Born in Calcuta in 1946, he began yoga at the age of four with his Guru Bishnu Ghosh, the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda (author of: Autobiography of a Yogi and founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles.) Ghosh was a respected physical culturist and the first to scientifically document the ability to help cure chronic diseases and heal the body through the regular practice of yoga. At age thirteen, Bikram won the National India Yoga Championship. At age seventeen, following a weight lifting accident in which Bikram shattered his knee, doctors declared that he would never walk again. Refusing to accept this prognosis, Bikram returned to his Guru, who helped him fully recover through a regular yoga practice. Together they designed what would later become the Bikrams Beginning Yoga Series.

In 1973 at the urging of former U.S. President Nixon and world renowned actress Shirley MacLaine, Bikram relocated to California and is currently based in Los Angeles.