Bikram averaged 1.89 breaths a minute during the two-hour competition, nearly 3 fewer than his nearest competitor, two-time champion Sri Salil "The Hammer" Gupta.
The heavily favored Gupta was upset after the loss.
"I should have been able to beat that guy with one lung tied." Gupta said. "I'm beside myself right now, and I don't mean transbodily."
Bikram got off to a fast start at the Lhasa meet, which is a six-event affair. In the first competition, he attained total consciousness (TC) in just 2 minutes 34 seconds, and set the tone for the meet by repeatedly shouting, "I'm blissful! You blissful!? I'm blissful!" to the other yogis.
...
Gupta denied that Bikram's taunting was a factor in his inability to attain TC. "I just wasn't myself today," he said. "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 15 minutes for 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 ecstacy, not his," said Gupta. "He stole my thunder."
Bikram denied the charge, telling reporters, "Gupta's been talking like that ever since he was a 3rd-century Egyptian slave-owner."
- from a handout given to my sister in a class on world religions. I thought it so funny I wanted to share THE LIGHTNESS
Love peace and chicken grease, Teo
ps here @ Givnology perhaps we should have a zen-off room where people out-serene each other eh?
"Truth is fragile, as glass, but it can shine for all time!" - Use Art To Say Something
Mind your wants, because somebody wants your mind! - George Clinton.
Forgive my thinking I have something valuable to say to you, I just love you so much...
