The Goddess Pose by Michelle Goldberg – the strange story of how yoga became popular

This biography of Indra Devi, the teacher who brought yoga to the west, features occultism, early new ageism, sexual predators and celebrity devotees

What is yoga? In New York or London, it is usually a series of poses performed on a rubber mat in 90-minute classes. Sometimes these sessions have spiritual overtones: Sanskrit chanting accompanied by a harmonium, secular sermons, vigorous Om-ing. Other teachers simply press play on a techno mix and commence with stretching. A pupil might receive vague lessons about The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, or kundalini energy, or pranayama breath, but the origins of the “practice” tend to remain obscure.

The father of modern yoga was a man named Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. Born in south India in 1888 and educated in a monastery, Krishnamacharya learned hatha yoga (the branch of yoga philosophy concerned with physical poses) at a time when many religious Hindus and educated Indians looked down on it. The ash-covered mendicants contorting on the banks of rivers had roughly the same cultural capital as unwashed street buskers. The respectable aspects of yoga were those techniques that had to do with breath control, meditation and a philosophy that spoke of transcending worldly concerns.

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