The Yoga Inc.. Bikram Choudhary

The ‘hot yoga’ guru loses his cool

Damian WhitworthLast updated May 31 2011 12:01AM

Bikram Choudhury, the founder of ‘hot yoga’, claimsto have millions of devotees and taught a pope andcured a president. So why did he lose his cool with ourwriter?

I hold my hand up. I made a mistake. One should be wary of approaching an interviewwith preconceptions and that is what I had when I met Bikram Choudhury, one of theworld’s most famous yoga gurus. I expected to find someone who radiated calm andinner peace; a serene, humble, wise man who would guide me gently through his worldview and offer a sense of why millions of people are devoted to his brand of hot yoga. Iwanted a glimpse of the path to physical and mental wellbeing that he promises.

I certainly came away enlightened, but by the time the great yogi had showered mewith verbal abuse and thrown me out of his hotel suite I was still some distance awayfrom achieving perfect spiritual tranquillity.

It had all started so promisingly. Bikram Choudhury is the eponymous hero of the hotyoga phenomenon that has swept the globe, creating legions of devotees while dividingthe yoga world. Indian-born, he arrived in America almost 40 years ago after his gurusent him out to spread the word about the benefits of yoga. He began teaching his set of26 yoga poses on the West Coast in rooms heated to 105F.

His followers (and there are two of them sitting near me in my office) swear thatBikram yoga builds a fit and supple body, can cure all manner of physical ills andbrings peace of mind. Other yoga practitioners believe that the competitive element hestresses and the commercialisation of his brand are not true to the spirit of yoga.

During our interview he will make the extraordinary boast that “half a billion peoplehave benefited from Bikram in the past 50 years. Now 100 million people do Bikramyoga on this Earth today. Directly, indirectly, legally, illegally”. He claims to havehealed a president, travelled with a pope and worked with Nasa.

He suggests there are about 5,000 studios worldwide run by people he has trained (hiswebsite lists 550, including 16 in Britain and others on the way). He says that therecould be 20,000 “illegal” copycat studios. Even if he is exaggerating there is no doubtthat he has a huge following. Fans of Bikram yoga reportedly include Elle Macpherson,Daniel Craig, George Clooney and Andy Murray.

Not everyone in the yoga world thinks that hot yoga is good for you and I found the

31/05/2011 The ‘hot yoga’ guru loses his cool | The …

thetimes.co.uk/tto/…/article3044689.ece 1/6

prospect of twisting myself into knots in a sauna unappealing. The Fulham studio Ivisited was lined with mirrors and had a whiff of stagnant sweat. Some 40 women inbikinis and men in shorts lined up on mats. The young male teacher told me that in myfirst session I should take it easy and aim to stay in the sweltering room for the full 90minutes. He took us through the poses, which are performed in a strict order to aprecise script. It was a constant job just to mop off the sweat and I had woozy momentswhen I had to lie down and skip an exercise. But I was pleased to go the distance whilea couple of others fled.

By the time I arrive at the Grosvenor House hotel, on Park Lane, Mayfair, I am notexactly ready to dedicate my life to the Bikram way, but I am feeling positive aboutyoga and keen to meet the man behind the contortions.

I find Bikram in his suite with Olga Allon, the welcoming owner of three London HotBikram yoga studios, and Richard Brooks, her friendly PR man.

Bikram arrived this morning from Johannesburg. He is sitting with his feet up on asofa, his legs tucked under a blanket, wearing a T-shirt and a bling-tastic watchencrusted with diamonds, eating a room-service chicken sandwich and French fries. “Iam done,” he says, passing the plate to an assistant. “Half a sandwich in 24 hours.That’s my life.”

We chat about my morning session. “You pretty good shape,” he says. “You are ahealthy man so you will not feel that bad. Sleep tonight like a baby. You might behungry. You feel energised. Hell is the only way to reach Heaven.”

Born in Calcutta, Bikram began yoga at the age of 4. His teacher was Bishnu Ghosh,brother of Paramahansa Yoganda, the famous guru and author of Autobiography of aYogi. As a teenager Bikram won a national yoga contest three times and then began acareer as a weightlifter. He says yoga cured a knee injury that had threatened to stophim walking. He began teaching yoga and took to closing the windows in the Calcuttaroom to make it hotter so that students could stretch farther.

