All language subtitles for Breath.of.Fire.S01E01-eng

Reality is a trance.

Your reality is a trance
of your own making.

Or someone else's making

who doesn't have
your greatest good in mind.

I come from a certain lineage,
the Kundalini Yoga technology,

and this lineage, part of
the whole basis of the lineage, is that

if you know how to hypnotize yourself,

then no one can ever hypnotize you.

That's power. That's sovereignty.

Inhale.

Hi, I'm Guru Jagat,
and I wanna introduce you

to the power and technology
of Kundalini Yoga and meditation.

Leader, teacher, and revolutionary,

Guru Jagat is one of the faces
of true wellness

and spirituality in the modern age.

The American has built
a multi-million-dollar business

as a yoga master to the stars.

Alicia Keys is an active member.

Kate Hudson's a fan, too, by the way.

"Harper's Bazaar" calls Guru Jagat
Kundalini Yoga's first crossover star.

And she speaks at Harvard Divinity School.

My teacher, Yogi Bhajan,
says that the business and money

are the biggest spiritual practices.

She's part of this lineage.

She was personally singled out
by Yogi Bhajan

to carry on this mantle of

spiritual ascendancy.

My teacher, Yogi Bhajan,
the master of Kundalini Yoga,

gave every ounce of his day and night

to delivering this canon of teachings

for bringing us out of
this dark age on this planet.

Yogi Bhajan was largely credited
with bringing Kundalini Yoga to the West.

He's a spiritual leader, a yoga guru,

a business person.

He started Yogi Tea.

The various businesses are bringing in
hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

"The New York Times" calls him

the boss of worlds
spiritual and capitalistic.

It was like Yogi Bhajan was reincarnated
into this wild child

female form, and she was just on a roll,

but a bigger roll.

She rolled it out, honey.

She had a business school,

a podcast, a festival, two clothing lines.

She's the CEO of seven
international companies.

She's like the Kim Kardashian
of the spiritual world.

There's a million and one yoga teachers
out in the world anyway, and it's like

she's just another yoga teacher, right?

I never understood

why there weren't more questions

about her being a white woman in a turban.

Things that we saw in public

were just the tip of the iceberg.

Sleep deprivation,
nutritional deprivation.

Allegations of assault, battery, grooming.

You never knew how
dangerous it's gonna get.

And then I learned about the things

that children were put through.

And I was like,
these people are so much worse

than I ever could've imagined.

That got brutal. That got brutal.

The FBI is watching.
Their phones are being tapped.

This is when things start
to go off the rails

in a really major way.

He was going to create a new race

of superior beings.

I'm not even kidding.

I wish I was.

If you recite this mantra,
it will cause harm

to stop your enemies.

He created this empire of abuse,

and she was terrified of that.

I got the sense that she was
playing with power,

and she'd gone down a wrong path.

It felt so spiritual.

It was just like, nope. Cut her off.

Get her out. It's done.

Alright, everybody's phone's quiet?
Everyone good to go?

Sound okay?

- Alright, rolling! You good, Alan?
- Yep, all set.

- Excuse me.
- Oh, I'm sorry.

Take one, mark.

I...

was first introduced to Kundalini Yoga...

Wait, I wanna start over.

I had lived in LA

for about five years
before I started Kundalini.

I just was about to turn 30 at the time,

so I was going through all, like, the...

slightly more than quarter-life crisis,

and I was reevaluating everything
and what I wanted to do in my life.

I moved to Los Angeles in 2012,

and I was just, like,
at a really low point,

like, in my mid-20s.

I had been bouncing around

different jobs and communities, and, like,

I wasn't really, like,
finding my place in the world.

And I was definitely, like,
seeking something.

I was dealing with a lot of grief.

There were six people in my life

who died, one after the other,
friends, family members.

I just didn't know what to do
with what I was experiencing,

and I was seeking relief.

I just wanted more purpose in my life.
I wanted to do yoga every day.

I wanted to, like, help people
and shape people's lives,

and I wanted to be on a more
spiritual, purposeful path.

