“The Goddess Pose” by Michelle Goldberg
It’s a book about Indra Devi, the first famous Yogini and female Yoga Teacher, even Guru.
What a fantastic fulfilled life! Reading this book was like travelling through time and around the world: from 1899 to 2002, from Russia to Berlin, from Shanghai to India, from the USA to South America! I learnt several things about World History because of Indra Devi. That’s one of the riches of this book. It is not only about Indra Devi, who had an incredible life. She seems to have flown above wars and other essential historic moments. She inspired many people and met some very famous people as well. She introduced Yoga in the West. She was also such an independent and strong woman. Reading this book, I sometimes had the feeling that nothing could touch her, which was certainly not true, but it seemed she never wanted to show it.
For any of you interested in the origins of Yoga and how it spread during the 20th century, this book offers a good general overview.
It’s a very well-detailed book. Perhaps too detailed? I perfectly understand why the author did this. In order to give the full picture of the historical context and to explain about other characters’ lives, the author takes us away from Indra Devi’s life, making it difficult to actually follow her life. For my limited memory this was sometimes quite challenging. But it’s because of this ocean of details that I learnt so much and enjoyed this book. It made me dream and travel through ages and places.