THE COMMON GROUND INTERVIEW

The (105)
Truth
According
to Bikram
Choudhury
{ BY ROB SIDON }

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 55

Born in 1946 to high-caste Brahmans in Calcutta, Bikram Choudhury began his yoga apprenticeship with Bishnu Ghosh, the youngest
brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, at the age
of 5. He would go on to win the All India Yoga
Championship for three consecutive years until such time as the judges disallowed repeat
winners. In the late 1950s he created a series
of 26 postures, the cornerstone of the Bikram
yoga method, which won a copyright in the
United States in 2002. The sequence, along
with two breathing exercises, is performed in
a 105-degree heated room, which is said to
enhance flexibility and detoxification, while
mimicking the climate of India.
On the verge of becoming a 1964 Olympic weightlifting champion, he was victim of
a crippling accident that led him to want to
commit suicide. The incident proved a turning
point, as he moved to Bombay in 1965, where
he became guru to the stars. In late 1969 Bikram moved to Tokyo, where he enjoyed notoriety in a popular TV show for performing
yogic feats. Known for his healing abilities, he
emigrated to Hawaii in 1971, where he was
recommended to President Nixon, who suffered from health ailments. As a token of his
gratitude, Nixon gifted Bikram a green card.
After a brief stint in San Francisco in 1973,
he moved to Los Angeles, where he befriended
and introduced yoga to a long roster of actors
and sports figures including Shirley MacLaine,
Quincy Jones, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Never shy nor averse to controversy, he was
dubbed Yogas Bad Boy in Yoga Journals
premiere issue and was later the subject of a
widely viewed 60 Minutes segment. Given the
worldwide popularity of the practice, Bikram
has become something of a household name.
However, based on pending civil suits alleging
sexual misconduct with ex-students, the Bikram scandal has been active in the news, with
Vanity Fair having published an inflammatory article earlier this year. In our interview,
Bikram claims these lawsuits are the booby
56

SEPTEMBER 2014

A youthful
Bikram with his
parents in 1972

trap of a band of business adversaries trying

to weaken his reputation. To date, police investigations have proved inconclusive.
Bikram married Rajashree Chakrabarti in
1984, who helped build their yoga dynasty
and also went on to found the United States
Yoga Federation. The couple raised a son and
a daughter in Beverly Hills, which is where we
caught up with him.
Common Ground: Thank you for inviting
me to your house and for this interview.

Bikram: I dont give interview to Wall Street

Journal. The New York Times, noI dont have
time. I would normally never do such a small
magazine, but when I learned you doing Bikram yoga for over 12 years, I say, Okay. He
must be okay. He understands something.
Yes. Like many, I find myself addicted to
the detoxifying sequence of poses combined with the heat.

Since 1956, that is 58 years, according to Wall

Street Journal, approximately one billion people has benefitted from Bikram yoga.
So how did this all start?

Born and raised in Calcutta, highly educated,

cultured family because my grandfather was
a king, a landlord with 700 villages owned by
him. My father was the youngest of five. At 7
years old his mother died of snakebite. At 16,
his family wanted to marry him off, but he

didnt want to marry yet, so he shipped off to

Burma and China and worked for the British
Army. He came back to Calcutta when he was
25 and had eight children with my mother,
who was 14. I was the fifth of eight, born on
February 10, 1946.
We got out of Calcutta because of a smallpox outbreak, where everyone was dying, including my sister and brother, and we moved
to Bihar. Once when I was 6, I was playing with
a ball that bounced into a gym with bodybuilders, and this is where I met my guru, Bishnu
Ghosh, whose brother was Swami Paramahansa Yogananda. When I was 11, I appeared
in All India Yoga Competition and was champion, and again at 12 and 13. Then the judges,
which included Krishnamacharya, Swami Sivananda, Pattabhi Jois, B. K. S. Iyengar, and my
guru decide that I could not compete again.
After that, like Miss America, you can win one
time only. So I told my guru I want to go to
Olympics to be football [soccer] player, but my
guru said to become weightlifter, so I become
No. 1 bantamweight lifter in the world. My
guru is founder of International Weightlifting Bodybuilding Federation in New York. He
started Mr. America contest in 1935 and Mr.
Universe contest in 1948. I was always under
118 pounds.
On my way to win 1964 Tokyo Olympics I
have a terrible accident six weeks before. The
catcher [spotter] drops the weights on my
knee. I was in a wheelchair, and they wanted to

amputate. I went to Ganges to jump in to end

my life. I was useless handicapped.
This is a turning point. When was this?

