Bikram Choudhury: 'Hell is the only way to reach the heavens'

MANILA, Philippines - Bikram Yoga studios throughout Manila shut down on Friday to give practitioners the rare opportunity to meet and listen to the man who developed the method himself, Bikram Choudhury.

“We have five Bikram schools here with so many students practicing for so many years,” he says. “I’d love to meet them and I’m sure — I hope — you guys want to meet me, too.”

Students practicing Bikram Yoga number in the thousands in the Philippines and grow by dozens more each week, but up until the guru’s seminar on his painstakingly developed sequence of Hatha Yoga at the AIM Conference Center, few have had the chance to learn directly from him.

Stories of Bikram and his “torture chamber” are legendary in the hot room, passed on from certified Bikram Yoga instructors, who spend nine weeks of intensive teacher training with him, to sweaty students persisting under the heat. The 26 postures and two breathing exercises of Bikram Yoga are practiced within a studio of 105°Fahrenheit, about 40.6°Celsius, for 90 minutes.

“In India, we say hell is the only way to reach the heavens,” Bikram states. “This system I created is not easy as a beginner. You could be a world champion, athlete, dancer or swimmer. They think they are in very good shape physically and mentally, but when they come to my class, they collapse in three postures.”

“The Boss,” a nickname Bikram earned from his students, is said to jump on the backs of his trainees in the final stretching pose to keep the back and the chest flat against the knees on the floor. “Touch your forehead to your toes! Keep pulling! Bite your toes! Pull!” he would scream.

After meeting the man, you finally realize the stories are neither fiction nor exaggeration. “If you can, you must,” the Boss always says.

Born and raised in Calcutta in Bengal, India, Bikram studied yoga for two decades under who is considered the greatest guru to be born in 500 years, Bishnu Ghosh. Years of learning, teaching, and research brought Bikram to arrange a series of Hatha postures into a very specific sequence. Done in the order he created, the yoga works every part of the body and its organs, with the preceding postures preparing and strengthening you to accomplish the next.

The guru in Manila: Manila’s Bikram Yoga practitioners had the rare opportunity to meet and listen to the man who developed the method himself, Bikram Choudhury.

“If you do Bikram Yoga, you exercise your body 100 percent,” he says.

The result is strength, balance, and flexibility. But because its practice demands focus and determination, the mind and spirit gain every bit of power the body does.

“Bikram Yoga maintains the body and it is a preventive medicine,” the guru says. “These 26 postures and two breathing exercises take care of everything in human life: whether it is your body, your mind, your spirit or your family, business, children, marriage or politics.”

One of the most popular stories about Bikram is how he healed an ailing US President Richard Nixon from severe leg pains that left him suffering in bed. The late President sought him out for help when every doctor he went to could offer no cure. After three days of receiving Bikram’s yoga therapy, President Nixon got up and walked again — the pain never returned. So the President gave him a green card.

As daunting as Bikram sounds, both the Boss and the yoga, anyone could practice it: athletes, the young, the old, the injured or people who have never exercised a day in their lives. It is possible to do all 26 postures and do them well. The guru himself practices the advanced Bikram series daily, and this one requires doing 90 postures. While good postures do not happen overnight, it certainly happens over time with persistent practice. There are no limits, which is another thought Boss Bikram would tattoo on every student’s forehead if he could.

“How long do you want to live?” he asks.

“If you want to live a hundred years, how do you want to live your life? At the age of 100, you should go shopping with your great-grandchildren, but not in a wheelchair. I give people a real life, life with dignity.”

There have been countless experiences here and all over the world of how the practice of Bikram Yoga has changed people’s lives.

“How come there are only five schools here in the Philippines? There should be 50!” Bikram exclaims.

No, the practice of Bikram Yoga is not easy. It is a long journey of getting the mind, body, and spirit to work together. The only way to get the benefits is to brave the hot room and focus on yourself for 90 minutes. And keep coming.

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Bikram Choudhury in Manila was made possible through the efforts of Bikram Yoga Alabang and studio director Ginger Diaz, in cooperation with Bikram Yoga Greenhills. The event was sponsored by Certified Calm and Lightwater.