What does authentic yoga actually look like, and how do we know whether what we’re teaching and practicing is still connected to its roots? I’ve been thinking about this question for a long time, and I regularly run this checklist on myself—not as a way to judge or rank teachers, but as a mirror for where I stand. As an Indian yoga teacher who has spent more than a decade living and teaching in America, I know how quietly yoga can drift when we’re not paying attention. In a world where yoga has been absorbed into the wellness and content-creator economy, sincerity alone isn’t enough.
I break down the difference between authenticity and simply feeling authentic, and explore why being Indian, having a large following, or building a successful yoga business doesn’t automatically make a teacher authentic. I also talk about the ways social media and constant content creation can shape how we teach, and why a reel, webinar, or online post can never replace deep study and transmission. From there, I walk through my personal checklist for authentic yoga: knowing your lineage, developing working literacy of Hinduism and yoga’s roots, experiencing the pranic body beyond theory, studying deeply with teachers, maintaining a sadhana beyond asana, learning from primary sources, and knowing how to honestly acknowledge the limits of what you know.
Finally, I explore the importance of having a relationship with the sacred that isn’t useful or transactional, and why yoga was never meant to be purely functional. Authenticity and sincerity aren’t competing ideas—we need both. I share why I’m continually working to close the gap between the sincerity that brought me to yoga and the deeper authenticity that takes a lifetime of study, practice, discernment, and humility to cultivate.