March 1965. This is when my first cousin,

who was a big movie star, came to Calcutta
and invited me to Bombay for a week to visit
the movie sets. I stayed at the Jain house, one
of the richest families in India. They own the
Times of India media company. I went for a
week to Bombay but stayed for five years, becoming a yoga teacher and one-on-one healer.
I used to work like 24 hours a day and became
the guru of Bombay with all the famous peopleguru to the stars. They used to touch my
feet even in those days, like Jesus Christ, who
was a guru at 30 years old.
When did your teacher, Bishnu Ghosh,
leave his body? Were you recognized as
guru before he left?

He left in 1970, but I was well known all over

India before. To give you one example: in 1965
my salary was 200 rupees per month; one year
later I used to earn 100,000 rupees. In 1965 I
charge 5 rupees for a massage on the knee. In
1969 I charge 5,000 rupees.
Theres a long tradition of gurus in India,
but the people dont touch everybodys
feet. Only some.

They touch the gurus feet. They touch my feet

Why?

Because they know I was born a spiritual master, like Jesus or Muhammad or Buddha or
Paramahansa Yogananda, my gurus brother
that by birth they are powerful people.
In Bombay at that time, there were other famous gurus, like Baba Muktananda
and Nisargadatta and others.

In Bombay I was the most superstar guru to

the starsthats my title. I bring Muktananda
to this countryme. I bring Ravi Shankar. All
of them I introduced. I, Bikram Choudhury,
bring yoga world out of India and make it
world famous. Before that, even Nixon asked
me, What is yoga? Is that yogurt we eat? Before me, who came here? Swami Vivekananda
in 1893 and gave a couple of lectures here and
there. How many people know him? Nobody.
After that in 1919 came my gurus brother,
Paramahansa Yogananda. How many people
know him in this country?
He is well known.

Only by those interested in that subject. After

that came my guru in 1925, and he bring some
of the yogis, Shankaracharya and Swami Sivana-

organization need money bad. Yesterday, my

wife taught a class in Manhattan Beach, raise
the funds for cancer or something. Every day
were charitable organization.

nda, to teach yoga at SRF [Self Realization Fellowship] in 1931, 32, 33. Everybody left, each
and every one a failure. You know what they
said? America not born to do yoga. So we dont
want to waste our time. Even my guruhe tried,
he came back and forth. Finally, you know what
he was teaching? Weightlifting, bodybuilding.
Iyengar: failure. Vishnudevananda: failure. Satchidananda: failure. East and West like oil and
water, never mixnot for another 5,000 years.
George Harrison came to learn from me, introduced by Ravi Shankar in Calcutta.

I thought I read somewhere that your licensing revenue brings in more than one
million bucks a day.

Now yoga is good business.

What charities do you support?

I dont want to do anything with business; Ive

hated business all my life. All the businesspeople I trained all my lifeI know how mean
they are. Money, money, money. It doesnt
matter if theyre from India or Japan or Hawaii
or Europe, thats what they think, and thats
why they need yoga. Theyre business-minded people. They treat poor people so bad, and
they steal from poor people.

Hundreds, my god. If you start that, therell be

no lecture finish today.

But youre a good businessman.

No, I am not a good businessman; otherwise,

Id be billionaire today. I am nothing.
You live in Beverly Hills; most yogis
dont have anything.

This is nothing. You think I bought the house?

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi when he died left $1.3
billion. He was a real estate man. Every penny
he earned, he invested in real estate. Just last
week, his university graduated his business
school. You know what they teach? Not yoga
business management. Jim Carrey hosted the
graduation. I watch the clip. They teach MBA.
What do I teach? How to fix knee. How to fix
your marriage. How to stop drinking and get
rid of drugs. Thats my job.
Five hundred or more people in a room
paying over $11,000 each for teacher
certification, and you dont consider
yourself a good businessman?

