Bikram Choudhury, the Indian-raised yogi who popularized hot yoga (known to devotees as Bikram yoga), is at the forefront of the North America yoga boom and will make a rare visit to Toronto on September 5 - 6 where he will be hosting seminars at the Westin Harbor Castle. (He will also be available for media interviews at select times). Bikram is coming to town. If you don’t know the name, chances are that someone close to you does.

The founder of the worldwide Yoga College of India, his network of Bikram yoga studios has spawned the fastest-growing form of yoga today, making him the most-watched yogi on the planet.
Today his studios - more commonly known as Bikram yoga or hot yoga - represent the fastest-growing form of yoga in North America.
Famous clientele of the Beverly Hills-based yogi to the stars include the likes of Quincy Jones, Madonna and tennis star Andy Murray.
Today Bikram yoga is attributed to curing stress, blood diseases and regulating more common functions of the body. “Bikram yoga is designed to allow you to work your body and rest your mind,” said to Dana Barton-Moore, a studio owner and driving force behind Bikram’s Toronto trip. “The yoga works to strengthen your body both inside and out. It is a sequence of events that will literally change your life”.
Born in Calcutta in 1946, Bikram began yoga at the age of four with India’s most-renowned physical culturist at that time, Bishnu Ghosh, the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda. Bikram is the undisputed All India Yoga Champion and today continues the competitions in North America. He came to the United States after treating Richard Nixon while the former president was on an overseas visit. Nixon was so pleased with his treatment, he gave Bikram an open invitation to come and live in the U.S. The rest is yoga history.

I met with Choudhury, who won the National India Yoga Competition as a 13-year-old, when he recently swept through town. I first took a vigorous 90-minute class at Chicago’s Bikram Yoga in the City led by the studio’s director, Mike Frayer, though Choudhury popped in several times to assist with poses. Then Choudhury and I sat down together. Here’s an edited transcript of the interview:

Q: You designed your sequence of 26 poses almost 40 years ago. But there are 86 poses in the original sequence. Do you regret leaving any out?

A: In 1965, when I did it, I was not as much sure (that it was right) as I am now.

Q: Really? What about (the inverted yoga pose) Downward Facing Dog?

A: That’s not yoga. That’s American circus.

Q: You’re often criticized for your love of material goods.

A: I have so many choices in America; it’s home to so many good things. I’m smart enough to enjoy all the good things that are offered.

Q: It’s not very yogilike to have lots of stuff.

A: Why not? There’s nothing wrong with material things as long as you don’t lie, cheat and steal.

Q: How much is that worth? (I point to his Piaget watch).

A: $58,000. A student gave it to me. (He pauses.) Let me ask you, what is the worth of one human life? It’s priceless. I give that life to people. Next to that, what is a watch? Having doesn’t mean anything unless you know how to use it. My job is to pick up the good of the East and the good of the West. I don’t want to starve to death in India, and I don’t want to be a billionaire living in a mental hospital in the U.S. Maintaining spirituality and humanism are the keys to success. It’s a balance.

Q: Why are you so strict with your teachers?

A: In India we say an empty barn is much better than one full of naughty cows.

I control my kingdom like a gangster. (He laughs.) It’s the only way it works. In America your biggest problem is you have a second choice. So you have an abuse of choices and too much freedom. It’s like a loaded gun in a kid’s hand. I just bring India here to you. It works only one way.

Q: But people have been doing yoga for centuries before Bikram yoga came along. It seemed to be working for people.

A: Up to a point. I used to teach 17 people in one day. Now 50 million people are doing Bikram around the globe. Could I do that? A horse can carry one. A 747 can carry 500 people. I created 6,000 yoga teachers all over the world.

If everyone does yoga, we have a better life. No drugs, no crime or alcohol.

In India, we have no Prozac, no crime. Why? We have the philosophy.

We know when to put on the brake. You build the best country in the world, the best science, art, sports and business. At the end of the day, you’re not happy. What good is that? Michael Moore told me he wants to get started in yoga. Can you help him?

Q:

A: (Choudhury smiles.) Oh yes. I like Michael Moore.

Q: You’ve created a lot of controversy by copyrighting your sequence of yoga moves.

A: Who cares?

Q: Do you think Bikram yoga is cheapened because it’s franchised?

