This article looks at Jñāna, a digital platform founded by Mehr Singh that offers masterclasses in yoga, meditation and Eastern philosophy through Indian teachers. It focuses on how the platform emerged from her experience with the global wellness industry and a search for more grounded, context-driven approaches to these practices.
For entrepreneur Mehr Singh the founder of Jñāna, the idea began during their time living abroad, first at UCLA and later in London while completing a master’s in documentary filmmaking. Much of her exposure to yoga during this period came from outside India, through a global wellness industry that shaped how these practices were taught and consumed. After moving into the health tech space as Head of Marketing in 2023, they began noticing clear gaps in the way yoga and related practices were being presented.
At the same time, she was dealing with burnout and questioning the direction of her work and daily life. After trying Western-based therapy multiple times, she remained unconvinced, which led her to spend more time reading Vedantic and Buddhist philosophy and to begin a pranayama practice to manage anxiety and engage with larger existential questions. Through this, Mehr began to recognise that the issue besides representation, but also about how these systems of knowledge were being interpreted and shared.
Conceived as a response to that, Jñāna is a digital platform that offers pre-recorded masterclasses in mind, body, and breath by India’s leading teachers. It describes itself as the world’s first Eastern Wisdom App, built on the understanding that much of the wisdom widely accessed today comes from the East but rarely credits or features native teachers. The platform is built by a fully Indian team, with yoga, meditation, Buddhist, and philosophical practitioners contributing and delivering the classes.
The app is positioned as a space for those interested in feeling better and exploring their inner world through Eastern knowledge and its practices. Its approach is shaped by a broader observation about the present, where many people feel a lack of meaning and purpose, and a disconnect from themselves, others, and their surroundings. The platform focuses on philosophy as a core part of its offering, working with Indic thought to explore questions around suffering and how it can be understood.
"Jñāna isn’t built around perfect bodies, streaks, performance, or daily optimisation. It is built around knowledge and practices from some of India’s leading teachers, shared in ways that honour context as much as practice. Many of the classes aren’t meant to be repeated endlessly. They are meant to shift a lens, open curiosity, and hopefully give you tools you can take into everyday life."Mehr Singh
The way Jñāna is presented also comes from the founder’s background in filmmaking and design. There is a focus on how these practices are experienced visually, with the intention of situating them within their original history. The platform currently hosts around 200 classes, all filmed by the founder along with cinematographer Piyush Gwari, and edited in-house to keep the process lean.
Jñāna continues to operate as a fully bootstrapped platform, growing at a pace that allows close collaboration with its teachers. Its direction remains centred on making traditional knowledge accessible in a way that stays connected to its context, while offering a structured way for people to engage with it in their everyday lives.
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