He says in the article, " In India, we have ... no crime. Why?"

What planet is this guy living on ... If in India they have low crime reports it is because the police cant be bothered, they are underfunded and the judiciary is corrupt as the politicians and you can buy your way out of jail.

They have no Prozac because 77% of Indians, or 836 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees per day (USD 0.50) informal labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty. (National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector). Who of them can afford drugs?

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention India ranks number one for numbers of murders;

#1 India: 37,170
#2 Russia: 28,904
#3 Colombia: 26,539
#4 South Africa: 21,553
#5 United States: 16,204

And let's not even start on the child prostitution and treatment of women

I feel that Bikram’s style is not even Yoga. Following are the reasons why I feel like that:
1. As everybody know, Yoga was experimented and developed by ancient Sages and the entire world inherited it with due respect to our unknown ancestors. Nobody other than Bikram ever tried to trademark it in any form though the gurus throughout the world are perfecting poses and finding new sequences and helping people whatever way they can. I would say these gurus belong to that unbroken chain from the ancient sages and Bikram has nothing to do with it.
2. The wealth he acquired is benefitting him only and not the common man. Instead of acquiring 35 Rolls Royces he could have arranged scholarships for poor children to attend Yoga classes. I feel that it is very difficult for him to understand the meaning of non-attachment.
3. People generally understand what is good and what is bad. I think Iyengar is more respected in America than Bikram mainly because Iyengar’s treatment towards his students. In an interview in India, Iyengar is asked why he is getting so much respect from western students. His answer was “because I treat them as my own children”. I feel that Bikram can ever develop this sort of connection with other human beings.

Ganga Palakkattil

>And Iyengar school (which uses props) looks like a Santa Monica sex shop.

The best yoga line of all time!!! Now that funny!

Yogadawg, thanks for your comment.
Hey, we miss your blog. http://yogadawg.blogspot.com/
Hope the yoga police hasn't been too harsh....

Wow, this blog post comes as a shock! I can not believe the words out of Bikram's mouth...although funny as Yogadawg points out, comparing Iyengar to a sex shop is a bit out of line. The use of props are necessary to bring those who may be intimidated by yoga into the practice.

I recently finished my first yogafit level 1 teacher training last weekend and appreciate the yogafit approach to yoga, they seem very focused on bringing yoga to those who would normally not be exposed to it, both in their teaching style and approach, (which I am sure Bikram would disagree with), as well as their focus on Community Service. (You are required to provide many hours of community service, teaching yoga for free in a non gym or studio setting to bring yoga to those less fortunate). Again, something that appears to be very foreign to a man who owns 30+ Rolls Royces!

When the purpose of practice gets burried under layers of cultural baggage and attachment to a certain way of practicing, people will rediscover the original purpose and create new ways of practicing to reconnect with that something deeper. (Can you tell I'm reading A New Earth?)

That's where Iyengar, Anusara, Kundalini, etc. come in. It's like Lutheranism, Zen Buddhism, and Kabbalah springing from Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism. As Ganga White says, yoga is a living, breathing art. Everyone has the freedom to practice as they choose. Why the divisiveness?

Bikram's teacher was a yogi. He taught yoga to Bikram for free and he is charging people a hefty sum. In his words "There is no yoga called Kundalini, Power, Vinyasa, dog yoga.We follow 4,400 years of Patanjali's The Yoga Sutra. There are eight kinds of yoga--karma, hatha, raja, vedanta, bhakti, mantra, jnana and laya" then how come there is Bikram yoga?

In India, yoga is used for good health and spiritual awakening but western world thinks yog just as a physical exercise. There are philosophies attached to yog.

There has been rise in crime in India casue people are forgetting their own culture and are influenced by materialistic world with western influence. India has somewhere lost its vedic culture.

