Guest guest Posted April 23, 1999 Report Share Posted April 23, 1999 and now, for something completely different! Enjoy! Gordon >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >> "Michael J. Davis" <tatsujin >> >> What the hell...it's Friday! >> >> =============== >> >> 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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