age seventeen, during a routine training session, Bikram slipped and dropped a 380-pound weight on his knee , crushing his patella like a seashell. Doctors who were rushed to the side of the young celebrity declared he’d never walk again. Bikram knew better. He turned to yoga, to his guru, and together they designed an especially powerful posture sequence that healed Bikram fit as a sitar in just under six months. He not only walked, he returned stronger. Following a directive from Ghosh, Bikram moved to Mumbai to open shop as a healer and share his training. With the miracle knee proof of his yoga’s efficacy, his fame exploded; soon he was known as the Yogiraj, Guru of Mumbai.
Then, at the height of his fame in India, at what turned out to be his guru’s dying request—for yes, at just about this time, Bishnu Charan Ghosh, leading light of early twentieth-century physiculture, one of the few universally acclaimed masters in the yogic world, decided to take leave of his mortal coil and induce a heart attack in himself at the age of sixty-nine (he had previously declared that a heart attack was the least painful way to go)—at this crucial juncture, Ghosh made Bikram swear an oath :
My guru took my hand and told me something, in English, which he never spoke. “Promise me you will complete my incomplete job,” he said. He meant bringing yoga to the rest of the world, to the West and America. And I replied, “Yes, I promise. I will.”
And thus, at age twenty-four, Bikram left India to bring yoga to the world.
(A man given to few regrets, Bikram does have one regarding this particular sequence in his life: “Looking back, I can’t help feeling sad, mostly because I miss him every second of every day with every ounce of my heart. But I’m also sad because I forgot to ask him how long I am supposed to continue teaching hatha yoga to fulfill my karma yoga! Do I have to keep doing this for my entire life?”)
The first brief stop in this process was Japan. There, in the wealthy Shinjuku district , Bikram attracted the attention of a group of researchers from the University of Tokyo who were studying tissue regeneration. These scientists applied their clipboards, lab coats, and evidence-based minds to the knee-healing sequence Bikram and Ghosh had developed. Recognizing its promise as a therapy, the scientists agreed to help Bikram prove its benefits if he would let them conduct research on its mechanics. Two noteworthy developments resulted. First, inspired by the saunas the Japanese scientists took on their lunch breaks and worried about new nagging injuries developing in his Japanese students, Bikram started dabbling with external heaters to re-create the heat of Calcutta (average temperature 88.7 degrees F). Second, to help the lazy urbanite mind focus on posture alignments, mirrors were added so practitioners could correctly adjust themselves as they practiced. This was an old technique his guru had used when training weight lifters, and Bikram saw no reason why yoga practitioners couldn’t benefit as well.
Unfortunately, before this groundbreaking collaboration could fully realize its potential, fate intervened. Richard Nixon, America’s own dark magician, was touring Southeast Asia publicly checking in on United States military bases, privately scouring the locals for remedies for his chronic phlebitis.
When word reached the president about the young yoga master and his miracle system, he summoned the guru immediately and demanded a session. Bikram agreed. Clothed in nothing but athletic shorts and jowls, the president bent before him. The experience shattered Nixon’s expectations. His phlebitis was cured! Overjoyed by the results and overwhelmed by the guru’s expertise, the president issued an open invitation to Bikram: Come to America, bring your yoga, live in my country!
Not one to reject the ebullience of a sitting president, Bikram flew to America at once. He arrived on a chartered
Then, at the height of his fame in India, at what turned out to be his guru’s dying request—for yes, at just about this time, Bishnu Charan Ghosh, leading light of early twentieth-century physiculture, one of the few universally acclaimed masters in the yogic world, decided to take leave of his mortal coil and induce a heart attack in himself at the age of sixty-nine (he had previously declared that a heart attack was the least painful way to go)—at this crucial juncture, Ghosh made Bikram swear an oath :
My guru took my hand and told me something, in English, which he never spoke. “Promise me you will complete my incomplete job,” he said. He meant bringing yoga to the rest of the world, to the West and America. And I replied, “Yes, I promise. I will.”
And thus, at age twenty-four, Bikram left India to bring yoga to the world.
(A man given to few regrets, Bikram does have one regarding this particular sequence in his life: “Looking back, I can’t help feeling sad, mostly because I miss him every second of every day with every ounce of my heart. But I’m also sad because I forgot to ask him how long I am supposed to continue teaching hatha yoga to fulfill my karma yoga! Do I have to keep doing this for my entire life?”)
The first brief stop in this process was Japan. There, in the wealthy Shinjuku district , Bikram attracted the attention of a group of researchers from the University of Tokyo who were studying tissue regeneration. These scientists applied their clipboards, lab coats, and evidence-based minds to the knee-healing sequence Bikram and Ghosh had developed. Recognizing its promise as a therapy, the scientists agreed to help Bikram prove its benefits if he would let them conduct research on its mechanics. Two noteworthy developments resulted. First, inspired by the saunas the Japanese scientists took on their lunch breaks and worried about new nagging injuries developing in his Japanese students, Bikram started dabbling with external heaters to re-create the heat of Calcutta (average temperature 88.7 degrees F). Second, to help the lazy urbanite mind focus on posture alignments, mirrors were added so practitioners could correctly adjust themselves as they practiced. This was an old technique his guru had used when training weight lifters, and Bikram saw no reason why yoga practitioners couldn’t benefit as well.
Unfortunately, before this groundbreaking collaboration could fully realize its potential, fate intervened. Richard Nixon, America’s own dark magician, was touring Southeast Asia publicly checking in on United States military bases, privately scouring the locals for remedies for his chronic phlebitis.
When word reached the president about the young yoga master and his miracle system, he summoned the guru immediately and demanded a session. Bikram agreed. Clothed in nothing but athletic shorts and jowls, the president bent before him. The experience shattered Nixon’s expectations. His phlebitis was cured! Overjoyed by the results and overwhelmed by the guru’s expertise, the president issued an open invitation to Bikram: Come to America, bring your yoga, live in my country!
Not one to reject the ebullience of a sitting president, Bikram flew to America at once. He arrived on a chartered
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