Saturday, Feb 13, 2010

Gulf News

He's a painter, a published writer, a trained classical singer, a Ranji Trophy cricketer, a cook and a successful businessman. Yet, he claims he is only a yoga teacher. Unwind's very own Bharat Thakur has one mission in life — to take yoga to the world.

A good part of the 34 years of his life were spent in the Himalayas, under the supervision of his guru Bhramchari Sukhdev, a retired IFS officer who had renounced worldly pleasures. Born into a prestigious Bihari family, Thakur says he has never used his family background to push his success.

Strange beginnings

Thakur's tale begins with a Rumpelstiltskin-ian twist.

"My parents were childless for a long time. On a pilgrimage, they met my guru, Bhramchari Sukhdev, who told them they would have four children — two sons and two daughters — but that they would have to give up their eldest son [me] in his service. From being childless to being the parents of four was appealing and they agreed.

"Sukhdev told them to return home and said he would come when the child was 4 years old. As agreed, he arrived around the time of my fourth birthday and I came away with him."

Willingly?

"Well, at that age, curiosity is a powerful attraction and I, like any other 4-year-old, was very curious. I had just witnessed my paternal grandfather passing away and wanted to know about death. Sukhdev promised to show me."

Sukhdev took Thakur to Hardwar on the foothills of Himalayas but soon abandoned him. The 4-year-old Thakur went from ashram to ashram in search of his guru for the next two years, doing menial jobs to feed himself.

More in mind

But Thakur insists it's not all an Oliver Twist-like tale. "It sounds very inhumane when put this way," he says. "But my guru had a plan. Moreover, I was never alone. A sadhu [ascetic] would always be around to take care of me. From them I learnt various survival techniques, such as keeping warm in winter without proper clothes, controlling hunger, etc. Just as he had suddenly disappeared, Sukhdev reappeared after two years and said I was now ready to go to the mountains with him."

Thus began Thakur's mysticism-filled education. "With my three companions, two boys and a girl, I received lessons in yoga, tantra, mantra, Ayurveda and various religions — Buddhism, Jainism and Sufism — not just from my guru but other teachers as well. Often, we meditated for 17-20 hours."

But a child is a child. Didn't you feel tempted?

"Of course we did. In fact, there was one young guru who would tempt us with luxuries such as cooked food. He would conjure up various goodies for us and we would be thoroughly impressed.

"So we asked our guru to teach us how he did that. That was the beginning of our tantra lessons, which were given to us by Swami Aghorananda."

Abandoned again

The more he relates his story, the more it sounds like a Hindi-film plot.

After 12 years of rigorous meditation and yoga, his guru abandoned him once again. "We had a massive misunderstanding, which I later came to know was created by him, and he disowned me and told me to return. He just handed me a piece of paper with an address, which was that of my maternal grandmother, who was taking care of my siblings as my parents had died. However, when I reached ‘home', they refused to believe who I was and again I found myself on the streets. But I was never alone. A Christian priest took me in and taught me to write English though I could speak English and my grammar was fine."

Under the tutelage of this priest, Thakur completed his matriculation. Then he received his Bachelor of Science in physical education from Laxmibai National Institute of Physical Education, in Gwalior. He was working as a physical trainer at the prestigious Scindia School in Gwalior when he was summoned by his guru.

Surprise heir

"I was also doing my MPhil, a research degree, when he told me he was leaving the mortal world and wanted to choose an heir from his four disciples. Vivek, the most diligent of us four, we felt, would be his obvious choice. As we sat in final meditation, guruji pulled me aside and told me he was choosing me. Shock is an understatement. I refused to accept it as I wasn't ready for it. I was 23 years old and this was a huge responsibility. He just told me to sit down and put his foot on my back. For the next 17 hours or so, I felt as if 20,000 volts of electricity passed through my body. What he was doing was ‘vajra pat'. He was passing on his powers to me. My intellect and logic were reduced to nothing, yet everything became clear to me. I felt a different kind of power but he told me to keep it under control. He sent me down to Hardwar to test me for the next two days. I realised I could use my powers even without knowing it. That's when he called me back and beat me up — all my life I had been his favourite wash board because I questioned too much — for losing control. Even years later, after he had died, he would come back to me in my dreams to control and guide me.

"With this, began my journey as a yoga guru."

Feeling his mission was being stifled as a small-town schoolteacher, he left for New Delhi. He had also finished his research degree but jobs were elusive.

Sudden rise

"No one would hire me and said I was too qualified. So I put my MPhil away and with just my matriculation certificate, secured a job as an acupuncturist in a health club. It became more of a clinic.

"That's when the suspicious owner of the club approached me and I told her about my degree. She made me manager of all her health centres. By now I was living comfortably.

"But my guru returned to remind me of my purpose. I resigned and became a door-to-door yoga teacher. At this time, I met Shailaja Tahiliani, the wife of Indian designer Tarun Tahiliani, who suggested I open a yoga centre.

"I had the good fortune of meeting Indian industrialist Russi Modi through another famous businessman whom I treated for multiple sclerosis. Modi told me I was a loser. And I thought: ‘What rubbish! I was making a decent packet to meet all my needs.' Moreover, I believed what people told me, that, I was the best yoga teacher in the world. I was naïve enough to believe people praised me because they loved me. Modi told me they were holding me back by pampering me.

"Around this time, I met Nandan, a graphic designer from the US, at one of my tapasya meditation classes in Bangalore. He wanted a change and I was looking for someone who could be my partner. He became my disciple and within a year, he was teaching yoga with me. More money started flowing in.

Steady expansion

"Once again, my guru appeared and told me to expand my operations. Today I have about 300 teachers in different parts of India, Russia, Malaysia and Dubai. This is how Artistic Yoga came into being. With time, more and more educated people joined us. With them came ideas. We diversified into films, fashion designing and other businesses.

"Yet, I rarely participate in the running of these. My business is only to heal the world — physically and mentally — through yoga," Thakur says.

With this, the "living Himalayan guru", as he calls himself, switches off my dictaphone as I sit zapped, as if I had just got off a rollercoaster ride.

Take a peek into Bharat Thakur's life and philosophy on www.gulfnews.com/gntv

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