How the West turned free yoga into $60 billion

Greg has a promotion interview on Monday and needs to "find his calm" by Saturday night. Leggings, a hot studio, goat yoga, beer yoga, a smart mat with an app… Claudeshwar promised not to say a word. He lasted about four minutes. 🧘‍♂️ The true story of how a free practice got a price tag: from a young monk in Chicago in 1893 to a $60-billion-a-year industry, with fair jabs at India too. And three questions to ask the next time someone sells you peace. 0:00 He spent $390 to find his calm 0:21 The calm emergency 1:58 The goat (and beer yoga) 3:10 How a free thing got a price tag 4:45 Three tricks: the gear, the gimmick, the owner 6:01 India's answer: a library and a world record 6:53 The sixty-billion-dollar stretch 8:08 Three questions before you buy calm The three questions: Is this the practice, or the packaging? What is the free version, and have I tried it yet? Would I still do this if nobody could see it? Sources: History.com on Vivekananda and the 1893 Parliament of Religions; HuffPost India and Live History India on Indra Devi's Hollywood studio; Smithsonian Magazine on the Beatles in Rishikesh (1968); CNN Money and NPR on the 2013 yoga-pants recall; Ninth Circuit, Bikram's Yoga College v. Evolation Yoga (2015); Daily Herald (2010) and Global Voices (2009) on US yoga patents and trademarks; Voice of America and Hindustan Times (2010) on India's video library of 900 poses; UN General Assembly (2014) and Guinness World Records (2015) on International Day of Yoga; Yoga Alliance and Yoga Journal, Yoga in America (2016); Fortune Business Insights and Grand View Research (2025) market estimates; lululemon FY2024 results; Merriam-Webster on "athleisure" (2016); Portland Monthly and CBS News on goat yoga (2016). Characters, animation, and voices are AI-assisted. Greg is fictional; any resemblance to your Saturday is a coincidence. Not affiliated with any brand. Not medical, financial, or legal advice. #yoga #wellness #storytime #india #animation