Gurukool

What makes Ashtanga Yoga attractive to the younger generation is its ability to combine oriental holistic style with a western physical approach. The essence of Guru Ji’s message is not very different from what they tell you in every gym — he places equal emphasis on the cardinal formula of fitness — the three Ss, strength, suppleness, and stamina.

K Pattabhi Jois was born in a village in Hassan district of Karnataka. His father was a priest and astrologer and trained his son in Hindu rituals. Young Pattabhi’s first serious encounter with yoga took place when he was only 12, when he met his guru T Krishnamacharya. The young boy devoted the next two years to the serious study of yoga.

However, it was in Mysore, where he went for higher studies in Sanskrit, he met his guru again, who had now set up a school of yoga. He asked Jois to take it over. Jois spent time re-interpreting Ashtanga Yoga, originally outlined by the sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, written between 400 and 200 B.C.

According to David Swenson, one of Jois’ earliest disciples, ‘‘Ashtanga Yoga grew by word of mouth and became mainstream after the yoga boom in the West.’’ Today, some of his disciples, who have also become teachers, stretch from Brighton to Beverly Hills. For instance, it is Danny Paradise, the Canadian disciple and now teacher who is Madonna’s first and allegedly all-time favourite yoga teacher. It was Ashtanga Yoga which gave her her perfect body.

Listen to Jois and you know why the devotees come in like waves. ‘‘The yoga text says that yoga practice makes you lean but strong like an elephant. A yogic face is always a smiling face. It means you hear nada, the internal sound, and your eyes clear. Then you see clearly, and you control bindu, the vital energy sometimes interpreted as sexual energy. The inner fire unfolds, and the body is free of disease.’’

The Yoga College of India, started by Bikram Choudhury, which now has over 600 schools in the US, grew from sheer market paranoia. Choudhury, who evolved the ‘‘hot yoga’’ method, practiced in rooms heated to at least 105 degrees, was so popular that he worried about other teachers ‘‘stealing’’ his style. As he confessed to a magazine, ‘‘I asked the Justice Department, ‘How do I stop it.’ The Justice Department said, ‘Well, when you are in Rome, you must do what a Roman does. You have to franchise your yoga school!’’ And so he did, opening more than 600 studios that carry his unique style. People hoping to become yoga instructors in the booming Choudhury empire must pay $5,000 in tuition.

Normally clad only in a Speedo swimsuit and a diamond-studded wristwatch, the 56-year-old California-based yoga teacher extolls his students to do the regimen — 26 asanas and two breathing exercises in a hot chamber — Choudhury’s ‘‘hot yoga’’ claims to cure every physical and mental ailment, at any age.

Choudhury studied yoga under Bishnu Ghosh, brother of Paramahansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi, founder of the Self Realisation Fellowship in Los Angeles). At 17, an injury to his knee during a weight-lifting accident brought the prediction from leading European doctors that he would never walk again. Refusing to accept their pronouncement, he asked to be carried back to Bishnu Ghosh’s school, for he knew that if anyone could help heal his knee, it was his teacher. Six months later, his knee had totally recovered. Ever since, he has spread the curative methods of yoga therapy through his schools around the world.

Choudhury’s wife, Rajashree, also holds a degree in Hatha Yoga Therapy, which she says she has effectively used for chronic diseases and disorders. While they both teach at their headquarters in Beverly Hills, California, Rajashree is also known for her speciality — Pregnancy Yoga classes. It apparently ‘‘relieves stress for both mother and the unborn child, eliminates fear, anxiety and irritation and ensures tranquility, pleasure and happiness. His net worth, which is estimated at $7 million, pales before his collection of cars ( at least 30 and the fleet includes Rolls Royces and Bentleys) and his starry clients — Michael Jackson, Shirley Maclaine and Richard Nixon. He is equally unfazed by sniggers about his blatant marketing of spiritualism when he brags, ‘‘I am bulletproof, waterproof, fireproof, windproof, money-proof, sex-proof, emotion-proof. Nothing in the world can take my peace away from me.’’ Bikram merchandise includes the ‘Final Spinal’ T-Shirts, camisoles, tote bags and baseball caps.

‘‘My beauty philosophy is based on a simple principle: beauty on the outside begins on the inside. To look your best, you must feel your best,’’ says Bharti Vyas, the London-based Ayurvedic beauty guru, whose treatments include ‘‘auricular therapy’’ where inserting pins in clients’ ears helps balance their body.

As a little child in Kenya she was raised on nani ke nuskhe — turmeric milk, ginger and honey, and numerous other herbal cocktails. She could have never imagined that one day those little gems of ancient Ayurvedic wisdom would bring her fame and fortune.

The skin care guru claims to have evolved a ‘holistic beauty therapy’ that combines elements from Ayurveda, acupuncture, magnet therapy, anatomy and physiology. Vyas runs her successful beauty empire not far away from London’s most famous department store, Harrods. Her beliefs are simple and make sense to anyone who listens to her breathless exposition: ‘‘I believe in balance; balance of food, emotions and life-style.’’

