Online yoga gurus have been around for a while. But yoga.com got a boost after people came to be confined to their homes, and gym and instructors are still not available. Using social media, these new age gurus have upped the ante.
They learn as they teach because they see the practice as a life-long evolutionary pursuit. Using their understanding of modern requirements, they’ve rejigged the way yoga is performed. What they offer is fun and contemporary, while being true to form.
Sarvesh Shashi, 27
Founder, Sarva Yoga, Mumbai Followers: 122k (Instagram)
For somebody who wanted to become a cricketer, practising and teaching yoga is quite the opposite. He’s been pursuing it since the age of seven and believes life took him in the right direction. “Yoga has changed everything and given me a purpose.
I see how it fits into, impacts and transforms people’s bodies and minds,” says the yoga guru who specialises in 25 forms of yoga, including wheel yoga, that uses a yoga wheel to improve flexibility and balance, yoga with dumbbells, rope yoga, yoga with basketball, and aerial yoga.
Travis Eliot, 42
Founder, Holistic Yoga Flow, Los Angeles Subscribers: 118,000 (YouTube)
He’s based in Los Angeles with an international following of 18,000 ardent admirers on Instagram and 118,000 subscribers on YouTube. With his chiselled good looks, Eliot could pass off as a movie star.
However, he has chosen a slower life for himself, that of a yoga guru who has mastered Power Yoga, Krishnamacharya’s Vinyasa Krama, and Yin Yoga in the past 15 years. "I’ve also studied Raja Bhakti, the art of singing devotional bhajans, Ayurveda and Mindfulness," says the co-creator of Inner Dimension TV, an online yoga and meditation streaming platform.
Many of his videos are up for free on YouTube and they’re enough for you to get into shape. People love him for the variety of online yoga programmes he offers, including Level Up 108 (a 108-day power yoga programme), Flexibility & Beyond (a form of yoga for both the mind and body), Yoga 30 for 30 (30 minutes of yoga for 30 days), and The Ultimate Yogi (a transformational yoga series with 14 classes.) For Eliot, teaching yoga is not a profession. He says it’s his dharma. “It’s like a precious diamond—multi-faceted modality addressing every dimension of who we are.
Rachel Brathen, 31
Founder, Yoga Girl, Aruba Followers: 2.1 million (Instagram)
She’s got a New York Times best-selling book under her belt called the Yoga Girl—the holy grail of all things yoga. Her studio is in Aruba but she’s made a global impact with 2.1 million followers on Insta and 76.6 k subscribers on YouTube.
Brathen has been teaching yoga for 13 years and classifies her style as free-flowing. It draws inspiration from mainly Ashtanga Yoga. "I follow a free-flowing style that includes Hatha and Ashtanga yoga. My focus is on the heart and inner work rather than a set of movements," says Brathen.
A sense of community is always prevalent in her classes. "I like to bring people out of their comfort zones and create opportunities to connect with others in the room. I also tell people to journal their practice experiences. This is my USP," she adds.
The good thing is that you don’t have to fly halfway across the world to take a class. Brathen comes to you through her website—Yogagirl.com. "I take all the classes and we also have a library of yoga and meditation sessions," she smiles. The other thing Brathen is equally passionate about is working on social justice causes such as animal rescue. She also helps women and children through her two non-profit organisations.
Nidhi Mohan Kamal, 36
Founder, NidSun Wellness, Delhi Followers: 74.3k (Instagram)
She is a food and chemical engineer who didn’t care for her specialisation as much as she did for Ashtanga Vinyasa and prenatal yoga. “I was a strength coach for 10 years before I started teaching yoga. That’s why I emphasise on this aspect a lot,” says Nidhi Mohan Kamal, who is well known for mixing traditional practice with focus drills, which help improve attention and concentration. She is also a certified strength coach in rehab for injuries and resistance training.
Namita Piparaya
Founder: Yoganama, Mumbai Followers: 33k (Instagram)
This MBA graduate worked in financial services but gave it up for yoga. Piparaya doesn’t regret that. She learnt the ropes of being a successful instructor from Delhi-based Yoga Alliance, an institute that primarily focuses on traditional yoga forms like Ashtanga, Iyengar and yin, and wears her Hatha Yoga training as a badge of pride.
"Hatha Yoga blended with modern mobility techniques is my strength. I am invested in how my students feel after practice. I design my classes to create greater mobility. I also factor in the benefits of Ayurveda," says Piparaya, who has done a course in plant-based nutrition from the Cornell University, the US, and has explored medieval healing and art history from Cambridge Summer School, the UK.
Sunaina Rekhi, 38
Founder: Sunaina Rekhi Yoga & Wellness, Mumbai Followers: 58.1k (Instagram)
With 50 million viewers on Tata Sky, 50 million subscribers on Disney+Hotsar, and 58.1k followers on Instagram, it’s clear that this feisty single mother who has been teaching yoga for 12 years is right at the top of her game.
Rekhi is a trained psychotherapist and counsellor who also undertakes mental health workshops that include yoga. That’s her USP as she feels combining psychology and yoga as a holistic wellness plan is the need of the hour. She has been curating a customised wellness series for back pain, stress and anxiety called SpineitUP.
"I have had my share of trauma from losing my father to being a single mother so I can relate to pain, both physical and emotional. I too suffer from backache, am divorced and have relocated from Africa to India. It took a toll on my health but I resurrected myself through yoga. It’s powerful," she says. She takes free yoga classes every day at noon as part of Sunaina Live on Instagram.
"Every day, I become more aware of myself. Yoga teaches you to accept where you are. It helps you change and that is at the centre of evolution," says Rekhi, who is an adventurous soul at heart. She enjoys ice-skating, but not more than yoga retreats to exotic locales like Vietnam and Bhutan.