BREATH OF FIRE —— A FOUR PART DOC-SERIES FOR HBO.
premieres oct 23, 2024.
Directed by Smiley Stevens and Hayley Pappas.
This eye-opening four-part docuseries chronicles the shocking secret history of Kundalini yoga in the United States and the evolution of one of its most prominent leaders. A millennial YouTube astrologer rose to fame as Guru Jagat in 2013 after claiming to be the anointed successor of the late Yogi Bhajan, a Punjabi Sikh who created and popularized a version of Kundalini in America in 1969. Leveraging social media and feminism, Guru Jagat attracted a growing base of followers, including celebrities and fee-paying devotees, with promises of spiritual and physical fulfillment. Despite investigations uncovering decades of abuse and misogyny, Guru Jagat publicly defended Yogi Bhajan’s legacy and began espousing wild conspiracy theories. Spotlighting the uneasy nexus of the American dream, self-invention, and fanatical ideology, Breath of Fire paints a multi-decade examination of the corruption within Kundalini yoga and a portrait of a well-intentioned seeker turned into a misguided guru and master manipulator.