Nischala Joy Devi is a published author and teacher of

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

Life

Nischala Joy Devi was trained in conventional

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

and is an international advocate for Yoga and its subtle uses for spiritual growth as well as physical and mental healing. She was a monastic disciple of

Swami Satchidananda Satchidananda Saraswati (; 22 December 1914 – 19 August 2002), born C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder and known as Swami Satchidananda, was an Indian yoga guru and religious teacher, who gained following in the West. He founded his own brand of Integra ...

, creator of

Integral Yoga Integral yoga, sometimes also called supramental yoga, is the yoga-based philosophy and practice of Sri Aurobindo and ''The Mother'' (Mirra Alfassa). Central to ''Integral yoga'' is the idea that Spirit manifests itself in a process of involu ...

, for over 20 years. She especially approved of the fact that Satchidananda was trained in and continued

Swami Sivananda Swami Sivananda Saraswati (; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963), also called Swami Sivananda, was a Modern yoga gurus, yoga guru, a Hinduism, Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of ''Vedanta''. Sivananda was born in Pattamadai, in the Ti ...

's tradition of initiating women as monks ( sanyassins) and treating women as equals, despite much criticism from other leading Hindus. The pioneer of

modern yoga Modern yoga is a wide range of yoga practices with differing purposes, encompassing in its various forms yoga philosophy derived from the Vedas, asana, physical postures derived from Hatha yoga, Bhaktiyoga, devotional and tantra-based practices, ...

Indra Devi Eugenie Peterson (, ; 12 May 1899 – 25 April 2002), known as Indra Devi, was a pioneering teacher of yoga as exercise, and an early disciple of the "father of modern yoga", Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. She went to India in her twenties, bec ...

, one of the few female disciples of

Krishnamacharya Tirumala Krishnamacharya (18 November 1888 – 28 February 1989) was an Indian yoga as exercise, yoga teacher, ayurvedic healer and scholar. He is seen as one of the most important gurus of modern yoga, and is often called "Father of Modern ...

, assisted her in leaving the ashram to develop her own approach. She cofounded the Commonweal Cancer Help Program and created the yoga section of the Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease. She then went on to develop and teach a training program in working with cancer and cardiac patients for yoga teachers and health workers called "Yoga of the Heart". She has stated that "yoga is not a treatment, it is a consciousness that allows health, balance, and joy to be our companions throughout our entire life's journey. She created Healing Relationships, a training meant to enhance intuition and assessment skills for yoga therapists. She serves on the Advisory Council for the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

Works

* 2000 ''The Healing Path of Yoga: Time-Honored Wisdom and Scientifically Proven Methods that Alleviate Stress, Open Your Heart, and Enrich your Life''.

Three Rivers Press Three Rivers Press is the trade paperback imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. It publishes original paperback titles as well as paperback reprints of books issued initially in hardcover by the other Crown imprin ...

. * 2007 ''The Secret Power Of Yoga: A Woman's Guide to the Heart and Spirit of the Yoga Sutras''.

. Also published in 2007 as an audiobook by Mercury Multimedia. * 2019 ''The Namaste Effect: Expressing Universal Love Through the Chakras''. Lotus Flower Books. Also published in 2019 as an audiobook by Mercury Multimedia.

Reception

Devi has been featured in books about yoga including Sara Cryer's ''The Four Stages of Yoga: How to Lead a Fulfilling Life''; Victoria Bailey's ''Sharing Sadhana: Insights and Inspiration for a Personal Yoga Practice''; Timothy McCall's ''Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing''; Janice Gates's ''Yogini: The Power of Women in Yoga''; and Carrie Schneider's ''American Yoga: The Paths and Practices of America's Greatest Yoga Masters''.

References

Sources

External links