Bikram Choudhury is facing six civil lawsuits. Photo: New York Times

Los Angeles: He is the yoga guru who built an empire on sweat and swagger. He has a stable of luxury cars and a Beverly Hills mansion. During trainings for hopeful yoga teachers, he paces a stage in a black Speedo and holds forth on life, sex and the transformative power of his brand of hot yoga.

"I totally cure you," he has told interviewers. "Whatever the problem you have."

But a day of legal reckoning is drawing closer for Bikram Choudhury. He is facing six civil lawsuits from women accusing him of rape or assault. The most recent was filed on February 13 by a Canadian yogi, Jill Lawler, who said she was raped by Choudhury during a teacher-training in 2010.

A Rolls Royce belonging to yoga guru Bikram Choudhury. Photo: New York Times

In February, a Los Angeles judge cleared away several challenges to a lawsuit from a former student who said Choudhury raped her during another 2010 teacher-training.

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The first complaint was filed two years ago. As more surfaced, and more women spoke publicly about accusations of assault and harassment, their accounts have created fissures in the close-knit world of yoga students and teachers who have spent thousands of dollars to study with Choudhury; opened studios bearing his name; and found strength, flexibility and health in his formula of 26 yoga postures in a sweltering room.

Many have stayed loyal to a man they call Boss and revere as an eccentric guru. Others are walking away.

Tiffany Friedman, owner of Haute Yogi Manhattan Beach, dropped the word Bikram from her studio name after reading of the lawsuits filed against Bikram Choudhury. Photo: New York Times

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Bikram yoga founder facing rape, assault claims