> MONK GLOATS OVER YOGA CHAMPIONSHIP > "I am the serenest!" he says > > LHASA, TIBET - Employing the brash style that first brought him to > prominence, SriDhananjai Bikram won the fifth annual International Yogi > Competition yesterday with a world-record point total of 873.6. > > "I am the serenest!" Bikram shouted to the estimated crowd of 20,000 > yoga fans, vigorously pumping his fists. "No one is serener than Sri > Dhananjai Bikram-I am the greatest monk of all time!" > > Bikram averaged 1.89 breaths a minute during the two-hour competition, > nearly .3 fewer than his nearest competitor, second-place finisher and > two-time champion Sri Salil "The Hammer" Gupta. > > The heavily favored Gupta was upset after the loss. "I should be able > to beat that guy with one lung tied," Gupta said. "I'm beside myself > right now, and I don't mean trans-bodily." > > Bikram got off to a fast start at the Lhasa meet, which like most major > competitions, is a six-event affair. In the first event, he attained > total consciousness (TC) in just 2 minutes, 34 seconds, and set the > tone for the rest of the meet by repeatedly shouting, "I'm blissful! > You blissful?! I'm blissful!" to the other yogis. > > Bikram, 33, burst onto the international yoga scene with a gold-mandala > performance at the 1994 Bhutan Invitational. At that competition he > premiered his aggressive style, at one point in the flexibility event > sticking his middle toes out at the other yogis. While no prohibition > exists against such behavior, according to Yoga League Commissioner > Swami Prabhupada, such behavior is generally considered "unBuddhalike." > > "I don't care what the critics say," Bikram said. "Sri Bikram is just > gonna go out there and do Sri Bikram's own yoga thing." > > Before the Bhutan meet, Bikram had never placed better than fourth. > Many said he had forsaken rigorous training for the celebrity status > accorded by his Bhutan win, endorsing Nike's new line of prayer mats > and supposedly dating the Hindu goddess Shakti. But his performance > this week will regain for him the number one computer ranking and earn > him new respect, as well as for his coach Mahananda Vasti, the > controversial guru some have called Bikram's "guru." > > "My special training diet for Bikram of one super-charged, carbo-loaded > grain of rice per day was essential to his win," Vasti said. > > The defeated Gupta denied that Bikram's taunting was a factor in his > inability to attain TC. "I just wasn't myself today," Gupta commented. > "I wasn't any self today. I was an egoless particle of the universal > no-soul." > > In the second event, flexibility, Bikram maintained the lead by > supporting himself on his index fingers for the entire 15 minutes while > touching the back of his skull to his lower spine. The feat was matched > by Gupta, who first used the position at the 1990 Tokyo Zen-Off. > > "That's my meditative position of spiritual ecstasy, not his," remarked > Gupta. "He stole my thunder." > > Bikram denied the charge, saying, "Gupta's been talking like that ever > since he was a 3rd century Egyptian slave-owner." > > Nevertheless, a strong showing by Gupta in the third event, the > shotput, placed him within a lotus petal of the lead at the > competition's halfway point. > > But event number four, the contemplation of unanswerable riddles known > as koans, proved the key to victory for Bikram. > > The koan had long been thought the weak point of his spiritual arsenal, > but his response to today's riddle-"Show me the face you had before you > were born "-was reportedly "extremely illuminative," according to > Commissioner Prabhupada. > > While koan answers are kept secret from the public for fear of exposing > the uninitiated multitudes to the terror of universal truth, insiders > claim his answer had Prabhupada and the two other judges "highly > enlightened." > > With the event victory, Bikram built himself a nearly insurmountable > lead, one he sustained through the yak-milk churn and breathing events > to come away with the upset victory.