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The Documentary: Guru: Guru: Who knew what and when?

Guru

29/06/2021 GMT

Guru: Who knew what and when?

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Guru, Guru: Who knew what and when?

Ishleen Kaur investigates abuse allegations at a yoga organisation she once called home

Ishleen Kaur investigates allegations of abuse at a yoga organisation she once called home

For the last year, BBC journalist and passionate yoga teacher Ishleen Kaur has been investigating allegations of sexual and emotional abuse at the heart of an organisation she once called home.
 
Fellow practitioners share with her their stories of cruelty, rape and even the sexual assault of a child - but she wasn't prepared for what she uncovered next.
 
Join Ishleen on a deeply personal journey into the dark legacy which haunts Sivananda Yoga, one of the world’s most revered yoga schools.

The Documentary: Guru

An investigation into sexual abuse allegations at one of the world’s biggest yoga schools.

For more than a year, BBC journalist and passionate yoga teacher Ishleen Kaur has been investigating allegations of sexual and emotional abuse at the heart of an organisation she once thought of as family.
 
Ishleen found Sivananda yoga in 2014 during a particularly difficult time for her personally – like many of the women she would soon be interviewing.  Sivananda is more than a yoga school, it is a way of life – and Ishleen was sold. She moved to the centre in south India to complete her teacher training and when she relocated to the UK, she spent every spare hour volunteering at the London branch. She truly believed she had found her spiritual home.

Fast forward to December 2019 and like a fragile house of cards, Ishleen’s world came crashing down – because of one Facebook post.

Julie Salter, a long serving devotee of Sivananda, accused the late founder of the organisation, Swami Vishnudevananda, of repeatedly raping her.

That was the end of Ishleen’s relationship with Sivananda and the beginning of this investigation. She soon discovered that allegations of abuse inside this supposedly monastic order didn’t die with its founder.

Over the course of the next 15 months fellow practitioners shared with her their stories of cruelty, coercion, rape and even the sexual assault of a child – and alleged failings by the organisation to report and investigate.

Join Ishleen on this deeply personal journey into the dark legacy which haunts Sivananda Yoga, one of the world’s biggest and most revered yoga schools.

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