she could use to cure others: Ibid., p. 50; Apostolli, Indra Devi, p. 280.
They must always avoid sectarianism: Devi, Sai Baba and Sai Yoga, p. 51.
“Doesn’t matter”: Ibid., p. 54.
They refused to sit separately: “India Will Be Learning Experience: Yoko Ono,” DNA India, January 12, 2012.
“In India you have to be a guru”: David Sheff, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), p. 129.
“He has a high smooth voice”: Sandweiss, Sai Baba, p. 40.
“a great bringer of the word”: Ibid., p. 42.
“I now wonder why”: Ibid., pp. 44–47.
“For two years we met”: Dennis Gersten, “Holy Madness in Healing,” Psychology Today, March/April 1998.
As a Yoga Journal writer described Sai Yoga: Pagés Ruiz, “Krishnamacharya’s Legacy.”
“It was Truth that turned the world upside down”: Tal Brooke, Lord of the Air: Tales of a Modern Antichrist (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1990), pp. 212–13.
“Call me by any name”: Tulsi Srinivas, Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism through the Sathya Sai Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), pp. 81–84.
“Thatt vas turrific”: Brooke, Lord of the Air, p. 213.
“Too long”: Ibid.
“Indra Devi just now tell me”: Ibid., p. 214.
“of things I had neither said nor done”: Devi, Sai Baba and Sai Yoga, p. 80.
For the moment: Ibid., p. 81.
“my friend and companion”: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, pp. 175–76.
As she said her last good-byes: Ibid., p. 176.
“fundamental virtues”: Ibid., p. 72.
“spirited away to his home”: Quoted in Barbara Betteridge, “In Memoriam: Sigfrid Knauer,” Anthroposophical Society in America (newsletter), Spring 1985.
“Who wants to do a watermelon fast?”: Interview with Bettina Biggart.
When Knauer got worse: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, p. 181.
“There gathered around him”: Excerpt from a report by Nancy and Gordon Poer, Anthroposophical Society in America (newsletter), Spring 1985.
Without Rosita: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, pp. 178–79.
“For some reason known only to the angel”: Betteridge, “In Memoriam: Sigfrid Knauer.”
“She was so sweet throughout”: Interview with Paul O’Brien.
“I could never get her”: Ibid.
“One day she went out”: Letter from the Crusade for Light Foundation signed by Shama Calhoun, no date, in author’s possession.
“all huddled together”: Ibid.
“because [the money] went straight to take care”: Interview with Bettina Biggart.
“only the first phase”: Letter for the Crusade for Light Foundation signed by Patt Garland, January 1980.
“That’s the way she was”: Interview with Bettina Biggart.
He told his wife he couldn’t imagine: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, p. 183.
“It wasn’t like she was ever going to be sitting”: Interview with Paul O’Brien.
“One time Baba said”: Interview with Bettina Biggart.
In her memoirs, she acknowledges: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, p. 185.
“I do not understand”: Roberto Díaz Herrera, Mataji Indra Devi: La dama del yoga en Occidente (Panama City, Panama: Editorial Portobelo, Colección Pequeño Formato, Superación Personal, 1994), pp. 9–10.
“What comes out”: Harvey Cox, Turning East: Why Americans Look to the Orient for Spirituality—and What That Search Can Mean to the West (New York: Touchstone, 1977), p. 140.
CHAPTER 16
“I was caught in his net”: English manuscript of Conny Larsson’s memoir “Bakom clownens mask: sanningar, sekter och sex,” provided to me privately by the author.
“She somehow talked to me”: Interview with Conny Larsson.
“That was in fact the triggering point”: Ibid.
“felt as though”: Brooke, Lord of the Air, p. 336.
“A sovereign hand”: Ibid., p. 340.
“She explained that”: English manuscript of Conny Larsson’s memoir “Bakom clownens mask: sanningar, sekter och sex,” provided to me privately by the author.
“Many souls on this”: Ram Das Awle, “Sai Baba and Sex—A Clear View,” from the website Sai Baba—A Clear View, http://www.saibaba-aclearview.com/, accessed July 22, 2013.
“[I]t’s important to understand”: Ibid.
“He could go out and murder someone”: BBC News, The Secret Swami, aired June 17, 2004, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOjk2NpKMFM, accessed September 10, 2014.
“He was totally illiterate”…“Nooooo problem!”: Interview with Paul O’Brien.
Speaking through an interpreter: Biographical notes in Indra Devi’s papers, provided by the Fundación Indra Devi, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Now she’s like his new best friend”: Interview with Paul O’Brien.