Gradually he developed the routine of 26 positions that he insists must be performed inexactly the right order with the teacher keeping rigidly to a script. “It’s the only way itworks: 99 per cent [right] is 100 per cent wrong. Lie once [you] are a liar. Lie a milliontimes, still a liar. So one little mistake means everything wrong in the biochemistry.”

His is “the hardest physical work out in the world. I make Olympic gold medallist. Imake world champion. But when they come to my class they die”. He chuckles. So whatare the goals that Bikram devotees are working towards? “You want to live longer, yes?How long you wish to live?”

“Er, 80?”

“Hundred. I will make you 100. I have proved it. Like you are still 30. That’s Bikram.That’s why all come to me.”

He is 64 and still in impressive shape. He doesn’t remember the last time he had atemperature. But there follows a strange outburst, which, in hindsight, I should have



taken as a warning, when he describes his anger at the flight attendants on the planefrom Johannesburg over their failure to turn the air conditioning down. “Leaving todayI told them: ‘You guys will never learn’. I said: ‘You will all die. Look at your fat body’. Iyelled at them, I said: ‘You are 300lb, you can’t even walk. Why do you keep this goddamn f***ing air condition? I told you three times turn it down’. ‘We did’. I said: ‘Noyou didn’t you, lie.’ You can put ten blankets doesn’t matter you inhale the cold air. Mynose closed, my throat choked.”

He explains to me that while yoga has been flourishing in India for thousands of yearshe was the first guru from his country to research “medically” how each posture affectsinternal organs. He claims to have spent ten years working with Nasa scientists onresearch into the beneficial effects of hot yoga on those with reduced bone density.Later, a Nasa spokesman tells me that this claim “keeps coming up. We are not awareof any research that Mr Choudhury has done with Nasa scientists here regarding theeffect of his brand of yoga on bone density”.

Bikram certainly tells some amazing stories about his life. He says that the reason hefirst went to America, from Japan, where he was teaching, was to treat PresidentNixon, who was meeting Prime Minister Tanaka of Japan in Hawaii. Bikram says thatNixon was suffering from phlebitis thrombosis in his left leg and that he [Bikram] wasflown in by military aircraft. “No passport, no visa, from Tokyo to Honolulu. Sevenhours later I am sitting with President Nixon. There’s all world famous doctors. Theysay [we] will have to amputate [or] he will get gangrene, he will die. I give him seventreatments in three days — he forget which one is the bad one. Who can explain this?No doctors, no scientist. God cannot explain. But I prove every single day and becauseit is a famous person it become big news.”

Tracking down records of this treatment is hard. It is well documented that Nixon wastreated for thrombosis in 1974. In his memoirs, Nixon’s personal physician JohnLungren refers to the President saying that he had suffered swelling in his leg during atrip to Hawaii and a blood clot was diagnosed. But the President’s daily diary, in whichhis day is meticulously recorded, contains no references to interactions between Nixonand Bikram during the President’s 1972 trip to Honolulu. There are no documents atthe Nixon Presidential Library or the Richard Nixon Foundation relating to a meeting.State Department records in the US National Archives contain no documents aboutarrangements to bring Bikram from Japan to Honolulu.

Critics of Bikram yoga say that it is a decent workout but by turning it into a global,profit-making brand he has lost the essence of yoga. Does it provide a fusion of themind, body and spirit? “Only Bikram get that,” Bikram insists. “Nothing works in yourlife — body, mind spirit, business, family — you come to me. Indira Gandhi my studentfrom 1956 — my godmother. Indira used to say: ‘When you go to Bikram you rebornonce again’.”

I tentatively ask about the spiritual element of yoga. “I don’t even talk that subject. Itaught Pope. Pope Paul: 1962, one month he travelled with me all over India. I neverheard in English language anybody in the world can tell me what is definition ofspiritualism. So when they talk about spirit ‘don’t waste my time’.”



The image of a teenage yogi and a pope travelling India together is an arresting one.Pope Paul VI, who was elected in 1963, did make a pilgrimage to India, but it was forthree days to Bombay in 1964. Perhaps he spent a month on the road with Bikram atsome other time. Father Theodore Macerenhas, an Indian priest in charge of the Asiadepartment at the Vatican’s Council for Culture, says that he has no knowledge of sucha trip and nor do other veteran Vatican experts I contact.

Last week The Times asked Bikram for further information about his contact withNixon, his papal journey and his Nasa research but his office said that we had not givenhim enough time to respond.