In 2015, I had a breakup,

and I was like,
"You know, I've never left this town.

"I did not ever go away to college.
I always worked out here in the Hamptons,

and I'm 33, and I just don't feel like
I'm gonna find anyone here."

And I was really stepping
into being a woman.

I was into taking care of my body
and wanted to create art,

and I wanted to really find myself.

So, I wound up going out to California.

I definitely read
a lot of spiritual books.

I had taken psychedelics.

I went to Burning Man-type festivals.

I just felt like

I didn't really connect
with a lot of the, like,

spiritual scenes that were available.

Most millennials are not satisfied

by traditional mainstream religion.

They're looking for a sort
of bespoke spiritual routine

that might not involve a God whatsoever,

but that still give you
that sense of ritual,

that sense of community,
and make you feel like

you're connected to something
larger than yourself.

You want more to life
than just work, right?

You want experiences.

You want your creative endeavors

to be imbued with meaning
and something greater.

You want a spiritual component.

I was craving something deeper.
I wanted a community. I wanted belonging.

I wanted to fit in
and feel like I had a purpose.

There was a Kundalini Yoga studio
that was right by my apartment,

and one of the classes that I took
was Guru Jagat's.

She would roll up,
and, like, she has her entourage.

People are, like, clapping
and moving all their stuff away

so she can walk through.

She says hi to everybody.

They were taking her photos
like a celebrity

just walked in the room type vibe.

It's very exciting. You're like,

"Wow, all these people are here,

"like this must be a big deal.

"What was I missing out on?

Like, okay."

We're getting bigger every day.

We're going live to people
in 165 countries right now,

and we're gonna be livestreaming all week

because we think this is
a very important time on the planet.

RA MA was like the watering hole

for Los Angeles influencers.

Everybody knows everybody,

so it's like a community.
It's like a family.

The RA MA Institute felt like a hub of

all these artists

and creators coming to practice yoga.

You can smell sweat.

There's a smell of incense
as soon as you walk in.

Palo santo burning.

It just felt like very high vibe.

It felt very kind of mystical and exotic.

I was going to Harry Potter school.

I was gonna be sorted,

put on the hat.

This was it, you know?

And then, we start doing some yoga
and going into these meditations.

I'd never seen anything like it.

Take a deep inhale.

I wanna teach you a breath.
It's called breath of fire.

It's an instantaneous energizer.

It changes your metabolism,
and it focuses your mind.

And, like, the feeling I got from it

was almost like taking, like, poppers.

Like that feeling you get
when you, like, stand up

and, like, you get the head rush.

But it would last all day.

Russell Brand said,
"Hatha yoga is like pot,

and Kundalini is like crack."

Try the exercise.
It's three minutes of your life.

You'll feel different afterwards.

You wear the white to expand your aura.

You wear the turban
to cover your crown chakra.

Everybody's wearing white,
and you want to fit in,

so you're kinda doing all the
same things that they're doing.

We were doing this intense meditation,

and I almost passed out.

And she said,
"Oh, go, go! Go to the light!

You're getting higher and higher!"

She's like,
"You guys are a room of pure souls.

Like, I could just feel
the angels around us."

And I was super high, so I associated,
like, being high with...

just I'm in touch with spirit.

Like, I'm getting closer to God.

It did. Yeah.

And then, she would lecture
for 45 minutes.

I just wanna talk quickly about
this Aquarian business training.

It's about activating success
or prosperity in a whole new way.

I want you, when you decide
to take your last breath

as a master yogi,
whenever that is, I want you...

"Victory."

She would be talking about
a prosperity meditation,

and she would say, like,
"Is anyone having, like, success stories?"

And people would say,

"I just manifested my dream house."

Or they would say, like,
"I have my dream job,"

or like, "I have...
I got a check out of nowhere."

And, like, of course, like,
when you're hearing those stories,

you're like, "Oh, my God, I want that."

And everybody credited their success
with the meditations.

She made me feel like I was
getting insider secrets

on this, like, spiritual world,

and that I was special,

and, like, you're meant to be here.

Like, this is not...
this doesn't happen by accident.