Devi adored the ashram’s atmosphere: Ibid.
One of the lesser revelations: Brooke, Lord of the Air, p. 336.
Tigrett—who made: BBC, The Secret Swami, aired June 17, 2004.
This would be difficult: Biographical notes in Indra Devi’s papers, provided by the Fundación Indra Devi, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Perhaps it is the country’s”: D. M. Siytangco, “Ceylonese Swami Here,” Manila Today, January 5, 1983.
Devi was embraced: Biographical notes in Indra Devi’s papers, provided by the Fundación Indra Devi, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“There was a great deal”: Shirley MacLaine, Going Within, e-book (New York: Bantam, 2010), n.p.
“Orbito was left with a bit of blood on his fingers”: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, pp. 199–200.
“She had to realize”: Interview with Bettina Biggart.
“That was the biggest mistake”: Ibid.
“I try not to be subject”: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, pp. 199–200.
“dying”: Ibid., p. 200.
CHAPTER 17
“There were words whose”: Timothy Wilson, “Starmakers: Dictators, Songwriters, and the Negotiation of Censorship in the Argentine Dirty War,” A Contracorriente 6, no. 1 (Fall 2008).
Knowing he was about: Viviana Gorbato, Vote Fama: El strip-tease de la clase política argentina (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 2000), pp. 248–49.
“And that”: Interview with Piero de Benedictis.
Argentineans have always: Michelle Goldberg, “In Treatment: In Argentina, Psychoanalysis Is as Common as Malbec,” Tablet, November 11, 2010.
In all her eighty-three years: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, pp. 188–89.
“Of course”: Biographical notes found in Indra Devi papers, Fundación Indra Devi, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“[Y]ou have a responsibility”: Virginia Lee, “Indra Devi: The First Lady of Yoga,” Yoga Journal, January/February 1984.
“She loved it!”: Interview with Piero.
She’d been inspired: Paul Brunton, A Search in Secret Egypt (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1984), pp. 68–77.
Shama was deeply moved: Interview with Shama Calhoun.
“He was like her pet project”: Ibid.
The trip was a joy: Javier Avena, “Su hija de 90 años,” Noticias, November 26, 1989.
“Will I be there”: Interview with Calhoun.
During that time: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, p. 201.
“My life with Indra Devi?”: Interview with Calhoun.
“It was the only time”: Ibid.
“I had the possibility”: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, p. 202.
“adventure and independence”: Ibid., pp. 216–17.
“She is restless”: “Exclusivo: A los 86 años recien complidos, Inda Devi inició sus clases de yoga en nuestro país,” photocopied clip from Indra Devi’s files, publication unknown.
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According to Devi, Francesca: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, p. 216.
At that moment: David Lifar, Las enseñanzas de Indra Devi (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana S.A., 2006), pp. 111–12; Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, pp. 218–23.
CHAPTER 18
He took tranquilizers: Kevin Buckley, Panama (New York: Touchstone, 1992), p. 70.
“something I really”: Roberto Díaz Herrera, Mataji Indra Devi: La dama del yoga en Occidente (Panama City, Panama: Editorial Portobelo, Colección Pequeño Formato, Superación Personal, 1994), p. 5.
“an enlightened piece”: Ibid., p. 1.
“At that moment”: Interview with Roberto Díaz Herrera.
“Díaz Herrera had a silvery”: Frederick Kempe, Divorcing the Dictator: America’s Bungled Affair with Noriega (London: I. B. Tauris and Co. Ltd.), p. 150.
“I didn’t realize you”: Interview with Shama Calhoun.
Somehow, he figured: Roberto Díaz Herrera, Panamá: Mucho más que Noriega (Caracas, Venezuela: Cromotip, 1988), p. 69.
“My girlfriend opens”: Interview with Calhoun.
He called her: Andrés Oppenheimer, “Odd Man Out,” Miami Herald, August 13, 1989.
“Oh my God, who are you?”: Interviews with Díaz Herrera and Calhoun.
“What good is it”: Sandweiss, Sai Baba, pp. 15–16.
“A little session of meditation”: Oppenheimer, “Odd Man Out.”
“He put me up”: Interview with Calhoun.
“Noriega is your enemy”: Interviews with Díaz Herrera and Calhoun.
“like military intelligence”: Interview with Díaz Herrera.
One day, she rang: Ibid.
Many years before: Devi, Sai Baba and Sai Yoga, p. 42.
“Rama, Rama, Rama”: Oppenheimer, “Odd Man Out.”
“What do I do”: Interview with Díaz Herrera.
