The Winter 2012-2013 issue of Yoga International article, "In Loving Gratitude" (click to view) honors four women who are the reason we can enjoy the incredible teachings here in the US. I encourage you to read the article. Interestingly, many of the women brought the practice of yoga to the west on the dictate of their guru in India.
Eugenie Peterson, better known as Indra Devi was the first woman. A society woman by all counts in most circles, Indra Devi traveled the world and was living in China when Krishnamacharya opened the first yoga studio there. Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya as Fernando Pages Ruiz aptly explained in the May/June 2001 Yoga Journal, "...influenced or perhaps even invented your yoga." He was the teacher for BKS Iyengar [Iyengar], Pattabhi Jois [Astanga] and Krishnamacharya's son, Deskikacher [Vinyasa] -- All men. In 1937, Indra Devi was accepted as a pupil of Krishnamacharya and soon became known as "The First Lady Of Yoga". By 1947, Indra Devi had formulated a gentler yoga, which at the time was much more accessible to westerners. Her teaching won her a huge following of devotees from stars like Gloria Swanson to Kremlin leaders, who referred to her as Mataji, which means mother.
In 1955, Sylvia Hellman was told to go to Canada by her guru to open a yoga ashram. She'd gone to India searching for meaning through the guidance of Swami Sivananda Saraswati, Her search for meaning turned into a metaphor for her yoga teachings. Known by her disciples as Swami Radha, she opened an ashram and named it after Buddha's wife and krishna's mother: Yasodhara. Most of her early work was with men - but keep in mind the second wave of the feminist movement was just getting underway. After which as shifts began to happen on the political stage, perhaps there was more openness to woman's role on the spiritual stage so more women began to join her ashram. Swami Radha fostered self realization and spiritual leadership in women. In fact, she was one of the few women leaders who placed a woman as her spiritual successor: Swami Radhananda.
A little under 20 years later, Lilias Folan brought yoga to our livingrooms with her PBS show, Lilas Yoga and You. She continued into the early 90s with her followup series, Lilas! Yoga Gets Better With Age. What's interesting to note about Lilias Folan's teaching is that she taught people she couldn't see. Keeping students safe when you can't see them is quite a feat (ask any teacher) but she claims that after some 500 televised classes, she never once received a letter of complaint about an injury. Of course, that didn't mean she didn't get hate mail. Some said she was doing the work of the devil. Most would call her a saint --- especially those confined to their home for some reason like mothers of newborns. Lilas own experience with yoga began that way. She was married with two young sons, smoking a half-pack of cigarettes a day (it was the 70s remember), and sought out yoga as a solution to her gloom. Guess what? It worked.
Geeta Iyengar is the fourth woman featured in the article and as an Iyengar student, I have to say Geeta embodies a lot of what yoga means to women. Indian to her core, she has devoted her entire life to the study and teaching of Iyengar Yoga. Like her father, BKS Iyengar, severe illness was the motivation, but their unwavering respect for the process and endless dedication to the refinement of every aspect of yoga is like no other. Geeta's personal devotion to the cause of women's mental, emotional, and physical health is astounding. While I struggle with what I hear about the treatment of women in India, Patricia Walden's comments in the write up on Geeta in the Yoga International article brought me perspective. How I interpreted what Ms. Walden, a Senior Advanced Iyengar teacher said is that despite the appearance of being a woman behind a great man, Geeta is a self actualized woman who will stand up for what she believes in. She serves as a unique role model for women. She has found her own greatness in a country where it is not easy to do; and luckily she is willing to share it.
I benefit from her teachings through another woman, Kathleen Pringle, owner of Stillwater Yoga in Atlanta. Kathleen is a woman Georgia should be very proud of. Known as the "Teacher's Teacher" in local yoga circles, she has dedicated over 30 years to the study and teaching of Iyengar Yoga. She spends several weeks a year in India and was recently awarded a higher certification level by BKS Iyengar during her most recent visit. She is now part of a very elite group known as Senior Iyengar Teachers. As many of my readers already know gaining a Level I Iyengar certification is a very intense process...to be able to say you're a Senior Level Iyengar Teacher...now that's pretty mind boggling actually. There's not another one for miles around, so perhaps you'll want to visit her studio and take a class or two.
If you do you could begin to see the linage of what our yoga ladies have given us as a country. Perhaps you will even being to understand how they have helped the minds, hearts, and souls of women - and once you do you may find you want to tip your head and thank them. I know I did.
For more information about Kathleen Pringle and Stillwater Yoga please visit http://www.stillyoga.com/
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