Kundalini yoga fans were stunned by the death of Guru Jagat in 2021. The entrepreneur, who had turned to teaching yoga after working as a YouTube astrologer, died following complications associated with an ankle surgery.
Watch Breath of Fire on HBO MAX.
As shared by Newsweek, in her last post shared on Instagram, Jagat told her followers she had experienced a “sudden cardiac event {pulmonary embolism}” following the procedure. Newsweek also reported that on Aug. 1. her yoga studio wrote on its own Instagram page, “Guru Jagat left her body on Sunday, August 1, 2021 at 9:07 pm PDT in Los Angeles. She was surrounded by her family and her teacher. We will be forever changed by the legacy she created.”
The docuseries Breath of Life is an HBO Original series that explores Jagat’s journey as a kundalini yoga teacher. Co-director Hayley Pappas told Vanity Fair, “There’s an element of snark and playfulness and humor, and yet we knew that we were also going to go to pretty deep and dark places.”
It was important for the team to consider the “human story” behind Jagat’s life, Pappas continued. “We wanted to be able to relate and connect with our characters and our subjects—and not say, ‘How could someone join that?’” she added.
The docuseries combines interviews with people who know Jagat as well as archival footage of the teacher speaking and leading classes to paint a picture of her life and story. Here is what we know about Breath of Life.
Who was Guru Jagat?
Guru Jagat, born Katie Griggs, was a yoga instructor and self-described “serial entrepreneur” who taught yoga to celebrities like Alicia Keys and Kate Hudson. Jagat was well-known as a YouTube astrologer under her birth name before she renamed herself Guru Jagat and began to focus on kundalini yoga.
Jagat opened her first RA MA Institute for Applied Yogic Science and Technology in the LA neighborhood of Venice in 2013 before she added institutes in New York and Mallorca, Spain. In addition to her studio, Jagat also founded RA MA TV, RA MA records, and clothing/lifestyle brands Guru Jagat Collection and Robotic Disaster.
What is Breath of Fire about?
The docuseries Breath of Fire spans the decades that marked Griggs’ transformation from YouTuber to yoga professional Guru Jagat. The series’ tagline reads, “Breath of Fire offers a multi-decade examination of the corruption within Kundalini yoga and a portrait of a misguided guru and master manipulator, spotlighting the uneasy nexus of the American dream, self-invention, and fanatical ideology.”
Jagat studied under Yogi Bhajan. Pappas also explained to Vanity Fair that the relationship between Bhajan and Jagat was problematic, as was their work. “We see in this series [that] Yogi Bhajan coopted a Sikh faith,” she said. “Guru Jagat coopted feminism. Why did it take so many years for somebody to poke holes in the fact that it’s a white woman wearing a turban?”
When does Breath of Fire come out?
The series premieres on Oct. 29, 2024, at 9:00 p.m. ET on HBO Max.
What is Kundalini yoga?
Like a lot of yoga practices, kundalini combines breathwork, chanting, singing, and movement. Kundalini is more spiritual than other types of yoga practice and the structure of the practice is based on Tantra teachings.