- Walden says. “Studying with them is never had any interest in it, she ex- wards no more medicines. Either you like naked. You can’t hide.” plains—she is attuned to women’s practice yoga or get prepared to die,’” struggles in balancing family life and she recalls in her seminal book, Yoga: other callings. In fact, the matriarch A Gem for Women. of the Iyengar family has admitted to By 15, she was teaching yoga to her “She’ll stand up neglecting her yoga practice. “The de- schoolmates. Two years later, some of to anybody,” says mands on me have made it impossible her father’s students asked if she could to be completely regular,” she once teach them while he was away in Eng- Patricia Walden. said. “For men it is different. They can land, and the master consented. She’s “She stands in her be strict with their program…because never looked back, dedicating half a there is somebody supporting them.” century to supporting and furthering his truth, and don’t we Her greatest gift to women may be work—first as an apprentice and then the example she sets. “Because she is as his successor, directing the institute all want to have role such a powerful woman, such a fierce along with her brother, Prashant. models like that?” woman, she has empowered many,” The three Iyengars are famously Walden says. “She’ll stand up to any- fierce. They scold, and they yell. It’s a body. She’ll say whatever she feels like trait that’s easily misunderstood, says Geetaji has distinguished herself saying. She stands in her truth, and Patricia Walden, a senior Iyengar yoga by specializing in the specific needs of don’t we all want to have role models teacher who has studied with them since women. First published in 1983, Yoga: A like that?” n the mid-’70s. “Some people are confused Gem for Women is an encyclopedic refer- by it. They don’t get that somebody ence on asana and for differ- could be screaming and yelling at you, ent stages of a woman’s life. Her latest A former political journalist, Anna Dubrovsky now but they’re doing it because they really book, Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood: Safe writes about yoga, travel, and green living. Her first book, Moon Pennsylvania, a travel guide, care that you understand the material, or Practice for Expectant and New Mothers, was published in 2011. She lives in Pittsburgh, they really care that you’re injured and which she cowrote, addresses everything Pennsylvania, where she also teaches yoga. Find her they want to help you to get well.” from fertility issues to post-delivery flab- at anywherebutacubicle.com.

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