HBO's latest true crime docuseries Breath of Fire is another saga of a spiritual community accused of cult-like behaviors. Based on Haley Phelan's Vanity Fair article "The Second Coming of Guru Jagat," the four-part series—which premiered on October 23, 2024, and airs new episodes every Wednesday—centers on Guru Jagat, a practitioner of kundalini yoga who doc directors Hayley Pappas and Smiley Stevens have dubbed "the Elizabeth Holmes of Yoga." Throughout the 2010s, Jagat built her L.A.-based studio into an international empire that boasted several locations, adjacent e-commerce businesses, and celebrity followers including Kate Hudson, Alicia Keys, Orlando Bloom, and Russell Brand. She also allegedly fostered a cult-like, abusive environment within the organization, and eventually platformed right-wing, anti-vax, and QAnon conspiracies by the onset of the COVID pandemic.
The well-rounded cult docuseries also explores the legacy of Jagat's controversial mentor, Yogi Bhajan, the complicated culture of modern spirituality, and the "dangers of self-proclaimed gurus," per the doc's description. At the center of it all is Guru Jagat, the charismatic and controversial leader whose public profile has altered from guru girlboss to alleged cult leader, in the wake of her untimely death. Read on for a brief primer on everything to know about Guru Jagat.
She was an internationally known kundalini yoga guru.
Guru Jagat, real name Katie Griggs, was born in Colorado in 1979. According to Vanity Fair, Griggs dreamed of acting or performing onstage as a kid, and she "drifted in her early 20s, dropping out of school due to partying, then eventually getting a degree from Antioch College in Ohio." Eventually, the one-time YouTube astrologer founded the RA MA Institute for Applied Yogic Sciences and Technology, an L.A.-based studio established in 2013 that focused on spreading the practice of kundalini yoga. According to the outlet, kundalini is "characterized by intense breath work, repetitive poses, and alternative lifestyle choices, such as wearing white and eating mostly vegetarian."
The first episode of the HBO docuseries introduces some elements of Jagat's practice, including "breath of fire," an energizing breath work that one doc subject describes as a feeling similar to "taking poppers." As stated in the doc, Jagat would end her sessions with a 45-minute talk that sometimes included a "prosperity meditation," where the attendants would credit their successes, such as getting a dream job or a dream house to the yoga practice.
By the late 2010s, Jagat became a popular yoga guru and business owner thanks in part to her active Instagram presence. She hosted online classes through a subscription service, where 20,000 subscribers paid at least $19 monthly. She also started several other ventures out of RA MA, including two clothing lines: a streetwear brand and a line of "ethereal white dresses." The physical RA MA studio also expanded into multiple locations including Venice (the L.A. flagship); New York; Boulder, Colorado; and Mallorca, Spain.
Guru Jagat presented herself as a direct disciple of the controversial spiritual teacher Yogi Bhajan. She claimed that she was able to meet him in the final years of his life and that she received her spiritual name from him. However, this claim has been questioned because Bhajan died in 2004, and Guru Jagat did not start going by that name until 2013. Before then, she ran a website called Kundalini Katie, and at various points, she went by the monikers Athena Day and Katie Day, per the doc.
She's a student of Yogi Bhajan, the spiritual leader who founded Yogi Tea.
Yogi Bhajan, real name, Harbhajan Singh Khalsa, is a spiritual guru who's credited with popularizing kundalini yoga. The former customs inspector immigrated from India to the United States in the late 1960s, when, as Amanda Montell points out in Breath of Fire, "people were feeling, existentially, high and dry." He established the 3HO Foundation in L.A. and gathered hundreds of followers who lived by his teachings. Critics have accused Bhajan of inventing kundalini by pulling from other spiritual practices and Sikh teachings.
Bhajan was also a businessman who ran multiple multimillion-dollar businesses, including Yogi Tea and a private security firm. According to the doc, Bhajan's teachings were similar to the prosperity gospel, a belief that a higher power rewards the faithful with financial wealth. Over the years, his followers created businesses for "shoes, body scrubs, granola bars, essential oils," and more, per the doc. Cameron Healy, the founder of Kettle Foods, reportedly became involved in kundalini yoga in the early 1970s, investing in a successful bakery called The Golden Temple, before eventually founding the eventual kettle-chip brand in 1978.
Bhajan faced accusations of "rape, sexual misconduct, and financial malfeasance" before and after his death, per Vanity Fair. In 2020, after his former employee and lover Pamela Dyson released a memoir including several new allegations, Guru Jagat expressed support for Bhajan and promoted a video that "sought to discredit Dyson and defend Bhajan." Her stance led to a backlash that prompted her fall from grace.
Guru Jagat was accused of running a toxic workplace.
In mid-2020, Jagat's former employees Becky Lovell and Nicole Norton started the anonymous Instagram page @ramawrong, which posted evidence of Jagat instilling a culture of abuse among her employees. Per Vanity Fair, "Jagat could be abusive, irrational, and was prone to lying; she spent money like water and often came up short when it was time to pay her employees—many of whom, despite being full-time staffers with 'director' in their titles, made far below minimum wage and were asked to file as independent contractors, depriving them of benefits like health care." Anonymous employees also told Vanity Fair that Jagat allegedly supported QAnon conspiracy theories, with some accusing her husband Teg Nam—real name Austin Dunbar, a former student who was almost two decades younger—of "radicalizing" her.
Guru Jagat died in August 2021 under mysterious circumstances.
As reported by Vanity Fair, Guru Jagat died in August 2021 at the age of 41. The RA MA Institute said at the time that she had died of a pulmonary embolism following ankle surgery. Though the outlet confirmed her cause of death via her death certificate, several rumors were swirling at the time regarding what led to her death, ranging from her facing COVID complications after refusing to get vaccinated and holding maskless classes during the pandemic, to her faking her death in the wake of growing criticism against her.
