Bikram Choudhury

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Bikram Choudhury, 2007.

Bikram Choudhury (born February 10, 1946 in Calcutta ) is one of the most famous yoga masters and the founder of the Bikram yoga named after him .

Life

Bikram Choudhury writes in his books that he practiced yoga as a young boy and was a student of Bishnu Charan Ghosh . Furthermore, he became an Indian yoga master at the age of 13 and defended the title for three years. However, this information has been questioned.

According to his own statement, Bikram Choudhury suffered a serious knee injury while lifting weights in 1966 and, after healing, went to Mumbai , where he developed his Bikram yoga with a fixed sequence of 24 asanas and two breathing exercises .

In 1973 Bikram Choudhury went to California, where he founded the "Bikram Yoga College of India" in Los Angeles . In 1978 he published the book Bikrams' Beginning Yoga Class .

There are now over 1200 Bikram yoga schools in the USA and Europe, and only yoga teachers who have had the appropriate training in one of its schools are admitted.

Bikram Choudhury also initiated a yoga competition in his school in Los Angeles, which he named "Bishnu Charan Ghosh Yoga Asana Championship" after his teacher. The participants have to perform five compulsory asanas and two asanas of their own choice. The assessment is based on body type, clothing, style and execution of the asanas.

criticism

Choudhury had his special Āsana sequence (not the poses as such) patented in the USA, which led to criticism from American yoga communities. On the other hand, he claims to have the intellectual property on the learned sequence of movements. "Bikram Yoga" is registered as an EU trademark. But this does not justify any right to the sequence of movements as such. The publication of the written teaching of Bishnu Charan Ghosh (YOGA-CURE) caused by the yogi Mukul Dutta shows that the postures and the sequence of these postures were not developed by Bikram, but the creation and thus a copy of the teaching of his master Bishnu Charan Ghosh are.

Bikram Choudhury showed himself to be partially ignorant of the history of yoga. He stated that Patanjali had lived over 4000 years ago and had 84 asanas handed down, although in Yogasutra not only Asana is described by Patanjali. He also claims that yoga competitions have a two thousand year tradition in India.

Legal disputes

Minakshi Jafa-Bodden worked for Bikram from 2011 to March 2013; In March 2013, she said she was terminated abruptly and illegally. Jafa-Bodden describes Bikram's continuously discriminatory, aggressive and derogatory behavior towards women, homosexuals and all other minorities. She said she witnessed and fell victim to these behaviors while working for Bikram. Another yoga teacher filed a complaint of rape in March 2013.

In January 2014, there were a total of 5 legal proceedings against Bikram in which he was accused of sexual harassment and rape. Two former supporters reported him in May 2013. One plaintiff describes a cult-like atmosphere in which Bikram's closest followers helped him to recruit young and attractive women for yoga teacher training and thus make them accessible to Bikram. In 2015, there were six sexual assault charges against Bikram Choudhury.

In the course of the preliminary investigations into the allegations, Bikram was noticed during interrogations due to a seemingly lack of self-control and controversial statements. During an interrogation, for example, he reacted to the finding that, according to his statements, he did not like three things with: "No, I don´t. Not three things, four things. I always said, I don´t like cold weather, cold food, cold heart and cold pussy. " (German: "No, that's wrong. Not three things, four things. I always said, I don't like cold weather, cold food, cold heart and cold pussy.")

In 2016, Choudhury was convicted of harassment and discrimination in the Jafa-Bodden case, and was sentenced to pay $ 7 million in damages and pain and suffering.

The compensation payment has not yet been made (as of November 20, 2019). Bikram left the United States shortly after the verdict was announced. In the subsequent divorce from his wife, part of his property passed to her. Some of the 5 sexual harassment and rape lawsuits ended with a settlement.

Publications

  • Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class . Los Angeles 1978. German: Bikram Yoga. The practice book. Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7787-8179-0 .
  • The Guru Behind Hot Yoga Shows the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fulfillment . Harper Collins 2007. German: The way to health and inner satisfaction. Riva, 2008, ISBN 978-3-936994-93-3 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Henderson, Julia L. "Bikram." Podcast 30for30 , Season 3, Episodes 4 & 5, ESPN, 2018, https://30for30podcasts.com/bikram/ .
  2. ^ Mathias Tietke: The family tree of yoga . Theseus Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-89620-199-7 , p. 110.
  3. ^ Mark Singleton: Yoga Body. The origins of modern posture practice . Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-539535-8 , p. 209.
  4. ^ Wilfried Huchzermeyer: The Yoga Lexicon . ISBN 978-3-931172-28-2
  5. http://www.tbennettlaw.com/createprotect/2013/01/04/bikram-yoga-protected-by-trademark-not-copyright-its-hot
  6. a b c Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (Documentation, published worldwide on November 20, 2019 on Netflix)
  7. ^ Mark Singleton: Yoga Body. The origins of modern posture practice . Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-539535-8 , p. 209.
  8. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/millionaire-yoga-guru-bikram-choudhury-accused-of-rape-and-human-trafficking/
  9. http://yogadork.com/2013/08/02/bikrams-former-head-of-legal-files-extremely-disturbing-complaint-involving-sexual-harassment-discrimination/
  10. http://www.vanityfair.com/society/2014/01/bikram-choudhury-yoga-sexual-harassment
  11. http://www.yogajournal.com/uncategorized/rape-accusations-bikram-choudury/
  12. ^ Indictment against the inventor of the Bikram school: Yoga guru allegedly sexually molested women Süddeutsche Zeitung of February 26, 2015
  13. Million fine for yoga guru Choudhury
  14. Bikram Choudhury: Yoga guru fined $ 6.5m over sexual harassment BBC, January 27, 2016