I MUST find the email Jane Kartsch sent me in 2006 where she says she wants to introduce me to a friend of hers who's a "bit short and bald, but if you like each other you could maybe just have sex at least :)" This is the culture within Bikram yoga sort of orgiastic...I just always tried to stay clear and not judeg as long as no one was getting hurt...but now I realize this is another way of defining what Jane meant by calling me "dangerous" that I would expose them for what they are. Certianly after theyve forced me to loose everything, after years of not saying anything you'll notice on Twitter and here about a year ago I started talking...and Ive always said I still love the yoga and its Bikram's self centered stupidty that gets in the way. I was surprised to hear that he was a sviolent as he was with her....but when I think bout all the times I tried t get anwswers for the sole purpose of being allowed to get on with my life and career....the thing is its not about being sexually molested, its about being passed over, about affecting one's financial life. I do know a 16 year old that Bikram hit on back in 1994. She claims nothing happened although he purued her relentlessly too...she tells the story that Rajashree (Bikram's wife) Emmy and another woman were there to make sure she didnt fall for Bikram's declaration of "love"....Bikram is the type to kill ove these stories..so maybe I should be a little more careful .... oh thats right. Im dead anyway.
I have nothing against Bikram yoga as a practice. But here at Blisstree, we’ve written several times about the all-around sketchiness of Bikram founder Bikram Choudhury. Today, there’s even more evidence as to why this guy is supremely skeevy: he’s been hit with a sexual harassment suit.
Sarah Baughn, a Bikram teacher and competitive yogi filed
the suit earlier this month in Los Angeles Superior Court. She alleges
that Choudhury “picked her as a favorite” and propositioned her for sex
as early as 2005. The New York Post writes of the situation:“My wife is such a bitch, you have no idea,” pony-tailed, Speedo-sporting Bikram Choudhury allegedly told protégé Sarah Baughn in a bid to get her into bed. “She is terrible to me. She is so mean. You have to save me.”Baughn reportedly avoided both Bikram and his wife, Rajashree (who helps run the Bikram company) but kept taking classes, eventually becoming a Bikram yoga teacher. She also competed in Bikram yoga championships, where Choudhury continued to harass her, supposedly rigging one 2008 competition so she came in second. At one point, says the Post, Choudhury allegedly
“pushed the star student “down toward the floor after pulling her arm and leg apart and opening her body” where he “pressed his body into hers and began whispering sexual things [until] she collapsed into sobs.””
I know that Bikram has been an amazing and transformative yoga
practice for many, many people around the world, including Sarah Baughn.
But that doesn’t mean that bad things can’t be associated with it, too.
I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for Baughn to receive
unwanted sexual attention from the founder of a yoga movement that she
obviously truly believed in, the leader of a community she valued and
trusted. That’s a seriously awkward and disturbing situation to find
yourself in, no matter how much you love yoga.
Honestly, the more I hear about Bikram the man, the more I come to
despise him (he was also sued last year by a woman who said he made
inappropriate and sexually lewd comments to her). It sounds like he
often abuses his power and prestige as a means to get what he wants,
whether that be sex, money, or copyrights on his yoga poses. I really hope he gets what’s coming to him: karma.
Photo of Sarah Baughn from Sarah Baughn on YouTube
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