A: Not at all. It’s more disciplined, people are more believing. My investment has been protected.

Q: How many Rolls-Royces do you have?

A: I don’t know. 35? I give every staff member of mine a car, something like a Jeep Cherokee. I have 17 vans.

Q: Are you generous?

A: You have to ask them! (He laughs.) I am more than generous. I take care of people like I am their own father and mother. That’s a key to my success.

I take care of people, and they take care of me.

That’s yoga.

Q: Can you demonstrate your favorite pose?

A: (He smiles and stands up.) I’m the best in the world (at triangle pose).

It’s the most difficult posture we do in the beginning sequence.

Q: Why do you call yoga teachers “clowns”?

A: Because they are clowns.

Circus clowns. They completely (expletive) up yoga. They crucified hatha yoga in America. There is no yoga called kundalini, power, vinyasa, dog yoga.

We follow 4,400 years of Patanjali’s “The Yoga Sutra.” There are eight kinds of yoga — karma, hatha, raja, vedanta, bhakti, mantra, jnana and laya. What the hell is vinyasa? And Iyengar school (which uses props) looks like a Santa Monica sex shop.

You don’t need those things to do yoga.

They make so many stupid things here (in America). I am teaching the exact same postures as my guru (Bishnu Ghosh) taught me.

Q: Can kids do Bikram yoga?

A: Why not? They might do 20 minutes, then come out. They should not do the standing postures.

With everyone doing yoga, we don’t need a Defense Department. All the money into guns. We are not civilized. We are a totally (expletive) up society.

Q: Any parting thoughts?

A: The body is a temple, the finest machine in the world. It’s so sensitive, but if you treat it nasty for too long, of course it will backfire.

Q: What if your guru was wrong?

A: Then the whole world is wrong. That’s an abstract question. What are they eating for breakfast on Jupiter? My guru’s way treats each part of the organ according to the problem — respiratory, circulatory, spinal or nervous system. The 26 postures use 500 organs and help whether you have a problem or not.

Why is it right? I prove it every single day of my life around the globe.

Q: Is it safe for everyone?

A: Most of the students in my classes are people who got injured in other classes.

“The whole class is one big brainwashing session — washing out bad habits and old patterns that keep you from experiencing mental peace, happiness and a satisfaction in living,” Choudhury wrote in his latest book, “Bikram Yoga” (Collins, $24.95).

If you deviate from the Bikram or “hot” yoga routine, perhaps lifting into an unauthorized down dog or sipping some water during a pose, you’ll be gently reprimanded by the teacher. This is no place for independent thinkers.

Choices, are, after all, what get us in trouble, Choudhury often says. When people have choices, they get spoiled or take the wrong road. When you have no choice — like when your Bikram instructor tells you to do something — the only way is obviously the right way.

“America’s biggest problem is too much freedom,” he said, during a brief stop last week at one of his franchised studios in Chicago, Bikram Yoga in the City. “It’s like putting a loaded gun in a child’s hand. Yoga only works one way with yoga mats.”

That’s why the colorful and self-promoting Choudhury, known for training celebrities, restoring Rolls-Royces and wearing Speedos and Rolex watches, had his 26-posture sequence copyrighted in 1979, a move that rankled fellow yogis who argued that a 5,000-year-old tradition could not be owned.

And that’s why Choudhury, who was born in Calcutta and now lives the American dream in Beverly Hills, began calling his fellow yoga teachers “circus clowns” even though he often sounds like a carnival barker himself. Americans “have crucified Hatha yoga,” he said. “What the hell is Vinyasa, Power or Kundalini yoga? There is no such thing.”

Instead, Choudhury believes the whole world should be practicing Bikram yoga, because the postures are taught exactly as he was taught by his guru.

“But what if your guru was wrong?” I asked.

“Then the world is wrong,” he said, smiling.

On some days, I can see why Choudhury’s tightly controlled empire of 500 certified yoga studios and 6,000 yoga teachers is growing, because the structured routine is exactly what I crave. I know I will sweat when I walk into a Bikram studio, whether it’s in Scotland or Naperville. I know the teacher will tell me to “lock my leg like a lamppost” because the dialogue is scripted. And I know I will feel clear-headed and energized afterward.

But Bikram’s one-size-fits-all yoga has several weaknesses. For starters, “Bikram’s approach plays to the American belief that if it hurts, and it’s sweaty, you’ve done something grand,” observed a yoga teacher friend.