Vyas’ family migrated from Nairobi in the early ’70s, but like many of her immigrant compatriots, she was not prepared to slog seven days in her delicatessen shop. She entered the beauty industry late in life.

This strange career twist was, in fact, a gift of boredom she was suffering during her pregnancy. ‘‘I watched a television beauty programme in which a teenage girl had burnt her face while waxing facial hair. I thought I could help her.’’

Before helping others she needed to help herself with training and systematic knowledge. So at the age of 35, she enrolled at Raycochrane College, in Baker Street, to become a qualified beautician. It was a bit embarrassing to be amidst of 17-18 year old girls, she recalls.

In 1988, she started her Chiltern Street clinic. The posh ladies of Knightsbridge were not able to remember her name. Where is the clinic of ‘that Indian lady’, they would often ask. ‘‘I told them the trick to remember my name. It’s similar to ‘party.’ Replace P with B. Simple.’’

Vyas’s entry into the world dominated by names such as Christian Dior and Estee Lauder was not easy. Yet she did not have to spend a single penny on advertising and promotions. The work came through referrals. And referrals later transformed into endorsements.

‘‘What I like about Bharti’s approach to beauty is that it is spiritual as well as practical,’’ says Hollywood actress and singer Cher. Her other devotees include Cherie Blair, Ralph Feinnes and Mariah Carey. ‘‘I love this no-nonsense, practical approach to beauty. It makes perfect sense,’’ says pop star Belinda Carlisle.

Her book, Beauty Wisdom, was an instant bestseller in 1996, and led her to numerous television appearances and Press interviews. The book begins with a step-by-step acupressure message and gives advice on every part of the human body and many beauty problems.

This year, she published Fabulous Face, her own beauty bible that reveals the skills one can employ to keep her face young and radiant. The secret of Vyas’ success lies in her ability to create a perception that was unknown in the western world. Beauty is neither instant nor applied. It has to be cultivated by controlled actions and complex free intentions. ‘‘When you feel beautiful, you look beautiful.’’ Simple, but hard to follow.

Make no mistake, wrapped in this eastern philosophical idea of beauty, is a shrewd marketing strategy that makes Vyas a successful beauty entrepreneur. Her range of products begin from as high as £20.

A Siddha Guru, says the website of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, is a spiritual teacher, a master, whose identification with the supreme Self is uninterrupted. The unique and rare quality of a Siddha Guru is his or her capacity to awaken the spiritual energy in seekers through shaktipat.

It has been a long way for the young, sassy Gurumayi, since the unseemly, violent battle with her brother in the tussle for power of their swami’s ashram in Ganeshpuri, Mumbai, after he passed away in 1982.

Only a decade-and-a-half ago, sibling rivalry almost threatened to end the goodwill created by their guru, Swami Muktananda, where murder threats and assault ruled the day. Visitors were appalled to discover gun-toting bodyguards on the grounds of Ganeshpuri and Chidvilasananda outshone her brother in this league, with her very, special Lebanese bodyguards.

Today, the Gurumayi lives in a $14 million ashram in Upstate New York, in a vast, splendid estate which has meditation centres, bubbling brooks, exotic flowers and gardens. The Siddha Yoga teachings are available to seekers through the SYDA Foundation around the world.

Many students discover that performing the practices with a community of seekers, at Siddha Yoga meditation centres, ashrams, and Siddha Yoga retreats, which extend from Buenos Aires to Beverly Hills, enhances the effect of the practices.

Gurumayi awakens the spiritual energy of her clients who include Isabella Rossellini, Diana Ross, Lisa Kudrow and Melanie Griffith. She also blesses her devotees by tapping their head with a peacock-feather wand, while her servants are said to anoint themselves with her dirty bathwater. Her brother, of course, has been left far behind.

S N Goenka is a teacher of Vipassana meditation in the tradition of the late Sayagyi U Ba Khin of Burma. Although Indian by descent, Goenka was born and raised in Burma. After receiving training from his teacher for 14 years, Goenka settled in India and began teaching Vipassana in 1969.

In the last three decades, Goenka has taught tens of thousands of people in more than 300 courses in India and all over the world, and it was only two decades ago, that he began to appoint teachers to help him meet the growing demand for courses. Meditation centres have been established under his guidance in India, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, France, UK, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Nepal and other countries.

The technique which SN Goenka teaches represents a tradition that is traced back to the Buddha, 2,500 years ago. The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma — the way to liberation — which is universal. Vipassana means ‘‘insight’’ in Pali, or ‘‘seeing the reality, the truth.’’ Vipassana is characterised by increased awareness, non-delusion, self-control and peace.

Not surprisingly, a visit to Goenka’s headquarters in Jaipur is met with deep silence. Disciples are called ‘Dhamma workers’ and meditation involves days of ‘‘noble silence.’’ At present, there are 150 Dhamma workers who fill the six-hectare ashram, surrounded by little green hills of the Aravalli range, on the outskirts of Jaipur. They follow 18 hours of strict meditation where radios, telephones, reading, writing and recitation of prayers are not allowed. Not surprisingly, Vipassana is not for the faint-hearted, spoilt celeb crowd though disciples have included Priyanka Gandhi and Koo Stark.