New York hosts yoga competition
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ARTHUR J PAIS
Rajashree Choudhury
Rajashree Choudhury remembered telling a 12-year-old boy who was one of the 150 competitors at last
weekend’s National Yoga Asana
Championship in New York that he should
look at yoga as more than physical activity.
‘It is also about fighting the negative forces
in us, it is about fighting one’s ego,’ she told
him. ‘It is about making peace within one’s
heart and making peace around you.’
The 150 competitors in the ninth compe-
tition — hosted by the United States Yoga
Federation or USA Yoga, and held March 2
to 4 at the Hudson Theater in Manhattan
— were divided into categories including
men and women. The champions will go to
Los Angeles to represent the United States
in June at the international Bishnu Charan
Ghosh Cup.
ARTHUR J PAIS
The headstand scorpion yoga pose may look simple to some people, Jared McCann winner in the men’s section of the National Yoga Asana championship, said chuckling. “But
believe me, it is tough and demanding,” added the music per-
former and yoga teacher. “I offered it
last year but this year I was able to be at
the very top.”
The New Yorker said he has been par-
ticipating in the competition for four
years. “And the goal has always been the
same — to inspire others and share my
own story of inner growth and self
empowerment through yoga and medi-
tation,” said McCann, who will repre-
sent the United States in June at the
Bishnu Charan Ghosh Cup, an interna-
tional championship in Los Angeles.
Both competitions are organized by
the United States Yoga Federation led
by one of the best known yoga educators in America, Bikram Choudhury,
and his wife Rajashree.
“I took up yoga over eight years ago
when I was going through a lot of per-
sonal problems and fighting a craving
for alcohol,” McCann said. “It took me a
couple of years to fully realize the trans-
formation yoga could bring about.
Then I started meditation and that
made me even stronger in my mind and
body.” .
Jared McCann
tition,” said Los Angeles-based Choudhury,
the wife of noted yoga educator Bikram
Choudhury, adding that the competition is
decades old in India, where she was a five-time champion.
“A yoga champion?” Choudhury mused as
she discusses the championship that start-
ed with just about 40 competitors. “Isn’t
that an oxymoron? Isn’t yoga about the
union of body and spirit, heart and mind?
Yes. All yoga including Bikram Yoga is also
about striving for mastery — of the self, of
the body, of the beautiful postures. The
audience at a competition is treated to
poetry in motion. The competitors’ skills
and love of the yoga is inspiring.”
She grew up in Kolkata disliking yoga
because her parents had pushed her into it.
“But when I saw the grace, devotion and joy
with which the competitors were taking
part… I began to appreciate yoga because
of these competitions, and that is why hold-
ing similar competitions in America… Is
something very sacred to us.”
Choudhury said she and her husband are
working toward having yoga accepted as an
Olympic sport at the 2016 Games.
To those who dislike the idea of yoga
being a competition, she said, “If you want
to do yoga by yourself in your home or join
a class… it is perfectly fine, but if you have
watched our competitions, you may notice
that far from the tumult of winning and
losing and egotism, the competition offers a
serene atmosphere.”
She was heartened that of the 150 com-
petitors this year, nearly 50 were men.
“Yoga historically attracts women in big
numbers; 60 to 70 percent of yoga practi-
tioners anywhere happen to be women but
in recent years increasing number of men
are joining in.” But the big goal, she added,
is to get teenagers start on yoga early. “We
had about 20 teenagers this time, but there
was only one boy,” she said.
The competition, in which each participant had 3 minutes to demonstrate three
poses, was watched by over 700 people.
Choudhury recalled how the competition
took place amidst a lot of noise and distraction in India. ‘I’d be in standing head-to-knee,’ she told The New York Times, ‘and
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