Like, this is gonna change your life.

90% of our energy
is being utilized on our insecurity

and the management of our insecurity.

So, we're lucky if we have about 10% left
to kind of fiddle around with.

Right? And no wonder
we're so exhausted.

The first minute and a half
of listening to Guru Jagat speak,

I was like, "Whoa.

Wow, this is my teacher."

She is very charismatic.

She has a way of talking to people
where it feels like she's down to earth

and she understands you,

but she's not gonna give you
bullshit kinda thing.

So, you'll see all sorts of
different levels of fitness,

all the way to my level of fitness,

which is I'm just gonna
sit here in my nightgown.

Tell you what to do.

Alright? So, there's lots of options.
You'll have all sorts of modifications.

She had like that Regina George vibe.

That is the ugliest
effing skirt I've ever seen.

Love ya.

She was just like no filter.

You could be having
a 13th-dimensional orgasm,

and I hope you are.

There are such things.

So, she'll swear.

Bitch out.

Shitting. Bullshit. Shit.

She'll have funny jokes.

Usually by lunch,
you wanna punch each other in the face?

Sat nam.

You felt like you knew her.

And you also felt like
she was just this essence.

And so, to be able to experience that,

it was almost like, oh, my gosh,
I can't believe this is happening!

In a moment where normally,
you would get angry,

where normally you would forget
that there's other humans

that are just trying their best,

you have enough energy,
you have enough wherewithal,

you have enough...

breath in that moment

to make a different choice.
And in that moment,

that is what I would call
a Kundalini awakening.

Sat nam,
and welcome to Kundalini Yoga 101.

Kundalini is an ancient yogic technology.

Kundalini is a practice,

a lifestyle, and a path
to spiritual enlightenment

made up of a set of exercises
we call kriyas.

Each kriya is made up of movement,

chanting, and breath work,

and is a specific exercise

designed for a specific outcome.

Struggling with stress and anxiety?
There's a kriya for that.

Looking to overcome addiction?

There's a kriya for that.

Want to find love?
A better job? Make more money?

There's a kriya for that.

In Kundalini, we wear all white

to expand our aura by exactly one foot.

We cover our head to focus
the energy of the third eye.

And we abstain from
recreational drugs and alcohol.

In Kundalini,
we get high on our own supply.

And with just one 60-second kriya,

you will change the way you feel.

I want to be more creative.
I wanted to meet my soulmate.

I wanted to make more money.

I wanted to be part of it.

I would do Guru Jagat's classes every day.

Her vision of the world
just really, really spoke to me,

and I really believed that she had

the strength and the fortitude
to, like, pull it off.

Most of the time,
we're conceiving of ourselves

in ways that are very negative,
but you can start to create a self-concept

that is very positive,
and that really allows you

to start to see yourself differently.

People who sought her counsel felt that

she was kind and gentle.

Guru Jagat saved my life.

I was in an emotionally
abusive relationship

and Guru Jagat helped me

break that cycle
and start to heal my life.

This was an institute
that was going to change

the consciousness of the next generation.

We were going to be scientists.

We were gonna be engineers and artists,
singers, Grammy winners.

There were teachers winning a Grammy.

And the Grammy goes to White Sun.

- Thank you. Thank you.
- Thank you.

One of the things
I'm most proud about

is the caliber of creators,
manifesters, movers, shakers,

people who are doing
real things in the world,

who come here and who are part
of our global community.

It's amazing.

I believed in her.

I felt like she could make
the world a better place.

My understanding was
Yogi Bhajan teachings said

if you got just 2%
of the world's population

to practice this technology
and to raise their consciousness,

the frequency of the planet would change,

and the Earth would heal.

People would heal. There would be

pain, trauma heals.

It was really inspiring.

The Master Yogi Bhajan's dharma was

to deliver these teachings,
this massive canon of teachings,

and it is now our job to activate
the codes and the secrets and the powers

and the potentials of
the teachings that he gave us.

I only briefly was with Yogi Bhajan
in the several years before he died,

and I was lucky to just be in his aura.

