In the Path of Modern yoga, Elliott Goldberg Shows how the sacred Discipline of Yoga was transformed in the early 20 the century into a health and fitness regimen, giving prominence to the yogic postures traditionally used only as preparatory exercises for seated meditation. He establishes that far from corrupting the sacred tradition, as some believe, this emphasis on the moving body in yoga allowed for the creation of a sacred yoga for our times: an embodied spiritual practice.

Goldberg tells this sweeping story of modern yoga through the remarkable lives and accomplishments of 11 key figures: six Indian yogis (Sri Yogendra, Swami Kuvalayananda, S. Sundaram, T. Krishnamacharya, Swami Sivananda, and B.K.S. Iyengar), and Indian bodybuilder (K.V. Iyer), a rajah (Bhavanarao Pant Pratinidhi), an American-born journalist (Loouise Morgan), an Indian diplomat ( Apa Pant), and a Russian born yogi trained nationalism movement in India and such Western trends as the physical culture movement, the commoditization of exercise, 9th century new age religion, jazz age popular entertainment, and the quest for youth and beauty – revealing the multitude of diverse influences that have shaped yoga today.