Yoga has been stolen, rebranded, and sold back to the world — without a single credit to the civilisation that produced it. Part 2 of the Agama Lineages series turns to the urgent question of cultural conservation, examining how knowledge systems from tantra, yoga, and sacred music are being commercialised, stripped of their source, and repackaged as Bikram Yoga or “mindful wellness” while their original guardians are actively discredited.
Sivashree Skandaprasad — a practitioner from a traditional Smartha family now teaching abhangas to children through the Vanam project — shares how sustained sadhana in music transformed her from an individual-focused practitioner into someone with a deep sense of civilisational responsibility.
The talk raises a critical structural question: there are 92 Agamas, each with its own unique form of yoga — a universe of practice almost entirely unknown to global audiences. Rather than seeing this as loss, the speakers frame it as the greatest untapped opportunity for genuine spiritual diplomacy, if the sources are credited and the lineages are preserved.

About the Speakers:
Ācārya Dr Sthaneshwar Timalsina from Nepal is the founder of the Vimarsha Foundation. Trained with the sarvādhikāra-sarvasāmrājya dīkṣā, he has received academic and philological training from Sampurnananda Sanskrit University in Varanasi, and from Martin Luther University in Germany, where he acquired his PhD. While working on his dissertation, Dr Timalsina taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently the Endowed Chair of Indic Studies at Stony Brook University, New York, in the Department of Asian & Asian American Studies.

Vidushi Sivasri Skandaprasad is an Indian musician and dancer, known for her contributions to Carnatic music, Bharatanatyam, and the visual arts. Coming from a family of renowned dancers and musicians, she is the founder of Ahuti, an organisation dedicated to promoting spiritual growth, artistic excellence, and social transformation through the teachings of Sanatana Dharma.

Prantik Gupta, a dedicated Shri Vidya Sadhak, belongs to the Shakta Parampara.