Complaint From a Current Bikram Studio Owner

Email sent to Greg by a current Bikram studio owner:

When Greg came to our teacher training at Bikram’s Yoga College of India over 11 yrs ago we learned a lot from him and had great respect for him as a teacher but this respect has been crushed many times over at this point.

We understand everyone’s need to follow their own path but doing it at the expense of others is a path we will never undersand.

I’m sure there are some Bikram studios who are doing exceptionally well financially but the majority of us are simply paying the bills and making a small living, at the expense of family time and more financial freedom that would come from higher paying jobs, because we love the yoga and want to heal the people that walk through our doors.

If you feel the need to open more studios, be creative and find your own location, don’t do it a few blocks from an existing studio.  I’m sure every business class would tell you this is good practice but you state in your website that you want to bring yoga to everyone, it seems to us you simply want to steal it from those who have done the leg work; this is not good karmic practice.

You are not hurting Bikram at this point, you are hurting us, the people who have put years of ourselves into our small businesses and would like to continue to do so.

 

Greg’s email reply:

I welcome and appreciate anyone sharing their thoughts with me.

You have taken the time to write and express yourself…that deserves, at the least, a response.  I hope you take the time to read my point of view as I have read yours.

First, I struggle with the term “we”?  Who is “we”?  You also use the term “us”… who are you speaking for beside yourself?  If you simply wish to express your own displeasure, say what you wish to say and if you righteously feel your point of view is the only view that matters then it is a moot point.  If however, you are expressing yourself and are trying to understand something beyond your own point of view then say who exactly you are speaking for.  You are speaking to me: Greg.  I am responding directly to “we”, to “us”, to you.

I am following my own path; it is not calculatedly designed to be at the expense of you or of anyone else.  My path came about from starting a purely donation based studio.  My inspiration was Bryan Kest of Power Yoga Santa Monica.  It was clear in my own heart and mind that a tremendous amount of people simply couldn’t afford yoga.  We—YTTP— put an empty tissue box in the studio and people dropped in what they could.  Volumes of people started showing up to take class.  There is a thirst for yoga, a need for yoga, and I have countless emails, phone messages and comments from students that very simply said, “I couldn’t afford to do yoga, thank you for making this possible, it has saved my life.”  I also learned that people of incredible means, people who like to avoid crowds and could afford anything, were coming to the studio because they enjoyed the mission, the vibe, and the experience.

I’ve always thought the hot yoga and the vinyasa yoga were a compliment to each other so for several years, I recommended that students and my teachers take Bikram yoga.  They would go and consistently the feedback was that it is too expensive.  In Manhattan you drop in for $25, rent a mat for $5, buy water for $2 and they just couldn’t afford to go.  After a few years of this, I was clear that there is a HUGE segment of the population that would love to do Bikram yoga and simply could not.  That is what moved me to open up the hot studios.  I offer it at an affordable rate; I have had several students that couldn’t pay and never turned a person away.  There is never an intention to open a studio to put someone out of business.  Most, not all, but most of my students are new to hot yoga.  Very, very few are from existing Bikram studios.  Most Bikram students are very loyal and they like routine.  They don’t jump ship just because someone else opens and is charging less.  My belief is if you are teaching from your heart and your students experience that, they stay at their yoga home.

You say you love the yoga and that you want to heal people.  Wonderful.  Why you would think one less studio in the world is better in any way is confusing to me…if you are committed to a kind of yoga that transforms not just a person but a community, a state, a country, the world…more yoga is needed.  And people who are of less economic means should be entitled to practice yoga.  In these hard financial times yoga is becoming cost prohibitive and these are the times when people need yoga the most.

You judging my karmic position in the world is a byproduct of your ego.   I might suggest you wanting to restrict my desire to enable more people to do yoga is bad karma… but I don’t know that…. I haven’t a clue.  I am not trying to hurt Bikram.  I am not.  I am not trying to hurt the you, we, us that you represent.  Perhaps you might consider what you can do to have more people come to your studio… offering a groupon to get a quick push is nice but is it followed up with a deep commitment to have as many people do yoga as possible?

I don’t know if you even made it this far in my response, or if the return address is even valid…. but I am open to whatever follow up you might have and who knows, maybe you will just lower your price point and get more people in the door and truly realize your dream of loving, helping, and healing even more people.  Your feelings about me have no effect on my feelings for you.  You teach yoga.  You have made sacrifices to do so, to me that makes you an incredible person.

be peace, be love,
g
yttp!