‘Indian yoga teachers are seen as circus clowns’

At once flamboyant, flashy and showman-like, he fulfils all the academic criteria of the Bollywood superstar of yesteryear. He is often celebrated or castigated, but seldom ignored.
Only, he is a yoga guru. At 66, India’s most famous export to Hollywood, international yoga guru Bikram Choudhury, still polarises opinion wherever he goes.
Bikram was in the city recently and spoke to us about yoga and controversies surrounding his methods.Bikram seems as much of an enigma as he is an open book. He declares straight away, “I was never interested in India because we are still stuck in a 5,000-year-old system. We have been sleeping and today Americans are teaching yoga to us. A classic case of the blind leading the blind because they have never understood the essence of yoga,” and he adds, “Westerners are selling an Indian product and making millions. I want to start a university here and I want Indian kids to make millions.”
On the other hand, several yogis have questioned Bikram Yoga and called it an attempt to usurp credit for what is an ancient practice. “These so-called real Indian yogis are seen as circus clowns in America. I have an American copyright and my answer is, do as Romans do in Rome. Not like Baba Ramdev,” says Bikram dismissively and adds that his yoga is a result of “research, research and research”. According to him, those accusing him “have deliberately” ignored the extensive work that has gone into developing his brand of yoga.
About other controversies, allegations and accusations that have been levelled at him, he says, “I never have time for these negative things.”
During the course of the conversation, he vaguely veers towards eastern philosophy and the different stages in life. “I might be nearly 70, and my body in terms of the work I have done is about 220-years-old. But do I look it? I am still in Vanaprastha, the second stage of life,” he says and he rests his case when he says, “When I came to the west, people like Richard Nixon and Margaret Thatcher swore by me. Today, Lady Gaga is my biggest spokesperson and she spends two hours everyday with me doing yoga”.