And then, he sent me to Yoga West,
his yoga studio in Los Angeles,

and he sent me there

specifically to teach
the women's teachings.

And little did I know
that it has become the...

one of the deepest parts
of my dharma, as he did know.

Yogi Bhajan was a Punjabi Sikh
who is largely credited with bringing

Kundalini Yoga to the West.

And he would often say, "This meditation,
it won't be understood right now,

but I have to get this on video,
so that the future generations have this."

He gave everything he possibly could.

He gave his physical body
and every ounce of his day

and night to delivering
this canon of teachings

that, as he said,
"Those who hold these teachings

"and the powers of these teachings
will rule the Earth

for 5,000 years to come."

Yogi Bhajan was born
in modern-day Pakistan

as Harbhajan Singh Puri.

And he comes to the United States
in late 1968.

He begins to teach a form of yoga
that he calls Kundalini Yoga.

A form of yoga that he claims
is ancient, powerful,

and previously untaught in the open.

He got here,
he saw a bunch of drugged-out hippies

who were basically
a very powerful generation

of young and revolutionary thinkers

that were messing
themselves up with drugs.

So, he came to America

to give real spiritual teachings

to these young people
who were hungry for them.

Good.

Ready.

I had grown up
in the post-World War II years.

The keeping-up-with-the-Joneses
and all that whole mentality.

As a female,

coming of age,
you were supposed to be...

sexy, but not have sex.

Get an education,
but don't be too serious about it.

And so, I went to college,

but I left because it was
kind of meaningless.

I'd been hitchhiking for 18 months

with my high school girlfriend
through Europe,

the United States, and North Africa.

And I was extremely interested
in health and personal growth.

We had been in North Africa
for six months,

both of us experimenting with hashish.

When I was 18 years old,

my parents literally
threw me out of the house.

They were very upset that
I was playing rock-n-roll

because I dropped out of college to do it.

There was this amazing musical community

around Washington, DC.

That was all very exciting,

but it wasn't quite enough for me.

The times were changing.

When Martin Luther King was shot,
I was driving in a car,

and I really...

thought, you know,
the world was gonna end.

Like, these people who were speaking

to hope and movement and possibility

were being killed.

You know, the culture was sick.

We'd been through
just so much horrible stuff.

We were so disillusioned
with American culture

and with the way the world was going,

and we wanted to make a change.
We wanted things to be different.

The '60s and 2010s have a lot in common.

We have these social movements
that have caused such unrest.

People were feeling, existentially,
high and dry.

And those are the perfect conditions
to inspire someone

to look to alternative groups.

The end of the '60s,
all of these Indian gurus

were showing up in America.
Swami Satchidananda,

AC Bhaktivedanta from the Hare Krishnas,

and the Shivanandas and,
you know, Integral Yoga Institute,

and this and that and this and that.

There were just dozens
and dozens of them showing up,

and hundreds of thousands of young people

were exploring
the Eastern spiritual traditions,

which we had been completely unaware of.

So, when Yogi Bhajan came from India,

I looked at him, he looked at me,

and I literally felt sideways.

I went out of my body.
I'd never had an experience like this.

There's some energy here!
There's something really amazing going on.

I don't know what it is,
but it's powerful.

He carried a

mesmerizing,

very forceful,

very large energy field.

Does that sound too nutty?

Okay.

There's this incredible
mystique about this man.

He was like charismatic to a degree
I'd never experienced before.

He, himself, was physically imposing.

I felt a little, you know, shy,

you know, in how he was like
a dignitary to me.

One of the things that was so appealing

about what Yogi Bhajan
taught in those early days

was long hair was good,
live naturally, eat vegetarian food,

equality, men and women are equal.

There should be no caste system.
There's no high, there's no low.

We're all on the same plane.

All of these things
that I had already embraced.

So, when Yogi Bhajan comes
in preaching all that stuff,

Well, that's the religion I want!
That made complete sense to me.

By the end of 1969,

Yogi Bhajan created 3HO,
the Healthy Happy Holy Organization

as a means to spread Kundalini Yoga
throughout the world.