Absolutely not. A big zero. You know how

much money I earned all my life? I should have
a couple of billion dollars in the bank. You know
how much money I have left in bank? $24,000.
Suddenly, when the lawsuit started, to prove I
am innocent, the lawyer is stealing from me.
I never save anything. Whatever I earn, 80%
I charity it, every single day. You have no idea
how many people I feed, how many children I
raise, around the globe. You know I have cars.
Thats the rumor, the Rolls Royces.

Its not rumor, the Rolls Royces, what do you

think I do? I charity it. Whenever some charity

I make good money, but before I make, already

its going to Mexico, to Bangladesh, to India, to
Ethiopia, to Africayou have no idea. It goes
to charity, 80%.

[We are leafing through a large stack of celebrity photos on the coffee table.]
How long have you known Quincy
Jones?

Since 1974 or 75. For 15 years he did it six days

a week. He had a brain aneurism, busted, operated, declared dead, handicapped. His wife
Peggy bring him to me; I saved him. Since 74
each and every album dedicated to me, including Thriller.
You said you helped create the Jackson 5.

Yes, I will tell the story.

You knew the Kennedy family?

I knew Jackie Kennedy from 62. Thats how

they came close to me.
Is Deepak Chopra a student of yours?

Yes, his wife also.

These are fun photos; can I publish some
of these?

Yes, you can take.

You live in LA, with all the celebrities
and controversy. Youre not afraid of
controversy.

I have girth to speak the truth, and slowly I

make people accept the truth. Truth is most
bitter to accept, swallow, and digest. I told
Clinton alsohes my buddy. I said, Mr. President, if you go right, the left people will not
like you. If you go left, the right will not like
you. If you go straight, the back will not like
you. If you go back, the front does not like you,
and if you dont go anywhere, nobody will like
you, so what do you do? I am his campaign
chairman. I say to him, You are commander
in chief of the country; whatever you think
good, you do it. You dont give a shit about
what people think. You just do your job. 
COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 57

I had this impression you had this crappy childhood. That you didnt have your
mothers love, and thats why you act
out.

Are you kidding? Oh my God, no.

From left: Bikram and his

wife, Rajashree, met with Bill
Clinton in 1996; a meeting in
Indian Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi in 1980; posed between
Michael Jackson and Quincy
Jones in 1980; and laughing
with Shirley MacLaine, 1975

So you were with your parents all the

time and grew up with love?

Always.
Were all looking for love.

We are not looking for love in India. The whole

country is a factory of love, the real love. In India they never say, I love you, honey; I miss
you, honey. We think that is a joke. My mother
and father never tell to any man or any woman,
I love you. Why? Because they dont have to.
We perform it. We feel it. We exchange it.
You have a reputation as yogas bad
boy.

Youre saying stereotype things, looking from

close range, not from larger perspective, not
looking at the broader universe. In 1975, the
first issue of Yoga Journal has story about me.
The magazine was started by some of my hippie students in San Francisco. They have the
idea to make Bikram look really big. How? By
saying Bikram is bad boy of yoga. Thats your
way, thats your language to make great man
look greater. I was very upset. If you think its
good, its good. Do you think I care?
No. I admire that about you.

1.2 billion Islamic people think Jesus is asshole. Do you think 1 billion Christians care?
Americans think 1 billion Indians are most
uneducated idiot group of people in the world.
Thats what they tell me every single day. Do
you think I care? I tell them thats your lack of
education, your total ignorance. It takes 40plus years to make them understand what is
India?
Krishnamacharya was failure. Swami Vivekananda: failure. Bishnu Ghosh: failure. Yogananda: failure. Iyengar: failure. Indra Devi:
failure. I know each and every one of these
people, and what they talk about you guys,
you have no idea. But me, I am the first man,
I see your good things: best country built
the United States of America. I admire it and
love it and enjoy its good things and not the
negativity. What make me successful is that I
make people see how good their life could be.
Not the stupid, ignorant people who are jumping from fire into the frying pan. Theyre all
pissing in the wind, destroying their lives and
their country. You built the best country in the
world over 200 years ago, and today it is bankrupt; you owe $42 trillion. Why? Because you
58

SEPTEMBER 2014

let it happen. America is borrowing money

from India and China!
What is your message here?

Lots of message. When youre interviewing Indian yogi, ask yourself what India has? You
are talking to Mr. India, and India has spiritualism, which is about how to create a bridge,
a path, a road, a telecommunications system
between your own mind and your own spirit.
How to do it? This is called practice of spiritualism.
One author described you as charisma
incarnate.

