Yoga for You

Rating:
Summary: Physical, Mental and Spiritual Yoga
Review: "Yoga is a method, a system of physical, mental and spiritual development." ~Indra Devi

Indra Devi's book about yoga helped me to understand yoga in a deeper way than I could ever understand this practice through exercise videos. I truly feel that I knew very little about yoga before reading this book, even though I've practiced yoga for many years.

Indra Devi introduced me to Bhakti Yoga: achieving union with God through devotion and selfless love so you can become a channel of God's grace. I'm sure you could incorporate various principles into your life without having to leave society altogether. In fact, I think yoga helps you to live more peacefully with other people.

I also enjoy Jnana Yoga - Knowledge and study. Who knew that there were 10 Rules for a Yoga Code of Morality or that there were so many branches of yoga.

I also learned that Dharana is mind control and that Samadhi is the ultimate state of bliss. Asana or "postures" are just the beginning. While most workout videos do not introduce you to a spiritual dimension of yoga, I found that Indra Devi's way of exploring this aspect of yoga is not at all threatening to anyone practicing any religion. You don't have to change your religion to increase your flexibility, develop clear thinking or live a more healthy life.

What I'm finding lately is that to live a more fulfilling life, you almost have to look at various cultures and traditions and start to incorporate beautiful knowledge into your life. Life is a huge smorgasbord of experience and I hate to limit myself to living in one little box. I want to find out what secrets are hiding in many beautiful presents.

Yoga is one of those presents. Not only does it help you become more "present," it presents an experience that leads to a place of total relaxation you cannot get by doing almost anything else. I have never experienced places of peace like I have with yoga.

Indra Devi explains why you should not keep plants in your bedroom, how you can get rid of a toxic headache and why you should not rush out of bed in the morning. She explains various cleansing diets and helps you understand the core causes of illness. She explains why you should eat natural honey and why water is best at room temperature.

While it is interesting to read about the various poses, I must say it is almost easier to learn yoga through a video/DVD. You may want to try the exercises in the Yoga Journal's Yoga Step By Step DVDs as you are reading this book. You will find instruction for:

Cleansing Breaths
Walking Breathing Exercises
Postures - Cobra, Lotus, Swan, Churning, Angular Balance, Mountain, Bending Forward, Reverse and many more...
Understanding the Chakras
A Healthy Diet
A Reducing Diet
Making Healthy Meals - recipes included

This is one of the Yoga Classics. If you are interested in yoga and want to move towards "Samadhi," then this book will show you how to balance your mind, body and spirit. Until you can control your breathing, take control of your mind and move your body into a state of relaxation, nirvana might seem impossible. After doing yoga for years, you will start to realize that it is possible, if only for moments at a time. Those moments are quite beautiful and healing. I look forward to "corpse" pose when you just relax as the earth holds you.

Back to gazing at my new Zen fountain...

If you enjoy this book, you might also enjoy:

The Experience of God: How 40 Well-Known Seekers Encounter the Sacred.

~TheRebeccaReview.com


Rating:
Summary: Mother Indra Devi
Review: For over 60 years, Indra Devi was Yoga's most prominent female force. She pursued the practice of Yoga in an era when women were normally not accepted as students. Of European descent, she not only brought Yoga to her native Russia, she taught Yoga to the Hindus themselves. In America she taught Yoga to celebrities. Even after she reached the very advanced age of 100, she continued a yoga practice which included Ardha Sirsasana, Janu Sirsasana, Ardha Matsyendrasana and, of course, Padmasana. Indra Devi's followers called her Mataji, a rare and well-deserved honor for a woman who exemplified Yoga's principles with her love, light, and a liveliness that lasted nearly all of her 102 years.

The woman who would become Indra Devi was born Eugenie Peterson on May 12, 1899, in Riga, Russia. Her father was Swedish and her mother was a member of the Russian nobility. Although Eugenie had been drawn to India's spiritual ways at a very young age, she first pursued a career with the theater. She became part of a renowned Russian theatrical troupe that toured all over Europe. It was during this period of her life that she met Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Finally, in 1927, Eugenie was able to visit India for the first time. She wound up living there for 12 years, during which she married a Czechoslovakian diplomat, became an movie star in Indian films and befriended Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1937 she became a student of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, a Yoga master whose other students included a couple of kids named B.K.S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois. After a year Krishnamacharya urged Eugenie to teach, and when her husband relocated to Shanghai in 1939, she opened her first school of Yoga.

After the end of World War II, Indra Devi continued studying Yoga in the Himalayas and after the death of her husband, her travels took her to the United States. She founded a Yoga studio in Hollywood where she taught stars of the day such as Gloria Swanson, Jennifer Jones, Ramon Novarro and Olivia de Haviland. In 1953 she married a renowned doctor and humanitarian, Sigfrid Knauer.

For the next several decades, Indra Devi took Yoga worldwide. In 1985 she moved to Argentina, where she set up the Indra Devi Foundation. Indra Devi's final book is "Yoga for You".