In this immensely educational 50-minute documentary by Al Jazeera English, Swedish-born Indian news correspondent and yoga teacher Bhanu Bhatnagar visits studios, fitness and spiritual centers, and residences across England, America, and India to interview various influential personalities for their thoughts on the nature and commoditization of modern day yoga.
Bhatnagar samples through the rainbow of forms the centuries-old art and science of yoga has come to take, like Olympic-style yoga asana competitions, boxing yoga, voga, rave yoga, and Christian yoga, while engaging in in-depth discussions with advocates of yoga in its more authentic state, to answer the question, “Who owns yoga?” and if current efforts to spread it are doing it justice.
Learn what notable figures like Stewart Gilchrist, Tara Stiles, Diamond Dallas Page, Sri Dharma Mittra, Jivamukti yoga founders David Life and Sharon Gannon, Patanjali Yogpeeth’s Swami Ramdev, and Isha Foundation’s Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev have to say about the commercialization and appropriation, as well as the teaching and practice of the physical and spiritual tradition of yoga in this day and age.
Credit: Al Jazeera English on YouTube