Good word. Its a gift.

It was interesting that before I came
here, I told two people that I was coming. One woman couldnt contain her
enthusiasm. She says Bikram yoga saved
her life; she begged me to join us here
today. Another woman had a different
response. She said, Oh no, hes appalling. That leaves lots of room in the
middle.

Compared with Lord Krishna, Buddha, Jesus,

Mohammed, and all spiritual masters, I have
more fans that think good about me than any
spiritual masters ever born in the history.
Christians like me, Hindus like me, Muslims
like me, Buddhists like me, Americans like me,
Catholics, Protestants, Shia like me, Sunni like
me, Samurai like me, Hawaiians like me.
Dont forget the Jain.

The Jain love me; they make me who I am today. If some ignorant dont like me, know that
the darkest place in the world is underneath
the lamp. What can you do? Its because they
just dont know. Either theyre jealous or ignorant. Controversy is okay. If everybody like me,
itd be too boring. It would not be valuable.

What is your perspective about worldly

fame?

I really dont think about name, fame, money.

My lifemy body, mind, spirit, time, energy,
sweat, blood, belief, love, emotioncan hold
only one thing, which is, How can I heal that
person? Every person I heal, I feel like I got
five Nobel Prize. What is the worth of a human being? Priceless. Each student I save and
change their life, I feel I have a crown on my
head. Like emperor of the world, son of Jupiter, like Hercules. Do you think I care for my
name? I care for fame? I care for money? That
is called insecurity, wasting time.
I give you credit for being the biggest
name in the yoga industry and for bringing more people to yoga. Even if people
go on to practice another style, they are
often introduced via Bikram.

I have been teaching yoga since I was five

years old. I am the best at what I do, there
is no question. The producers of 60 Minutes, who followed me around for a year,
said, You have the guts to speak the truth
and make the world face the truth. I make
people believe what they can be, to see how
big they can be. I create stars and politicians. I created [tennis player] Andy Murray and Williams sisters. I created Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar. I will do same for Kobe [Bryant], you watch. I make John McEnroe play
six years more after retirement, and he get
three Wimbledon championships. You think
anyone can do it? No. Why not? Because
theyre not Bikram. Britney Spears just started Bikram yoga last week. Madonna since 15
years. Lady Gaga, Beyonc, George Clooney,
Sandra Bullock. So many.
Some people cant tolerate the heat.

Thats their problem; theyre mentally weak

people. If they continued 10 days, theyd com-

plain the room is not hot enough. Who does

Bikram yoga? Those who tried everything, including medical and psychological treatment,
but nothing works. Those who want to commit suicide. They come back. I sell hellits
the only way to paradise.
You provoke people and push their buttons, maybe so they confront themselves. Thats what happens in military
boot camp.

But boot camp doesnt take 75-year-old mama.

I am 10 times worse than boot camp. When
I first came to this country, I thought it was
a jokethe lack of discipline in the class. I
have to discipline them, like a bunch of circus
clowns. Over 58 years Ive been doing this. I
save peoples lives. Harvard Medical School
has done extensive research showing clinical benefits of Bikram yoga. You should write
about it. [Hands me spiral binder with study
from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital about their Depression
Clinical Research Program.]
This is impressive. Can you tell the story
of when you first met Nixon?

It was when I first came to United States in

Honolulu. The Prime Minister Tanaka was
visiting Nixon, who had phlebitis thrombosis, a blot clot in the leg. He would sometimes suffer painful attacks. I had come as
an interpreter because at that time I spoke
perfect Japanese. Tanaka said, I am here with
my guru; he can treat a dead man. We had
like seven sessions. I heal his painlike that!
[snaps fingers] He wanted me to come back
to the White House, but I said no. However,
I did receive an envelope from the president
that contained a green card, with a note that
said, Welcome to the US. I never applied for
a green card. I met Nixon many times, until
he died in San Clemente.

What did it feel like to be working on

the president of the United States?

Nothing. When I teach somebody, I dont give

a shit who the fuck they are. I met a lot of presidents, lots of prime ministers, lot of famous
people all my life. I grew up with them. I was
close to Reagan, Clinton, Kennedy.
What makes you happy in life?

