Yoga is a time-honored and widely practiced form of exercise and relaxation for both the mind and the body. When it comes to choosing a DVD for instruction and guidance in yoga, you can ask yourself, do you want your yoga with or without goofy New Age spiritualism? If you opt for the more down-to-earth variety, a program like Yoga for Urban Living will be much better than this Introduction to Kundalini Yoga and Chanting, which falls squarely in the "goofy spiritualism" side of yoga instruction.

Let me be honest: I find it hard to take a program seriously when the instructor introduces herself as "Mantra Girl." But all preconceptions aside, how does Mantra Girl Presents an Introduction to Kundalini Yoga and Chanting stand up as an introduction to this form of yoga?

As an introductory program, not very well. There's little to no explanation of what this style of yoga is based on (other than the vague statement that they're not too concerned about posture), and Mantra Girl jumps right into chanting and exercises that involve your chakras and accessing your third eye. I have no problem with the yoga program basing itself on Indian spiritual beliefs and practices; in fact, I find it interesting. However, the feeling of this program is one of superficial adherence to the roots of Kundalini yoga. Rather than explaining the basic concepts like the "chakras" or helping the viewer understand what significance the exercises have, the program just blithely immerses the participant in them.

It doesn't help matters that some of the statements made in the program are downright goofy, like the suggestion that viewers will be able to access the "spiritual vibrations" of the mantras more effectively by chanting them in a language they don't understand. So how, exactly, did the original yogis benefit from the mantras in their own language, if understanding is such a barrier to enlightenment? Better not to even open that can of worms.

What does work reasonably well in this program are the exercises themselves. If you don't mind some flowery names for the poses, and can tune out the New Agey elements, Mantra Girl leads her group through some decent stretches and mild exercises for the arms and back. The full program runs 80 minutes, and is fairly slow-paced, with quite a long while being spent on each exercise or chant.

The DVD

Video

An Introduction to Kundalini Yoga and Chanting is presented in a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer, at the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The image is very blurry and soft, but adequate for the purposes of the workout. The text of the mantras is presented in an easy-to-read white lettering at the bottom of the screen. Colors are bright and attractive.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack falls a notch under average here. The musical portion of the soundtrack, which comes from Mantra Girl's album Truth, sounds very good. However, the portion of the track that was recorded on-site, with Mantra Girl's explanations of the moves, is substandard. The sound is flat, and there is often a hissing and crackling noise in the background.

Extras

This DVD ought to get negative stars for special features. Not only does it have none, it's missing the basic interface elements of a normal DVD. There's no menu at all: the program simply begins to play when the DVD is inserted into the player. There are also no chapters at all.

Final thoughts

Although it's billed as an introductory program, Mantra Girl Presents an Introduction to Kundalini Yoga and Chanting is very light on the instruction; it's not a good starting point for beginners. Given its New Age-style spiritual trappings, it's also not recommended to practical types or those who tend to be critical of goofy trappings around their workouts. On the other hand, if you already are familiar with Kundalini yoga, this may be a reasonable program to take a look at, since the music is pleasant and the program is relaxing. I'll mark this as a "rent it" for those who are actively looking for another yoga DVD.