Home Hot Yoga, like most yoga schools who teach Bikram Yoga, is independently owned and operated and pays no fees to Bikram Choudhury or any company owned by him.
Bikram Choudhury is the man who introduced this transformative yoga system to the west. He was born in Calcutta in 1946 and began practicing yoga at age four with India's renowned physical culturist Bishnu Ghosh, the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda (author of “The Autobiography of a Yogi” and founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles.)
The story goes that Bikram practiced yoga for at least four to six hours every day at Ghosh's College of Physical Education in Calcutta. He won the National India Yoga Championship at age 13 and was undefeated for the following three years before retiring as the undisputed All-India National Yoga Champion.
At seventeen, Bikram severely injured his knee in a weight-lifting accident. Doctors told him that he would never walk again. Refusing to accept the grim prognosis, Bikram had himself carried back to Bishnu Ghosh's school. He knew that if anyone could help to heal him, it was his teacher. Six months later, Bikram's knee had completely recovered.
Inspired by his rehabilitation and urged by his teacher Ghosh, Bikram decided to teach yoga full time. After teaching for years in the traditional way- one student at a time- he wondered how he could bring the benefits of yoga to as many people as possible. He needed to be able to teach postures to an entire class of students all at once.
To this end Bikram, with Ghosh's help, developed an original sequence of 26 yoga postures and two breathing exercises which would be accessible to beginners and beneficial for all. At Ghosh's direction, he opened studios in India and Japan before moving to the U.S. in 1973. He quickly became a highly respected yoga teacher in the west as celebrities, athletes and many others flocked to his studios in Beverly Hills and San Francisco.
Bikram's instructional book, “Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class,” was first published in 1978 and has since been translated into several languages; the second edition was published in 2000. His second book, “Bikram Yoga: The Guru Behind Hot Yoga Shows the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fulfillment,” was published in 2007.
Bikram’s intensive Bikram Yoga Teacher Training course was first offered in 1994 and has since graduated over 3000 Certified Bikram Method Instructors.
Today, hundreds of studios around the world offer Bikram Yoga classes, continuing in our independent ventures the dream of spreading hatha yoga's powers of health and self-realization across the globe.
The story goes that Bikram practiced yoga for at least four to six hours every day at Ghosh's College of Physical Education in Calcutta. He won the National India Yoga Championship at age 13 and was undefeated for the following three years before retiring as the undisputed All-India National Yoga Champion.
At seventeen, Bikram severely injured his knee in a weight-lifting accident. Doctors told him that he would never walk again. Refusing to accept the grim prognosis, Bikram had himself carried back to Bishnu Ghosh's school. He knew that if anyone could help to heal him, it was his teacher. Six months later, Bikram's knee had completely recovered.
Inspired by his rehabilitation and urged by his teacher Ghosh, Bikram decided to teach yoga full time. After teaching for years in the traditional way- one student at a time- he wondered how he could bring the benefits of yoga to as many people as possible. He needed to be able to teach postures to an entire class of students all at once.
To this end Bikram, with Ghosh's help, developed an original sequence of 26 yoga postures and two breathing exercises which would be accessible to beginners and beneficial for all. At Ghosh's direction, he opened studios in India and Japan before moving to the U.S. in 1973. He quickly became a highly respected yoga teacher in the west as celebrities, athletes and many others flocked to his studios in Beverly Hills and San Francisco.
Bikram's instructional book, “Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class,” was first published in 1978 and has since been translated into several languages; the second edition was published in 2000. His second book, “Bikram Yoga: The Guru Behind Hot Yoga Shows the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fulfillment,” was published in 2007.
Bikram’s intensive Bikram Yoga Teacher Training course was first offered in 1994 and has since graduated over 3000 Certified Bikram Method Instructors.
Today, hundreds of studios around the world offer Bikram Yoga classes, continuing in our independent ventures the dream of spreading hatha yoga's powers of health and self-realization across the globe.