That was the beginning.
People should be healthy, happy, holy.

Soon, there is a center of 3HO life
in Los Angeles,

based on Preuss Road
and Robertson Boulevard.

Many of his students look up
to him and want to emulate him,

and some of them inquire about
what it means to be a Sikh.

And I started learning
how to speak and read Punjabi

and learned the music of the Sikhs,

and learned how to play sitar
and learned how to play the tablas.

The incorporation of the Sikh faith
made us not just hippies doing yoga,

but we were, we were Sikhs.

Sikhi is an over 500-year-old religion

that began in India,

and it was created
to have a sense of equality.

It's really a faith that a lot
of people in the United States

didn't know about,
especially in the tail end

of the '60s, early '70s.

I think they're

two different, different worlds.

I wouldn't even kind of put them
in the same sentence, really.

I think the conflation of
the two is deeply problematic.

I think that Yogi Bhajan saw the value
in his white practitioners, and he saw

that they would legitimize him

and also attract more followers.

Unlike a lot of the other yogis and swamis

and spiritual teachers
in America during that time,

Yogi Bhajan could very clearly
and powerfully differentiate himself

by being a religious leader,
not just a spiritual teacher.

My poor mother said to me,

"You are in a cult!" And I'm like,
"I'm not in a cult! I'm, like, a Sikh!

It's a recognized world religion.
It's not a cult."

I don't think I talked to her
for two years after that.

Because there was such a lack
of knowledge about the faith,

and because, esthetically, here is a man

wearing a turban, with a beard,
you know, and these white flowing robes,

it was very easy for him to center himself
and create a pseudo-religion,

where he was the head.

In 1973,

Yogi Bhajan creates his own religion,
Sikh Dharma Incorporated.

Subsequently, he can gain
all the tax benefits

and business advantages

that religions are afforded
in the United States.

And so, Yogi Bhajan begins

sending students out
throughout the United States.

There was a core group in LA,
and then those teachers were sent out.

One of Yogi Bhajan students
taught at the Woodstock Festival.

The Kundalini nerve.
It's called the nerve of awareness.

You can't dissect it.

It's a current that runs up
the center of your spine.

You can see glimpses of this
in the iconic documentary about Woodstock.

He's teaching from the stage

to hundreds of thousands
of people at once.

And then keep breathing
as fast as you can.

He trained teachers,
teachers were training teachers,

and we were spreading out,
like, geometrically.

We lived together in an ashram.

Which was basically a yoga commune.

Pretty soon, there were 50,

and then 100 ashrams around the country.

And then, they were in Europe.

And then, we had Japan
and started an ashram there.

And so, it grew.

We were, like, 22 years old
with this incredible amount of energy.

I mean, this was it.

We were convinced that
this was our way of life.

We brought that much conviction to it.

We were insane, but it was so much fun.

There are certain events
throughout the year

that become special to 3HO members.

Yogi Bhajan's birthday,

winter solstice,

Survival Camp,

Women's Camp,

and summer solstice.

A large gathering of the community

that takes place in
the mountains of New Mexico.

It was wonderful to be
in a group of people

who were chanting the name of God
and trying to elevate their consciousness.

I mean, what could be more heavenly?

And it still carries on today.

I mean, one of the things that's
very funny about Kundalini Yoga,

just like on a side note,
there's a lot of accouterments.

And so, in summer solstice,
they bring that all.

It's an opportunity for people
to come from all over the country

and gather at the home of Yogi Bhajan.

This is Guru Jagat, and we're here
at Summer Solstice Sadhana 2014.

This week that we spend here
at Summer Solstice

is such a powerful time.

It's kinda like the Burning Man of 3HO.

The intention of this gathering,
like Burning Man,

is that all of these tribes
and all of these people

from different places
in the world, come together

in an attempt to create
a new type of society.

We're just going into the stratosphere

with this incredible experience

of joy and togetherness
and this shared sense of purpose.

It was unbelievable.

Nothing compared to that experience.

As the community grew,
they had to make a living for themselves.

