It narrates how an ancient spiritual practice in India became a global method of exercise, often with no spiritual content, by way of diverse movements including Indian nationalism, the Theosophical Society, Swami Vivekananda's coming to the west, self-publicising western yogis, Indian muscle builders, Krishnamacharya's practice in Mysore, and pioneering teachers like B. K. S. Iyengar.

In India, The Hindu found it a readable account of how an ancient path to enlightenment had become a profitable wellness industry, while the Hindustan Times considered that Shearer had an agenda to argue that western body-yoga was unrelated to Indian spiritual yoga.

They depict temple sculptures of yogis; early book illustrations, both western and from India; portraits of yoga gurus; and photographs of various practices, historic figures, and celebrities.

[1] Mihir Bose, writing in the Irish Times, adds that in India, yoga has in his lifetime gone from being a fringe activity to a widespread form of exercise.

[4] Writing in The Sunday Times, Rosamund Unwin noted that three million people practice yoga in Britain, and that a multi-billion dollar industry has grown from ancient roots in India.

[5] Tunku Varadarajan wrote in The Wall Street Journal that his wife "follows a routine advertised as yoga, performed by a woman with malleable limbs", that to his Indian eyes "look[s] nothing like the practice whose name they invoke".

"[6] Michael Neale reviewed the book for Asian Affairs journal, calling it "a fascinating survey [and] not only for practitioners of the world's burgeoning Wellness industry".

[9] The Hindu found the book readable, answering the question of how the ancient path to enlightenment turned into "a $25 billion-a-year wellness industry".

[10] In its view the opening history chapters had "a scholarly density", though after that it was a lighter read, Shearer arguing that the practice had always been an inward-looking "mind-yoga", and that the west has turned it into a fitness- or health-oriented "body-yoga".

The paper reports that Shearer told it that he took three years to write the book, cutting some 40,000 words of detailed history (such as of the Bihar School of Yoga) from the draft.

[10] The Hindustan Times stated that Shearer had an "agenda" to argue "that body-yoga as it is practised in the west does not have any basis in Indian yoga, which was more spiritual and mystical.

[11] He agreed with Mohler that the transition from ancient Indian practice to the consumerist, individualist, and celebrity-filled western varieties was full of contradictions, and that it was "certainly misappropriation".