Bikram Yoga

Los Angeles, Feb.24, 2009
Gary Singh

Bikram Choudhary

Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram Yoga, is one of the most popular fitness gurus in Hollywood. He is also the founder of the worldwide Yoga College of India.

Bikram Choudhury with his wife, Rajashree.

Bikram Choudhury was born in the city of Calcutta in 1946. He was introduced to the technique of yoga at the age of four years only. Bikram underwent yoga training under Bishnu Ghosh, one of the most popular physical culturists of that time, at his 'College of Physical Education'. Bishnu is the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda

Bikram practiced yoga rigorously, devoting four to six hours every day towards it. When he was only thirteen years old, he won the National India Yoga Championship. Thereafter he retired as the undisputed 'All-India National Yoga Champion'.

Injured in the knee during a weight-lifting: At the age of seventeen years, Bikram Choudhury got badly injured in the knee during a weight-lifting accident. Renowned doctors, from as far as Europe, gave up the chances of his ever walking again.

However, having faith in his teacher, Bishnu Ghosh, and his yoga techniques, Bikram went back to his school.

• Six months later, he experienced total recovery in his knee. Thereafter, Bishnu asked Bikram Choudhary to start a number of Yoga schools in India. Bikram received fantastic response from people and his yoga schools become extremely successful.
• Bikram traveled to Japan and opened two yoga schools. Since that time, he has being promoting the curative techniques of Yoga therapy around the world.

Bikram Choudhury introduced a new style of yoga, known as the Bikram Yoga or Hot Yoga. This style is practiced in a room that has been preheated to a temperature of 105 deg F (40.5 deg C) and has a humidity of 50 percent. The training course goes on for nine weeks, during which the temperature is slowly taken to, as high as, 130 deg F. The entire course involves the training of 26 postures and two breathing exercises.

You will realize a magical moment when biomechanically you feel a state of relaxed awareness utilizing the 3 primary aspects of Bikram Yoga: Breathing, Freezing/Holding the postures and Savasana (relaxation). Bikram Yoga has been described by its creator as a "moving meditation". Physically it cultivates strength, flexibility and balance. Mentally it trains the mind in five ways: to build faith in your abilities, gain self control, increase personal determination, improve mental concentration and build patience.

Rajashree Choudhury

• Rajashree Choudhury, five-time winner of the All-India Yoga Championship from 1979 to 1983. She is one of the most knowledgeable yoga masters in the world. She holds a degree in Hatha Yoga Therapy for chronic diseases and disorders.
• She was born in Kolkata, India in 1965. She started her yoga training at the age of four. She grew up in Calcutta and her early schooling was in a Montessori school. Her teachers Drs. P. S. Das and Kushala Das who are disciples of guru Bishnu Charan Ghosh
• She met Bikram at 17 and married him two years later. They both teach at Bikram's Yoga College of India in Beverly Hills, California and conduct seminars worldwide.
• While they both look younger than their years, she says interiors are more important than exteriors. She brings years of experience and a feminine perspective to her teaching of Bikram Yoga. She has the figure of a 20-year-old, but is actually 42
• She teaches her highly-acclaimed Rajashree Pregnancy Series along with being the doting-caring mother of a very active teenage daughter, Laju, and a soccer mom for her athletic son, Anurag.