Who is Bikram?
Bikram Choudhury is the founder of the Bikram Yoga College of India.
At the age of five Bikram began practicing yoga with India’s most renowned physical culturist at that time, Bishnu Ghosh. Ghosh was the first to scientifically document yoga’s ability to cure chronic physical aliments and heal the body. Ghosh was also the youngest brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the most popular book on yoga, The Autobiography of a Yogi.
Bikram became the youngest winner of the All India Yoga Championships when he was 13. He retained the title for two years and retired as the undisputed National Yoga Champion. At the age of 18, Bikram suffered a weightlifting accident. When his doctors diagnosed a permanently crippled knee and predicted that he would never walk again, Bikram returned to his guru’s care and was walking again in six months.
Inspired by his injury and rehabilitation, Bikram decided to teach yoga full time. After teaching one student at a time, the ancient way, he developed an original sequence of 26 postures and two breathing exercises, to be taught in classes designed to be accessible to beginners and beneficial for everyone. At Ghosh’s discretion, he opened studios in India and Japan before moving to the United States in 1970s. He quickly became the foremost yoga teacher in the West, as celebrities, athletes and other aspirants flocked to his studios.
Today, with hundreds of licensed Bikram studios around the world, Bikram dedicates his energy towards fulfilling his guru’s wish and bringing yoga’s power of health and beauty across the globe.