Indra Devi "She was an ambassador of yoga." From Russia to Bollywood, Shanghai to Hollywood. The allure of yoga that was planted in the materialist West sprouted into a blissful tree with the coming of Indra Devi in Hollywood, where she is said to have opened one of her first yoga studios. Later in life, Indra Devi stressed that her method relied on the Indian classical yoga of Patanjali. She taught Greta Garbo, Eva Gabor, and Gloria Swanson. Also, among her students were Robert Ryan, Jennifer Jones, and the violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

She was born Euginie Peterson in Riga, Latvia (May 12, 1899 - April 25, 2002). Her father was a Swedish bank director, and her mother was a Russian noblewoman. She attended drama school in Moscow as a girl, and escaped to Berlin with her mother when the Communists came to power in 1917. In Berlin, she became an actress and dancer. Her fascination with India began at 15, when she read a book by the poet Rabindranath Tagore, then some books on yoga. In 1927, she sailed for India. Under the stage name Indra Devi, she became a rising star in Indian films. She acted only one Hindi film Milap 1937 with Prithviraj Kapoor.