Iyengar is a very good master and he also teaches Patanjali Yoga. He does not trademark yoga. Yoga has been practised for thousands of years by saints and rishis. I was very much surprised when I came to know someone has trademarked the asanas.

he is trying to wake people up by making them itch,, maya is a tricky force , saying things that make you say i and me and him alot,, bikram yoga is not for everybody but is a more straight forward representation of the science and the practice of asana,, for the beginner ,,get over it and practice

Bikram's comments can be viewed by some as harsh, yes, but for me (someone who has practiced his form of yoga for 3 years,) I appreciate the straightforward no-nonsense/no props/simplicity of his style. The yoga works for me and has changed my body...inside and out. Personally, I don't care how many cars or watches he owns.

In the words of my son......"OH WOW". I appreciate constructive commentary, but I don't understand the sarcastic personal attacks....from anyone.

"In the yoga community, people are sometimes afraid to say what they really think, fearing they may appear unyogic ..."

WHAT?!? not me! you should go read my blog....and I agree with YogaDawg wholeheartedly!

I would like to remind Sutra 1.33 from Patanjali's Yoga Sutra:
1.33 : In relationships, the mind becomes purified by cultivating feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy, compassion for those who are suffering, goodwill towards those who are virtuous, and indifference or neutrality towards those we perceive as wicked or evil.
(maitri karuna mudita upekshanam sukha duhka punya apunya vishayanam bhavanatah chitta prasadanam)
Let me point out that, although Mr. Bikram Choudhury allegedly pays homage to Patanjali, his words do not reflect the wisdom expressed in the above Sutra.
I understand that, having been raised in a tradition and dedicated a whole life to it, it is difficult to accept that it evolves and assumes new forms. Yet, Yoga as a Science of the Soul, and as an Art, is a Legacy to all Mankind, so it is natural to expand and to evolve, as long as it remains faithful to its origins and principles. I think this is what the Yoga Community has to fight for.
Thank you for hosting my thoughts.

Ahh, Bikram -- the Dick Cheney of yoga.

Why does anybody care what Bikram thinks, really? He seems to me to be as repetative and dull as the routine that bares his name. Macdonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Bikram. The dude has figued out American's, that's for sure.

Seems more than a few readers have beaten me to the punch - yes, yoga is primarily a spiritual discipline!
Let's see:

Ahimsa - non-violence
Vairagya - renunciation
Brahmacarya - moderation
Aparigraha - non-hoarding
Isvara-pranidhana- devotion to a Higher Power
Artha - living a balanced life

With his carbon footprint alone, Bikram is violating most basic tenets of his tradition.
As far as 'circus tricks', remember: that which we despise most in others is often the reflection of our own shadow selves ;.)

Let's all remember where Bikram is coming from, he's Indian, he's a man and he is a very large corporation. Why should we expect him to sound any different than Donald Trump? His approach to yoga is a pure Yang style and when a man exaggerates his male-heat-building-straight forward yang energy, this is the result. A little Yin-yoga, a good crying session, and a 10 minute hug and I'm sure he'd feel a lot better. Let's give him our love!

As only an intermittent yoga-class attendee, I'm probably not the most
qualified person to comment on this blog, regarding this controversy.
However, the following short quotation from T.K.V. Desikichar's work
"The Heart of Yoga" (one of the few books I've read on the subject)
may be helpful: "The goal of Yoga is to encourage us to be a little better
than we were before.....We must actively seize every opportunity that helps
us to progress." In the spirit of those words, if any of the various forms of
yoga practices helps one achieve this goal, then each is a worthy pursuit,
indeed.

As Yoga has passed thru the prism of Western culture and been permutated
into its' present-day forms (some far removed from the intentions of its'
originators), one can say with certainty, that one cannot turn back the clock
-- the various yogas of today are most likely here to stay, with flaws, perhaps, as Mr. Choudhry asserts, but each uniquely equipped to serve individuals of different types.

In light of these developments, as the Yoga and Mysticism of the East
meets the societies of the West, perhaps the motto for the Yoga of today,
ought to be -- "To each person their own Yoga and to each Yoga its'
own person." Yoga has passed thru the Western cultural prism and
emerged a mosaic.