Product Details

• Actors: Sivananda, Patanjali, Gurudev Chitrabhanu, Sraddhalu Ranade.
• Directors: Eric Wils
• Format: NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 2
• Studio: 111 Akasa
• DVD Release Date: July 5, 2007
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000TB1X6K
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,628 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

A baba is doing austerities. He has been sitting in the same circle of fire for a month, the scorching himalayan sun beating on him day after day. Yogis ponder the meaning of life as dead bodies rot in The Ganges. Ether sticks to their mortal remains...The temperature is a boiling 120 degrees Fahrenheit! It is just another day. The people of the land perform asanas (physical postures of hatha yoga), pranayama (breathing) and kriyas (acts of internal purification of organs). Children play in the water. Gurus give satsang (lectures) while the elephants give their blessings knowing the world was made too small for them. And then, as the sacred India dives deeper and deeper into the innermost recesses of the mind, it forces all to realize that there is nothing: this is the end!?!...The world of manifestations is just an illusion! Patanjali starts his "Yoga Sutras" with the aphorism:"Yoga Chittam Vritti Nirodha" (I,2). "Yoga is the complete cessation of the fluctuations of the mind". To interpret the depth of this abstract concept, Wils interviewed Ramesh Balsekar, Sraddhalu Ranade, Gurudev Chitrabhanu, Dadi Janki and several other yogis, all of them having published books on yoga. He included rare original satsangs of Swami Sivananda, founder of the Divine Life Society in 1932 at Rishikesh, Himalayas and author of over 300 books on yoga, vedanta and health, enlightenment and higher consciousness. This film will also shed light on ashtanga, meditation, samadhi and the lives of sadhus, swamis and sannyasins at Rishikesh, Tiruvannamalai, Benares and other holy places, ashrams (Ramana Maharshi ashram to name one) and yoga institutes. Shot during 6 months in "cinéma-vérité" style on 40 locations, the documentary renders the true spirit of India with cremations on the banks of The Ganges, yoga on a rope or on a mallakhamb. This film is a "must see" for the spiritual seeker who wants to enjoy the bliss of samadhi and "drink the nectar of immortality!" This is a 2-disc set, region free, 0/ NTSC. This DVD will play worldwide on PAL/ SECAM/ NTSC players. "Thread of Yoga", 88 minutes, 2006 & bonus DVD "Shadow of a Thread", 83 minutes, 2006, full-length feature with all new material. The musical score was recorded live on location.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very deep and very intense., December 26, 2007

By 

D.M.K "smart reader" (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thread of Yoga (DVD)

This movie is about India, it is far from the normal genre of movies about Yoga and India. This movie has little dialog and lots of scenes that really make you think and go inside. Its absoluetly not for the squemish as it shows a cremation from start to finish and numerous dead bodies (Agora's) It is a very deep movie and makes one think about our own mortality. It shows Inda as it actually is, and not the spiced up version, only showing the "pretty places". I would not show this movie to young childern without watching it first and making a decision about how you want to explain it to them. Overall, I am still thinking about various points and will take me a long time to digest the immense amount of material in this movie. A must for people that are serious about yoga and enlightenment.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars vacation video pretending to be a documentary, August 11, 2009

By 

Marcy Harbut - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thread of Yoga (DVD)

This movie is trying to teach something, but it's too disjointed and cheaply produced to really make any point, other than to offer glimpses of Indian daily spiritual life. I imagined the filmmakers being a couple of tourists traveling through the country with a small camera, spontaneously filming whatever they came across and then packaging it as a "documentary."

The last straw for me was a scene filmed at Kovalam Beach in Kerala of several local fisherman are pulling a giant fishing net out of the water. I actually spent a few days at that same beach in 2007. I watched that same group of fisherman bring in that net. What does this have to do with yoga? Absolutely nothing. It's just what the filmmakers happened to see while spending time in a touristy part of the country.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shock value, April 5, 2009

By 

Aloha Slim (Maui, HI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thread of Yoga (DVD)

This DVD was a big disappointment. Shock value in the footage and a weak storyline for one of the world's richest traditions. I also bought 'Origins of Yoga' at the same time and have enjoyed it very much, as it is a fine general representation of the tradition, and presents many authentic Indian yogis living today.