Breath of Fire: Yoga's Prosperity Gospel

I just finished watching the HBO documentary "Breath of Fire" about the history of Kundalini yoga as promoted and practiced by Yogi Bhajan, Harijiwan Singh Khalsa, and Guru Jagat. 

Beyond the stories of corruption and abuse, especially related to Yogi Bhajan and his MeToo reckoning and fallout, one big take away from the documentary is how Kundalini yoga, as practiced by these spiritual teachers/entrepreneurs/con-artists, created the yoga version of the prosperity gospel. Yoga would bring you health, happiness, and wealth. 

Breath of Fire is also, in many ways, the story of how the entire wellness industry, especially when it fuses with New Age spirituality, traffics in the prosperity gospel. As a related example of this, last year I wrote about how witchcraft is the pagan version of the prosperity gospel. And if not witchcraft proper, then the adjacent New Age practice of "manifesting" abundance. The New Age prosperity gospel belief in the "law of attraction"-- think/manifest it, and it will happen--is a spiritual thread that runs through the entire wellness industry. 

The point here is that the prosperity gospel haunts every spiritual tradition. Pagan, Western, and Eastern. Christians have their version of the prosperity gospel. Pagans have their version of the prosperity gospel. And as Breath of Fire recounts, yoga has its version. The prosperity gospel tempts the religious and spiritual-but-not-religious alike.