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MANILA, Philippines – Doing Bikram yoga seems seriously Sadist: escaping already heated Manila, to enter an artificially warmed, 40.6°C atmosphere, squirming in and out of 26 postures while breathing purely through your nose your mouth ordered shut so no one can hear you screaming inside.
The man behind the masochism is one Bikram Choudhury, a yoga practitioner since he was three (his first memories were of his language teacher suspending him upside down while clutching at his feet), and now the Vegas-based developer of his eponymous discipline. Bikram recalls that he got the idea of practicing in a heated room from when he was a young boy, when he would draw the shutters to prevent the wind from blowing in his face. It’s challenging, yes, but who’s complaining?
“People who come to practice my yoga have nothing else in their life. They’ve failed at everything, which is why they go to me.”
Indeed, instead of going through so many postures as in older strains of yoga, Bikram distilled the practice into 26 postures that he claims targets every body part, and every health issue, as opposed to the prescriptive practice of yore, when yogis would ask a person what their ailments were, and then direct them to do certain poses.
The man behind it all: Bikram Choudhury, a yoga practitioner since he was three years old. “When you practice Bikram, you’re bulletproof, waterproof, food-proof, even sex-proof.”
This, from a man who reportedly got offered sex for his highly coveted, not to mention, extremely rare private lessons. So far, he’s refused Madonna, agreed to Prince Harry (but only cause he practices yoga daily, with a friend whose life was “saved” by the demanding discipline), and has plans of granting a request from Lady Gaga. According to him, the latter would do well to work with him on a song, as he also strangely happens to be a recording artist.
“Those rumors [about the offers for sex], some are true. At first, I refused, because that is not the way of a true Indian yogi. But my friend, Shirley Maclaine, told me: But Bikram, you’re not in India. No girl [in LA] was able to walk straight, after that.”