Here, you have a group of people
dressed in all white with turbans,

so you can't really go,
like, apply for a job.

What Yogi Bhajan offered in his teachings

was a yogic version
of the prosperity gospel.

That a spiritual person
could generate wealth and prosperity,

and that having money,

having things was a sign
that you were doing it right.

The philosophy was,
"We are householder yogis.

We're not ascetics."

So, they really align
with American values.

They raise their children,

they're hard-working, and they created
businesses for themselves.

We said, well,
let's have our own restaurant.

So, we started
the Golden Temple restaurant,

which was hugely successful.

There was bulk granola. At one point,

there was Trader Joe's
private label contract.

Yogi Tea.

Yogi Tea is sold at
Whole Foods, Trader Joe's,

most grocery stores.

It makes tens of millions
of dollars a year.

Members started companies
for shoes,

body scrubs, granola bars.

The Brass Bed Factory, essential oils,
the Kettle Chip guy.

And also Akal Security.

Akal Security was a security company

that did both commercial
and government contracts.

They guard immigration detention centers,

NASA facilities,

federal buildings in Washington,

and embassies under construction

from Ecuador to Iraq.

Hundreds of millions
of dollars in gross sales

and large airport contracts,
US Marshall contracts.

He took a real interest in Akal Security.

I mean, because his military background,
he loved the spirit of it.

He loved the name.
And I gave the whole company,

all the shares of stock to Sikh Dharma.

So, it technically became,
you know, he was the big kahuna.

In order to effectively
control this growing empire,

Yogi Bhajan gives little bits of power
to some of his loyal students,

and they, in turn, govern on his behalf.

All these titles were just BS,

but they gave us this sense of identity

and purpose and structure
and hierarchy and authority.

Those who are closest
to Yogi Bhajan and 3HO

didn't just have access to him
and didn't just have measures of power,

but they were usually depicted
as being spiritually advanced.

More along the path
because they were closer to him,

because they had been chosen
for these roles.

Sometime in the 1970s,
he formed the Secretariat,

and he installed all these women
in positions of authority and power.

The secretaries had positions
of responsibility

and respect within the community.

And Yogi Bhajan had secretaries
from the very beginning

until the end of his life.

Yogi Bhajan put a number of us,

staff of his personal secretaries,

in positions like the president
of all the companies,

the executive director of the companies,
the chief of staff.

He appointed me as the treasurer
of Golden Temple and Yogi Tea Enterprises.

I was in the business meetings

and the strategy meetings
and the budget meetings,

and I would review
all the financial reports

and summarize them for Yogi Bhajan
and the board of directors.

These were people who were
very devoted to him.

He had an organizational structure,

and he needed his secretaries
to help run the organization.

That seemed reasonable enough.
That they were all women?

Yeah, it raised a lot of suspicions.

But not so much for me.
I was way too innocent.

Being a secretary
was all-encompassing.

They were not married.
You give your devotion

and your service
to your spiritual teacher.

The very first one was Premka.

I was just further and further drawn in
and involved, and soon,

you know, gave up my job
and just worked and lived in his home.

They were always dressed their best

because they were traveling
with him all over the world.

And he met with the Pope,
he met with Dalai Lama,

he met with Bill Clinton.
I think he met Bush.

It was a very honored position,
and I felt blessed

that my daughter was on the staff.

It was never a dull moment,

and it was all gonna be part of,
like, my future, and I was growing it.

I had no reason to think otherwise.

Yogi Bhajan focused so much
on the women's teachings

and, like, had the women's camp,
and Guru Jagat came along

and sort of ran with this, like,
feminist narrative.

When Yogi Bhajan came to America,

he looked around, and he was like,

"This is a place where women are free,
but we call the women chicks?"

He said, "The woman's an eagle."

All these things had been
going on in 3HO for decades,

but she just kind of gave it a new twist.

Guru Jagat was the new yoga guru in town,

touting kind of a lean-in feminism.

Yogi Bhajan committed 40 years
of intensive training

to the training
of the women of the future.

Because, you know, in this room alone,

almost every woman has either
been severely sexually harassed,

sexually abused, or raped.

