Editing Indra Devi (section)

==Early years==

Eugenie "Zhenya" Peterson was born on 12 May 1899 in [[Riga]] in the [[Russian Empire]] (now Latvia), to Vasili Peterson, a [[Sweden|Swedish]] bank director, and Aleksandra Labunskaya, a [[Russians|Russian]] noblewoman who acted at the Nezlobina Theatre. Eugenie was given a [[Russian Orthodox]] baptism. She went to high school in [[Saint Petersburg]], graduating with a gold medal in 1917. She briefly attended drama school in [[Moscow]]. In the [[Russian Revolution]], her father served as an army officer and went [[missing in action]] in the civil war. Eugenie and her mother escaped to Latvia as the [[Bolsheviks]] came to power in 1917, losing the family fortune; in 1920 they moved to Poland, and in 1921 to Berlin, where she became an actress and dancer.<ref>{{cite news |last=MacVean |first=Mary |title=Michelle Goldberg's book 'The Goddess Pose' paints vivid picture of yoga pioneer Indra Devi|url=http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-summer-books-goldberg-20150531-story.html |journal=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=28 May 2015 |access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref><ref name=NYT/><ref name="Witt 2016">{{cite news |last=Witt |first=Emily |author-link=Emily Witt |title=The Goddess Pose by Michelle Goldberg review – the strange story of how yoga became popular |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/27/goddess-pose-michelle-goldberg-review-yoga-popular |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=27 May 2016 |access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref>{{sfn|Elliott Goldberg|2016|pp=338-339}}{{sfn|Fedorov|2010}}

In 1926, attracted by a notice in a bookshop in [[Tallinn]], <!--Estonia, -->she went to hear [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]] at a [[Theosophical Society]] meeting in <!--a town called Oman in --> the Netherlands;{{sfn|Fedorov|2010}} his chanting of Sanskrit [[mantra]]s around a campfire had a powerful effect on her. She later said "It seemed to me, I was hearing a forgotten call, familiar, but distant. From that day everything in me turned upside down."{{sfn|Elliott Goldberg|2016|pp=338–339}}