And finally, the yoga classes I like best — and the ones I keep coming back to — are the ones that reflect the teacher’s creativity and personality. That’s missing in Bikram, where, like McDonald’s, the product is standardized so it can be mass marketed.

Yoga flourished for 5,000 years before Bikram offered up another choice. Try it, then explore the other options the yoga world has to offer.

Moreover, yoga is a dynamic practice that should change to meet your needs. Some days I want more core and upper body work; some days my body wants to flow or generate its own heat. With Bikram, you’re not reacting to your own internal cues; you’re on automatic pilot.

In Bikram, the most important pose of the whole class — final relaxation — is a joke. Students bolt out of the room 30 seconds after the end of yoga class.

Bikram Yoga, also known as Hot Yoga, is a style of yoga developed by Bikram Choudhury and a Los Angeles, California based company[1]. Bikram Yoga is ideally practiced in a room heated to 105°F (40.5°C) with a humidity of 40%. Classes are guided by specific dialogue including 26 postures and two breathing exercises. Classes last approximately 90-minutes. Bikram Yoga is also known as Hot Yoga’ because it is performed in a room heated to 95 to 105 degrees. Developed by Bikram Choudhury, this style of yoga focuses on twenty-six postures, or asanas, which are performed in a set series that warms and stretches the muscles, ligaments and tendons in the order in which they should be stretched. Each yoga pose is usually performed twice and then held for a certain amount of time. A typical Bikram yoga session begins from Standing Postures then moves to the Backbends, Forward Bends, and Twists, with the poses accompanied by the breath of fire, or Kapalabhati Breath.

Beginners may take Bikram yoga classes.Choudhury currently lives in Beverly Hills and teaches at his self-founded Bikram’s Yoga College of India in Los Angeles. Before emigrating to the United States, Bikram was trained at the Bishnu Ghosh school in Calcutta, India.[2]. Controversially, Bikram holds a U.S.

Bikram is a very physical and intense form of yoga which, when combined with the hot temperatures, results in a tough workout. The heat not only replicates the temperature of India, yoga’s birthplace, it also helps to loosen the muscles and produce sweat which helps to cleanse the body of toxins. The asanas move fresh blood through the entire body and each organ, restoring health to the body’s system along with proper weight, muscle tone and a sense of well-being.

With regular practice, Bikram yoga can help to remove chronic pain and disease symptoms from the body.copyright on his yoga, and yoga instructors must undergo a paid training and certification process to teach it.[3] Unlike most yoga studios, Bikram yoga is a franchised business. There are numerous Bikram Yoga studios around the world, including Austin, San Francisco, London, Paris and Tokyo.

Bikram Yoga Table of Contents

Benefits of Bikram Yoga

What to wear

Standing Poses (Note: All the poses are repeated twice)

Sitting Up Poses

• Head to Knee Pose - Janushirasana with Paschimotthanasana *
• Spine Twisting Pose - Ardha-Matsyendrasana

Breathing - Kapalbhati in Vajrasana

• Blowing in Firm Pose

Relaxation

• Dead Pose - Savasana

• Standing Deep Breathing Pose *
• Half Moon Pose and hands to Feet - Ardha-Chandrasana and Pada-Hastasana
• Awkward Pose - Utkatasana *
• Eagle Pose - Garurasana *
• Standing Head to Knee Pose - Dandayamana-Janushirasana *
• Standing Bow Pulling Pose - Dandayamana-Dhanurasana *
• Balancing Stick Pose - Tuladandasana *
• Wind Removing Pose *
• Sit-up - Pavanamuktasana
• Cobra Pose - Bhujangasana
• Locust Pose - Salabhasana *
• Full Locust Pose - Poorna-Salabhasana
• Bow Pose - Dhanurasana
• Fixed Firm Pose - Supta-Vajrasana
• Half Tortoise Pose - Ardha-Kurmasana *
• Camel Pose - Ustrasana *
• Rabbit Pose - Sasangasana *
• Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose - Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Paschimotthanasana
• Triangle Pose - Trikanasana *
• Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose - Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Janushirasana *
• Tree Pose - Tadasana *
• Toe Stand Pose - PadangustasanaOn the Floor
•  Dead Body - Savasana