Those are the statistics.

So, that affects the whole society
because the women create

the baseline frequency of the future.

And it just so happened to coincide

with this woman's movement.

Rage against violence against women!

Hey-hey! Ho-ho!

Women were always more focused

on they're pushing feminism,
they're pushing boss-babe woman as CEO.

Like, you can do it. It's all about you.

What we're creating
through this work

and continuing the lineage
of Yogi Bhajan's teachings

is we're creating a whole new archetype
of feminine leadership.

And that leadership comes
from a space of radiant,

embodied, powerful,

poised, consolidated energy.

And when you start to cultivate that,

the whole universe will bow at your feet.

She loved Marianne Williamson.

She loved Cardi B.

Like a badass,

a badass bitch who's not
gonna take any shit,

and, like, that was the vibe.

I think girls went to her class

and thought, "Oh, I wanna be like that!"

I think they saw that
she was really confident,

That she spoke her mind,
and that I think many women

were interested in seeing
a woman be like that

and seeing a woman in this position.

And so when, I first heard about her,

I was immediately struck by her,
as a personality

and someone that would make a great,
you know, subject for an interview.

My name is Hayley Phelan.
I'm a journalist.

And I wrote a story for "Vanity Fair"
about Guru Jagat,

and Kundalini.

Technology, technology,
technology, technology.

If you make content that they can consume,

they can experience
whatever you're offering.

Around this time,

I followed a lot of
their social media accounts,

and I saw a job posting
for the Guru Jagat team.

She had found out I was a bookkeeper.
Could I help her?

I said, "Wow, I'll get close to her.
I'll be in the inner circle."

The opportunity to work for somebody
who's spiritually inclined,

who is changing people's lives.

It just seemed like
the perfect path forward.

I started working for them within days,
like, of the interview.

I was ready to go.

To me, like, joining them at that time,

it was like getting on
the ground floor of something

that was about to take off.

Like, it was like the next rocket ship
of the wellness scene.

She was this very charismatic,
big personality.

Everything's fun.

We're over at her house,
like, we're getting Cafe Gratitude.

We're hanging out all day long.
We're cracking jokes.

Life is a party.

We would have all these creative meetings,

and she had all these ideas,

and I was so excited
to take action on them

and bring them to life.

We were launching something
every single day.

There was Reality Riffing.

Basically, it was like a podcast,
but they would film it.

I think this is, like, a major...

- Yes! Yes!
- Threat to the patriarchy!

The Guru Jagat Collection.
Robotic Disaster.

That's her streetwear.

Nourish Cleanse.
RA MA Records.

There's RA MA Festival.

Ra Ma Business School was
our best-selling course.

RA MA TV! Oh, my God!

She was ahead of her time
with adapting yoga

for the technology age. I mean,

she really understood
the importance of virtual classes.

Business of Fashion reported that

just for their Ra Ma TV subscription,
at its peak,

they were pulling in about
$380,000 a month.

Guru Jagat was really
becoming an influencer,

which was a new thing
because Instagram was new.

Yogi Bhajan said that the only
person who can heal you is you.

I think it was her
social media presence

that turned it into

a globally accessible spiritual practice.

You have RA MA Venice,
which is the flagship studio.

Then, she opened RA MA New York.

RA MA Institute Boulder.

And RA MA Mallorca.

And everything had
its own marketing campaign.

And so, my fourth month there,
she was like,

"Alright, you're the director
of integrated marketing."

And I was like, "Awesome!"

She had glowing profiles in "Vogue."

She was interviewed by "Harper's Bazaar,"

and featured in outlets
from the "LA Times" to the BBC.

Guru Jagat isn't your typical yoga guru.

The American has built
a multi-million-dollar business

as a yoga master to the stars.

Her book "Invincible Living"

was published by Harper,

and things were on the rise.

She's like the queen of Kundalini.
Like, she's Kundalini royalty.

The It Girl of wellness, of spirituality.
She was climbing that ladder.

I loved the way

she described the future.
It had this, like,

tech utopian, like, optimism to it.