“You’re going to be bored”: Ibid.
“Who does Roberto”: Ibid.
“When a peasant wants”: R. K. Karanjia, God Lives in India (Bangalore, India: Sai Towers Publishing, 2008), p. 22.
“The moment you give”: Oppenheimer, “Odd Man Out.”
“Trilha showed Noriega”: Kempe, Divorcing the Dictator, p. 210.
“You want to begin a total”: Ibid., p. 211.
“my plan was to make Panama explode”: Interview with Díaz Herrera.
Finally, he admitted: Buckley, Panama, p. 77.
“The Godfather’s”: Kempe, Divorcing the Dictator, p. 212.
One of these screeds referred: Dan Williams, “Rumors Cover Flying Saucers, Governmental Gossip: ‘Lip Radio’ Tops Charts in Panama,” Los Angeles Times, July 20, 1987.
“political baptism”: Kempe, Divorcing the Dictator, p. 213.
“It’s like watching”: P. J. O’Rourke, Holidays in Hell, e-book (New York: Grove Press, 2007), n.p.
More than fifteen hundred protesters: Kempe, Divorcing the Dictator, p. 225; Buckley, Panama, p. 93.
“In the good old days”: Oppenheimer, “Odd Man Out.”
Priests came to serve: José de Córdoba, “Colonel at the Heart of Panama Uprising Credits Guru in India,” Wall Street Journal, June 12, 1987.
“sits cross-legged”: Stephen Kinzer, “Panama Journal: In the Country of the Occult, Power to the Spirits,” New York Times, June 19, 1987.
“I have no doubt”: De Córdoba, “Colonel at the Heart of Panama Uprising Credits Guru in India.”
“He was like a frightened rabbit”: Interview with Shama.
The colonel: Buckley, Panama, p. 98.
“For me, Indra clarified”: Interview with Díaz Herrera.
CHAPTER 19
“above everything”: Interview with Piero.
“Like some sort of millennial nightclub”: Penelope Green, “Modern Yoga: Om to the Beat,” New York Times, March 15, 1998.
Four years before: Kerry Hannon, “Yoga Goes Mainstream,” U.S. News & World Report, May 8, 1994.
That number has since quintupled: “Yoga Journal Releases 2012 Yoga in America Market Study,” December 6, 2012. http://www.yogajournal.com/article/press-releases/yoga-journal-releases-2012-yoga-in-america-market-study/.
When she taught sun salutations: Devi, Renew Your Life through Yoga, p. 164.
“I was disappointed to find”: K. Pattabhi Jois, “Ashtanga vs. Power Yoga,” Yoga Journal, November/December 1995.
Today in the West: “Yoga Journal Releases 2012 Yoga in America Market Study.”
Devi’s instructions for pregnant women: Devi, Renew Your Life through Yoga, pp. 226–27.
“Even a tradition like hatha yoga”: Quoted in Anne Cushman, “The New Yoga,” Yoga Journal, January/February 2000.
“I love yoga”: Ibid.
“Now that women”: Bonnie Tucker, “Around the World in a Lifetime,” Buenos Aires Herald, May 13, 1993.
“perceives a great imbalance”: Connie Mississippi, “Yoga for Longevity,” Whole Life Times, July 1993.
Saying that it was a “gross injustice”: Indra Devi, “An Alternative to Abortion,” from Indra Devi’s papers, provided by the Fundación Indra Devi, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Yoga, which was officially taboo”: Sophia Kishkovsky, “Russians Embrace Yoga, If They Have the Money,” New York Times, September 14, 2010.
“Suddenly, I hear somebody say”: Interview with Tao Porchon-Lynch.
“absolute cold-blooded murder”: BBC, The Secret Swami.
“She said there was a crime”: Interview with Díaz Herrera.
“She was totally in the wrong”: Interview with Bettina Biggart.
“I don’t know!”: Devi, Una mujer de tres siglos, p. 17.
“If you want to rest”: Interview with Díaz Herrera.
“She was out of it then”: Interview with Bettina Biggart.
“went in peace”: “First Lady of Yoga Dies at 102,” Reuters; Fabio Madeo, “Como conocí a Mataji,” Instituto de Yoga, http://www.argen-digital.com.ar/sites/yogamataji/comoconociamataji.xhtml, accessed August 15, 2013.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michelle Goldberg is a journalist and the author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, a New York Times best seller that was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World. A senior contributing writer at The Nation, she has also written pieces for The New Yorker, the New York Times, Newsweek, The New Republic, Glamour, and many other publications. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.
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