I sometimes wonder what the fate of the Bikram's community, family and culture will be when he finally passes on.
Yes, even he will die, just like the rest of us. He is the domineering figurehead of a huge yoga empire, and yet no heir is apparent, at least not that I'm aware of. Will his system persist? Or will it implode and fracture in the absence of his iron fist? I have my theories.
The reverence given today to the Holy Yoga Sutras of Bikram Choudhury (a.k.a. "the Dialogue") will likely result in it becoming a revered relic handed down from generation to generation, never changing in its form -- just like the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Imagine a future dark ages with it's own oral traditions and how perhaps this is all that remains of our culture.
Oh, the sacred canon of the Dialogue! It is held as scripture, with every phrase subject to just as much analysis as applied to the original Yoga Sutras. Go to any Bikram class or workshop and you'll hear the words being replayed and discussed over and over, as if you are simply not hearing their deep hidden message. Yes, the infamous and misinterpreted "lock the knee", the inscrutable "pulling is the object of stretching", and the inane "Japanese ham sandwich". Are these to become the future equivalent of "yoga chitta vritti nirodha" (Patanjali 1-2: yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of mind)?
Silliness? Maybe not. Why? Do a search on "Bikram Dialogue" and see if you can find a free download. Not likely, but you can view it and buy it if you like (for example here: Buy Your Copy of the Dialogue). It's life does not depend on our fragile cloud of the Internet. The Dialogue will survive any future cataclysm precisely because it is an oral tradition. Not to mention that those Bikram's yogis are tough as nails and are amongst the most likely to survive.
All hail the Holy Yoga Sutras of Bikram Choudhury!
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