All of us can have true enlightenment

by making a choice
to choose something bigger

than your own neurotic thoughts.

And in that moment,
you've created a revolution.

Are we ready to create a revolution?

She took Kundalini Yoga by Yogi Bhajan,

and then repackaged it
for a new generation.

Guru Jagat talked about Ra Ma
like it was a startup.

She would say, "Instagram sold
to Facebook for $1 billion,

and they only had 12 employees?"

Yogi Bhajan said, "If you wanna
find your true purpose,

"whatever's in front of you,
do it so well,

"so exquisitely, with all of your heart

that the universe can't help
but surrender to you."

We were going to be a global brand,
and she reminded us

all the time that we were part of
this global expansion.

We were gonna hit it. It was coming,
and we were gonna be riding her coattails,

being yogis on carpets,

meditating in the celestial skies
and earning tons of money.

My teacher told me, Yogi Bhajan told me,
that Kundalini Yoga centers,

you know, the centers where people
can come and do real, practical,

spiritual, and evolutionary work,
these should be on every corner.

I actually went to a few classes,

and what struck me immediately
was the way that

all of the people around me
were looking at her

with these big eyes open,

really worshiping this woman.

I mean, pretty immediately,
my Spidey senses were really going.

Everyone was wearing white,

and they had head wraps or turbans.

There was the elements of Sikhism
that were being misrepresented,

and I think used to give
this sense of spirituality to a class,

but they weren't really in the spirit
of the actual Sikh faith.

I think, as a Sikh, it was alarming,

and it was heartbreaking,
seeing our scriptures,

our prayers, used as decoration.

And even the article of faith of a turban.
Right? It's seen as a sacred symbol.

And for her to wear it
with her hair sticking out

is bastardizing the article of faith.

Then, of course, there was
a huge picture of Yogi Bhajan

behind Guru Jagat,

and she talked about
Yogi Bhajan all the time,

as if they had just had
a phone call the night before.

Yogi Bhajan gives me mandates

on what to do next, basically,

and it's very helpful because I'm,
you know, I'm very independent,

so it's nice to have some good direction.

She believed that she had been

spiritually handed this lineage.

She believed that she was
Yogi Bhajan's chosen heir,

but, unfortunately,
it was not based on fact.

I was fortunate enough that Yogi Bhajan

was just in the last couple
of years on the earth.

So, I went straight out to Española
and did, got some time with him.

I only briefly was with Yogi Bhajan
in the several years before he died.

And he sent me over
to Yoga West, and he said,

"You're gonna teach these women's classes
five days a week."

She said she got to New Mexico
because she just had to meet Yogi Bhajan

while he was still alive,

and she said she spent time with him.

He was passing out names, and he, like,

whispered in her ear
that her name was Guru Jagat.

That's the name
that the master gave to me.

And a lot of people think
I gave it to myself.

That's some wacky shit
right there. Like...

What year?

Oh, okay.

Yeah, I mean, I think...

There's no way that
she could've gotten that name

directly from Yogi Bhajan.

Yogi Bhajan died in 2004,

and she didn't start going
by Guru Jagat until 2012.

I knew her as Kundalini Katie,
and she had

these astrology videos
that she was releasing weekly.

You know, I caught it when she
had the Athena Day emails.

I'm so, so thrilled
to have Katie Day here.

I met her through my friend Jennifer.

She was born Katie Griggs.

And, you know, it's funny.
I think, who was Guru Jagat?

I mean, I think that's kind of
the question of all of this.

I think Guru Jagat had everyone
under her spell,

much like how Yogi Bhajan
had everyone under his spell.

I think one of the best ways
to understand

Guru Jagat and RA MA,
in comparison to Yogi Bhajan and 3HO,

is like a photocopy of a counterfeit bill.

By counterfeit bill, I mean

all of Yogi Bhajan's claims about himself,

the origins of his teachings,
their effectiveness are simply not true.

Everything about him is a fraud.

Reality is a trance.

Your reality is a trance
of your own making,

or someone else's making

who doesn't have
your greatest good in mind.