Bikram makes his money from training courses for yoga teachers who pay $7,000(£4,250) for his nine-week programme. He has also started a process of selling studiofranchises. Bikram lives in Beverley Hills, with his wife Rajashree, an Indian yogachampion, and their two children, in what is often described as a mansion, with a fleetof luxury cars, including a Rolls-Royce that he says belonged to the Queen Mother anda station wagon that belonged to George Harrison.

Yoga has made him wealthy. “Uh, not very wealthy. I don’t have any money becauseover 50 per cent of my earning I do charity all over the world. Millions of dollars ayear.”

He thinks that some of the resentment of him comes from his success and high profile.“People come to my class and tell me ‘I used to hate you.’ Why you hate me, you don’tknow me? ‘Oh, you are not a real yogi.’ What do you mean I am not a real yogi? Whatgood is the real yogi living in Himalaya cave meditating for 50 years? I live in society. Igive my whole life in this subject and I help millions of people. I am real yogi.”

I ask him what he makes of those people who have learnt from him and then set uptheir own forms of yoga. Suddenly, he flips. “I don’t like to talk the negative things. Myevery second is billion dollar. People get cancer and people die in chronic disease. Youknow who is responsible for that? The media. You guys are kind of sick people. Onlyyou talk the bad things. Why people get chronic disease? High blood pressure? Thyroidproblem and cancers and Aids? Because they constantly see and listen negative thingsthat depress people and that destroy the biochemistry. Yoga controls that.

“I don’t give a shit what the f*** people think about me. They sick people. They areidiot people, they are stupid people. I educate them. They don’t know who I am. Theyare not me. People talk bad about Jesus. So what? Muslim doesn’t like Christian. Whitepeople kill all the black people round the world. I don’t care. I only care I can keep youalive a hundred years. That’s my job. That’s why pope come to me. Presidents come tome. Whole world come to me. You came here with a negative attitude.”

I try to interject that we have talked about a lot of positive things, but he’s having noneof it. “I don’t have time to waste. I read human mind. I look at your eyes I know youmore than God knows you, your mother knows you, your father knows you. That’s myspeciality. You follow me? I know how is your stomach right now. I know how you aregoing to ask the next questions. Thats how Bikram is. You follow me?”

Err, not really. He is ranting at me from the other end of the sofa so fast now that it is



hard to keep up. He describes a medical invention he claims that he has made “sonobody will die in breast cancer in the future. That’s my creation. You can’t even thinkof it. I do something good for society. I don’t need this story. [I can] get million story aday.”

I seek to divert him by asking about Andy Murray, who reportedly has used Bikramyoga. “So interview Andy Murray. Interview the Williams sisters. I created them.Interview Kobe Bryant, they will tell you.”

He launches into a story about how, years ago, a US journalist started asking questionshe regarded as negative. “I said ‘You know what, I don’t think a fat bitch [he spits outthe words] can write a good story about me. So come to my class, lose first 60lb then I’llgive you interview’. She thinks because she’s a reporter I’m going to kiss her ass. Butshe don’t know Bikram Choudhury. Mrs Gandhi also scared of me.”

He says the reporter took 120 lessons and lost 60lb. “Then she realise who is Bikram.Because I kick her ass in my class. Jump on her. We become good friend. She write thebest story in my life and then her life change — she become another human being.”

I observe that it’s a beautiful day and suggest that we take a break and a walk over theroad to the park. “For you maybe beautiful, but you didn’t make my day. You areyoung, nice, gentleman. You should have good life. But this kind of attitude you willhave shit life.”

The photographer is sitting in the room and I ask if we can do a photograph now. “No.I’m not interested. It’s done. I don’t want you to write a story on me. I don’t need it. Idon’t like you. Have a nice day.”

As I am gathering my things he has an idea. “Do yoga for two years, come back again tome, I’ll give you interview. Then I’ll make you best writer in whole Europe.”

“See you in two years,” I say. No doubt the omniscient Bikram knows I am lying. Hisoffer is tempting but one I can resist. I would be concerned that every time I pressedmy nose down to the mat and inhaled the stale sweat of the hundreds of Bikramdisciples who had previously prostrated themselves there, I would inevitably bereminded of my meeting with their angry, egotistical and thoroughly disagreeableguru.

Click on the ‘play’ button on the image above to hear Damian’s encounterwith Bikram

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