Make other people happy makes me happy

my karma yoga.
What pisses you off?

Nothing pisses me off.

Youve never been vegetarian? Thats
part of the whole ethos of yoga culture.

Never. I dont eat jungle vegetable sandwich. I

eat grilled ham sandwich and cheese. My parents, the highest Brahmin caste, would never
even drive their car where they sold beef,
where the Christians and Muslims live in Calcutta, because cow is our god. I ate beef since I
was 9 years old.
Why did you break the family tradition?

Because I am Bikram. In the yoga tradition I

did try to maintain Brahmacharya [celibacy] as
long as I could, until I was 28.
Really? And then what happened? When
was your first time?

When I was raped, on my birthday, in Beverly

Hills, by three women.
I do need to ask you about the civil suits
that are pending. When you Google Bikram now, thats what comes upsex
scandal.

Same crucifixion, just 2,000 years later. What

do you want to know? Directly to the point. Do
you know the Bengali idiom Para-shree katorota? It means envy. Literally, to see someone

elses beauty makes you feel sad. We also have

the word, jal; it means counterfeit, copy, fake.
Everybody trying to copy Bikram yoga. So a
few years ago, 265 school owners came to me,
saying how other teachers have learned Bikram
dialog and are now opening schools across the
street calling it hot yoga, not Bikram yoga.
They saying, The students dont know the difference, but those studios are charging only $3
per class, while I charge $10. I am losing my
business. What can I do?
One of the students, who are lawyers, they say
that to protect good brand, you need to protect
with copyright. You have to make franchising,
and then the government will protect you. Janet
Reno, who was attorney general at the time, said
you need patent. When Greenberg and Torak,
a famous law firm, copyrighted Bikram yoga,
I close 22 schools overnight with a restraining
order and investigate to find that 35 biggest fitness companies from San Francisco, New York,
Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles like Golds Gym,
Worlds Gym, Gorilla Gym, LA Gymthey
own all those Bikram illegal schools.
All those companies got together. They
spend billions of dollars building fitness centers and hot yoga schools, and that group of
people sue me in Federal Court in San Francisco, saying yoga cannot be copyrighted. I
spend millions of dollars, and I got summary
judgment from Judge Hamilton, who had
said when case started that she thought yoga
is public domain, free like the God. But after three and a half years, I win the case. She
said, If anything should be copyrighted first
thing, should be Bikram yoga. This is around
2006. These 35 companies, some of them multibillion-dollar companies, all got together and
say, Oh my God, Bikram got franchising and
copyright and win the case. How we can save
our money? Now, every law school in America teach Bikram copyright case. I became a

hero because I didnt give up.

COMMONGROUNDMAG.COM 59

sperm. Do you know women used to commit

suicide one after the other because I would not
sleep with them? Because I was virgin in those
days? You want me to name the names? Which
familys daughters? I can give it to you.

PHOTO: GERARD BURKHART

How many women committed suicide

because you would not have sex with
them?

Let me see if I understand. When you

copyrighted your brand with legitimacy
via the courts, you pissed off competitors, notably exercise companies, who
were taking your ideas anyway, and they
basically co-opted certain women with
trumped-up charges to trash your name
and weaken you. To create a business
opportunity for people who had been
otherwise disenfranchised.

Yeah. Like booby trap. They created booby

trap so that Ill be scared and run away.
I know the Sarah Baughn allegations
never got off the ground, and the Los
Angeles police have decided not to pursue her case.

All the cases are falling out. They never even

started. The courts are not satisfied. They did
investigations and find out the truth and decide not to start the case.
Since Sarah Baughn is in the Bay Area, I
assume she will read this interview. Do
you have anything to say to her?

Shes manipulated by crooks, my ex-lawyer,

and other lawyers who use them, because
theyre stupid, to make them think this will
make them rich. So I say to her, Have a nice
life; dont make your daughter like you. I always tell one thing, Truth is easy to prove.
I didnt even go to court, and automatically,
the investigation proved what is right and
what is wrong. These 35 companies have a
lot of money. Theyre all frauds, cheats
60

SEPTEMBER 2014

they call themselves The Hot Yoga Alliance.

A message to your ex-lawyer, Meenakshi
Micki Jafa?

She will be in jail for the rest of her life, either

in United States or India.
Who is Larissa Anderson?

