| Bikram Choudhury, known as the King of Yogis, was born in Calcutta, India in 1946. Starting at the age of four, his youth was spent under the guidance of Paramahansa Yogananda's younger brother Bishnu Ghosh. Yogananda founded the Self-Realization Fellowship in LA, and is respected by American readers as the author of The Autobiography of a Yogi. |
When Bikram was thirteen, he won the National India Yoga Championship. For three years he reigned undefeated, and retired as the undisputed All-India National Yoga Champion. |
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Bikram went on to pursue his interest in weight lifting, but at seventeen, an accident crushed his knee. He was told by doctors that he would not walk again.
His experience with the healing power of yoga brought him back to his guru's doorstep. With Ghosh's expertise, and with his own hard work, his knee was healed in six months.
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| Ghosh asked Bikram to start several Yoga schools in India, which were successful enough to lead to two more schools opening in Japan. Bikram taught yoga in Japan, while working with experts at the Tokyo University Hospital to combine western medical science with traditional eastern doctrine. It was in Japan where Bikram began to design the series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises, which are based on the ancient Hatha Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Years later, with more than 4000 certified teaches and 450 studios worldwide, Bikram has brought the healing power of yoga to thousands of people.
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