Bikram Choudhury (born February 10, 1944) is an Indian yoga teacher and founder of Bikram Yoga, a form of hot yoga conducted in a series of 26 hatha yoga postures performed in a hot environment of 40 ° C (104 à ° ° F). After several lawsuits filed against him accusing sexual assault and various forms of discrimination against racial and sexual minorities, the court granted ownership of Bikram Yoga to former Minakshi employees "Micki" Jafa-Bodden and Choudhury escaped from the United States to India.
Video Bikram Choudhury
Live and work
Born in Calcutta, India, Bikram Choudhury began studying Hatha Yoga poses at the age of three. At the age of five, he began studying Yoga from Bishnu Charan Ghosh and is reported to have won the National Indian Yoga Championship for three consecutive years in his teenage years.
Bikram created a 26-posture series, which he reportedly recovered his health. 105 degrees Fahrenheit heat where Bikram yoga is practiced, according to Choudhury, is meant to mimic the Indian climate.
At the age of 20, Bikram explained that he was having a crippling weightlifting accident. Although he said he was told he would never be able to walk again, with the help of Ghosh, he reported to have recovered fully within 6 months. Choudhury emigrated to the United States in the 1970s and founded a yoga studio in California and Hawaii. In the 1990s, he began offering a nine week teacher certification course. Certified instructors now number in the thousands with Bikram Yoga studios around the world.
Bikram Choudhury is married to Rajashree Choudhury, founder of the United States Yoga Federation. In December 2015, Rajashree filled divorce from Bikram on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. The divorce was completed in May 2016.
Maps Bikram Choudhury
Copyright claim in Bikram Yoga
Bikram Choudhury earlier made a claim that his yogic practice posture, Bikram Yoga, was under copyright and that they could not be taught or presented by anyone he did not authorize. Bikram begins making copyright claims at Bikram Yoga in 2012. In 2011 Choudhury started a lawsuit against Yoga to the People, a competing yoga studio founded by former Bikram's students and with a location near one of Bikram Yoga studios in New York City. As a result of the lawsuit, the United States Copyright Office issued a clarification that yoga postures can not be copyrighted in the manner claimed by Bikram, and that Yoga for the People and others may continue. free to teach this exercise.
Legal charges and allegations of sexual harassment
Choudhury has faced numerous lawsuits stating sexual harassment, assault, racism and homophobia. In January 2014, five women sued Bikram Choudhury for allegations including sexual harassment and sexual harassment. Two lawsuits accusing Bikram Choudhury of rape were filed in May 2013, in which Jane Doe accused of sexual batteries, false imprisonment, discrimination, harassment and other allegations other than rape allegations. It depicts a cult-like atmosphere in which members of the inner circle of Bikram help him find young women to be attacked. Jane Doe 2 claims that Choudhury recruited volunteers from abroad who "fear the defendant Bikram Choudhury that they will travel to the US and risk breaking immigration laws to serve him."
Minakshi "Micki" Jafa-Bodden served as Head of Legal and International Section from Spring 2011 to March 13, 2013, when he claimed he was "abrupt and unlawful" according to court documents filed on July 12, 2013, in Superior Court of California, Los Angeles. For two years Jafa-Bodden worked closely with Bikram, claiming that he was a victim and a witness to Bikram's "sustained, sustained, pervasive and attacking" behavior toward women, homosexuals, African Americans and every other minority. Master Bikram Sarah Baughn filed a sexual harassment suit in March, just before Jafa-Bodden was dismissed. On January 25, 2016, the jury awarded Jafa-Bodden $ 924,500 against Choudhury in actual damages. The jury also found that Choudhury acts with hatred, oppression and deceit. On January 26, 2016, the jury gave Jafa-Bodden an additional $ 6.4 million for damages.
In December 2015, Bikram's 31-year-old wife, Rajashree Choudhury, sued for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was completed in May 2016, with Rajashree awarded homes in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, as well as a number of ex-husband's luxury cars, while Bikram was allowed only to keep an apartment in Hawaii. The settlement provisions also indemnify Rajashree of any financial liability in any pending (or possibly future) Bikram lawsuit.
In May 2016, Bikram Choudhury returned to India where he began to open a yoga studio. In October 2016, Choudhury's lawyer stated that his client would not return to the United States to defend himself in another pending court case, and hoped to testify through Skype.
In May 2017, a warrant was issued for Choudhury's arrest by a Los Angeles judge on the grounds that Choudhury had fled the country without paying $ 7 million to Jafa-Bodden. An additional fake transfer lawsuit was filed against Choudhury's wife and children, who allegedly "helped him hide, escape and try to dispose of the assets." The New York Daily News reported that Choudhury's luxury vehicles and other items had been removed from the state and a court order prevented him from moving his belongings out of the warehouse in Florida and Nevada had been expelled.
Books
- Choudury, Bikram (1978). Initial Bikram Yoga Class . Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc ISBNÃ, 0-874-77081-5
- Choudhury, B., & amp; Reynolds, B. J. (2000). First Class Yoga Bikram (2nd ed.) (J. Goldstein, Red.). New York, NY: Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc./Putnam.
- Choudury, Bikram (2007). Bikram Yoga: Master Behind Heat Yoga Shows the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fulfillment . HarperCollins Publisher. ISBNÃ, 0-06-056808-9 Ã,
References
External links
- Official Bikram Yoga Website
Source of the article : Wikipedia