She sit here with my daughter, with my wife,

giving me feet massage. And then she write
I took her over there [points to kitchen] and
raped her. Can you believe this human being?
There is two kind of brain in the world, good
brain and bad brainand no brain. All these
girlswhat theyre telling is 110% lies. Fiftyeight years I did service to the world and one
girl lying, and youre not smart enough to find
out? You didnt ask me? You just wrote it in the
paper [a reference to the Vanity Fair article]
to sell your fucking magazine. I have enough
toilet paper; I dont need to use your magazine
as my fucking toilet paper. How do you think
I feel? Still I am teaching yoga; I didnt stop.
India is so angry with Americayou have no
ideaafter my case.
Yet even in India, theres a whole antiguru culture that has emerged.

Youre right. Thats the guru business that has

been coming to America forever. You know
what is gurus blessing? To sleep with the disciple. Thats what disciple want. They wait 10
years for that. Do you know how many people
want to sleep in this country with me? They
want to buy for $1 million one drop of my

Four. Three died, one survivedwhole body

broken. In Beverly Hills in Hollywood. Ask
Shirley MacLaine. Ask Jamie Lee Curtisshe
will tell you. Because I was virgin in those days.
Ask Barbara Rush. I have hundreds and hundreds like that. I could take advantage; I could
make million dollars every minute if I wanted.
Did I do it? No. Did I sleep with them? No.
Ive been attacked physically, by women, since
I am 15 years old, from Calcutta to Mumbai,
Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Honolulu, to
San Francisco, to Los Angeles, Beverly Hills
to Las Vegas. Ive been attacked all my life.
Do you understand what Ive gone through to
protect myself? Yogananda was virgin, Swami
Vivekananda was virgin, Jesus was virgin. I was
virgin. I came out virgin in Japan after two and
a half years, Honolulu I came out a virgin, San
Francisco a virgin.
When did you live in San Francisco?

Six months in 1973. I hate it. Same school is

still there in North Beach.
Do you have any regrets?

No. I live in another worldmy world. Yogis

world. Average people like you guys cannot
reach there. I live a different consciousness.
Average people living on earth are way far
from me. The average American is pissing in
the wind, digging your own graves. I feel sorry for you guys, but whatever you invest you
get same kind of result. I am not angry with
this world. This thing happening for last 5,000
years and 2,000 years in the Western culture,
so what new? Ruining the reputation of successful people trying to help you. But I hope
one day you guys learn the lesson.
Of course I am angry. I created best thing
in history of the earth of all time. Last 5,000
years, every subject of the worldarts, science, commerce, business, money, family, love,
sportsall the inventions if you put it together
[compared to] my invention, 26 plus two [26pose sequence, plus two breathing exercises]
million times more valuable and important
than them. All the million inventions from antibiotics, vaccinations, Taj Mahal, Apollo 11,
automobile, electricity, telephone, computer .
. . all of them put together, mine is millions,
billions times more important. Why?

Let me guess: union, yoga, peace of

mind, health?

Youre right, but put another way. All the inventions help a fraction of our life. All the inventions is useless if you die at the age of 40
cancer or heart attack, but I invented something so you can enjoy a quality of life, so you
can enjoy these other inventions for a hundred
years in your life.
What do you say to critics who think
youre off your rocker, a megalomaniac?
Talking that way?

American way? Eat shit and die. Go fuck yourself. You create more Hitler and more Osama
bin Laden. I create Mother Teresa. When I
was 10 years old, I used to raise the funds for
Mother Teresa. Even before she died, she call
me. Why? We create Mother Teresa. Mother
Teresa is Mother Teresa because she was in
Calcutta. If she was in Romania, she would not
be Mother Teresa. Calcutta create Mother Teresa. You came to India and kissed my ass and
begged me for 10 years to come to your country to help you. You get my point?
That people came to India for you?

Americans. You knew who I am. You came to

India, begged me to come to this country to
help you. I didnt want to come. Accidentally, I
came because of Nixon, then I stayed. You put
me first day Johnny Carson show. You put me
New York Times, every newspaper, every magazine. You write good things about me, make
me who I am today. You fall in love, you get
married and have a child and raise the child
from little baby. Then when baby is 20 years
old, you take the baby on the street and let
some criminal rape her, and you make whole
world watch it and enjoy and make money out
of it. Thats exactly what you did.
Thats your story?

Not just me. You did to lots of people. You did

it to your President Clinton. I was ashamed; I
had to hide my face. Media.
Cant you argue that he did that to himself?

No. Indian people, they do it. I know Indian

prime minister did the same thing.
Youre talking about Monica Lewinsky,
right?

Yes. I know Indian prime minister had a baby

with the maid, just like Arnold [Schwarzenegger]. Why you make yourself look so bad, destroy your culture in front rest of the world?
I think theyre trying to hold the presi-

dent and the office to some higher standard. Thats the idea of advanced democracy.

Its a setupbooby trapfor Republicans to

kick him out, but it backfired. Hes become
more popular. How can you, American people,
make your president, the most powerful and
respectable and loving man in the world, and
make him look like hes a pimp? How can you
do it? You did to me. You came to India, you
kiss my ass, you beg me, you send me private
plane, Air Force plane to bring me to this
country, make me Bikram, the biggest star of
the world of all time, guru of the starsthen
you are writing I am rapist? Because I didnt
rape you? Thats why? If I sleep with all these
girls, they will be sitting on this sofa today
massaging my leg and suck my dick.
I do think, in defense of my country, that
unlike many governments, we attempt
to get to the truth.

Truth of what? You try to prove your president

is idiot? Horny bastard? It doesnt matter what
he did or he didnt. What truth? What makes
you look your responsibilities as citizens of
your countryhow the world is going to look
at you? Where is your dignity? Just money. You
know what I said all the time? You should write
it. One hundred times I say, Americansyou
born for money, live for money, and you die for
money. Thats why today you are broke. Nothing else come in between. Thats all. You want
to sell trash magazine to bring Jesus Christ
down to the cash.
But the Monica Lewinsky story really
happened.

So what? This is his personal right. He can have

a friend with anyone. Thats his wifes problem.
Why you make him look like hes a bad person, bad president, bad human being, to the
world? Keep it inside your family. India, they
do same thing. Dont you think Japan, they do
same thing?
White collar criminals in this country go
to jail. In some other countries, they get
away with everything.

Every American human being, man and women, involve each other. Involve each other
emotionally and physically. Is that a crime?
But because a president doing it? But why you
make your president look a bad man in the
world market? That doesnt make your country
look good.
Maybe not the faade, but doesnt it
look good if were trying to get to truth?
Its the price of a free press.

What is the truth? That president like one

girl and one girl like president. Hes a human being with personal likes. What did you
prove to make him trash, because of media?
All over the world people think you [Americans] are sick people. Crazy people. You need
yoga more than anybody else. Look what you
tried to do to me. And lies? Do you know how
many people are crucified in this way in this
country?
Thats what the press does. It brings
you up, then tears you down, and if you
come back again, they like you even
more. Its kind of the process.

Its the wrong process. On humanitarian, spiritual ground its the wrong process. As an Indian, as an Asian, I have girth, I have balls. I
speak the truth openly to your media, and media understand that and they respect that.
Is there a moral code that you expect of
your yoga teachers?

Yes. Very simplemy whole teaching is a moral

code. Serve yourself for others, to serve the God.
Do you have any fears?

There is no such thing called fear in my life.

I get that. I wish some of that quality
would rub off on me.

My special request, please dont forget to write

something: just like the Jesus Christ, there will
be day in this world when most of all the people will realize what I created for mankindto
save and change the peoples life. But unfortunately, I think I wont be here to see it and
enjoy it. I like to see that happen in front of
my eyes when Im living because I know its going to turn the world 180-degree angle. So you
should mention that Bikram said that.
Ill use your words. What more do you
want them to know about you as a human being?

That I created something. Maybe 50 years later

people are going to say, Wow! Over 1 billion people has benefited directly or indirectly
and doesnt know Bikram is a human being.
Somebody will think Bikram died 2,000 years
ago in some cave in the Himalayas. Somebody
will think Bikram is a system, like hot yoga.
Nobody will know theres a human being who
created it. But Im a living human being right
now sitting in front of you and talking to you.
If you play that tape 40, 50 years from now,
theyll be shocked.
Rob Sidon is publisher and editor-in-chief of
Common Ground.
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