Yogi vs. Yogi
Reading the aura of a cosmic trademark battle
By Ali Moran
What’s in a beard? Golden Temple, the Eugene-based manufacturer of the Yogi Tea brand, drew inspiration from Yogi Bhajan, a one-time Indian customs officer who gathered a New Age flock by homebrewing a blend of Kundalini yoga and Sikhism (not to mention a great cup of tea). Now, Bhajan’s widow, Bibiji, claims the Yogi Tea company owes royalties to Bhajan’s trust, and wants control of the Yogi name—a decidedly earthly potential loss for Golden Temple’s 150 or so employees. As a Portland arbitrator weighs the trademark case, meditate upon a brief look at this yogi-on-Yogi duel.
HUMBLE ORIGINS
Yogi Bhajan — The original Yogi founded his first ashram in an LA garage.
Yogi Tea — Bhajan followers loved the master’s blend of cardamom seed, cinnamon bark, clove bud, ginger root, and black pepper, and started selling it in SoCal natural-foods stores in 1984.
SWEEPING CLAIMS
Yogi Bhajan — The leader asserted that as an incarnation of a deceased Tibetan lama, he could observe auras and prophesize the future. (Skeptics called him “Bogi Yogi.”)
Yogi Tea — Golden Temple’s St. John’s Wort Blues Away “settles emotional imbalance” and “alleviates nervous unrest."
TRANSCENDENCE
Yogi Bhajan — The 3HO Foundation, which Bhajan founded, operates spiritual centers on every continent. Its website allows visitors to fill out a form to request a “spiritual name.”
Yogi Tea — The Eugene company now makes nearly 60 tea blends; deploying its expertise in “sensual well-being,” it recently launched a breakfast cereal line.
MAGIC INGREDIENTS
Yogi Bhajan — Kundilini stresses a Sattvic diet (fruits and vegetables, which uphold “clarity”) and cautions that garlic, eggs, and meats lead to heaviness and dull minds.
Yogi Tea — Anise seed, dandelion root, nettle leaf, and cherry bark may sound like a fat rabbit’s diet, but Yogi Tea was founded upon the idea that “tasting great is essential, but isn’t enough.”
WOMAN’S TOUCH
Yogi Bhajan — Bhajan reportedly employed a troupe of 15 women to serve him spiced drinks, attend to his baths, and perform group massages. Now that’s what we call a tea party!
Yogi Tea — Yogi produces teas formulated to address women’s health issues: balancing hormones, encouraging a healthy pregnancy, and promoting sufficient breast-milk supply. Delicious! (We mean the tea, of course.)
Published: February 2011
I thought I’d share my thoughts on this silly, slanderous article on Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh (Yogi Bhajan). You had some of the article right, but alas saying Yogi Bhajan alleged he was the reincarnation of a Tibetan Lama or that his staff of 15 women gave him “group massages” and so forth is foolish on your part. Its obvious to me that you have been swayed by some former students of this great spiritual teacher. Mythology is mythology. Maybe you should say that Jesus himself had 2500 female disciples who he bedded over a three year period. Its just as ridiculous.
Yogi Bhajan was not treated as a ‘cult’ leader when he was alive. He served many folks so for every article someone like you write there are millions who have benefited by the life of Yogi Bhajan. Its easy to through stones at a comet when its so far from your reach.
I’m not exactly sure why it is that when someone comes along who isn’t mainstream, who is hard to quantify and understand by our Western and very young cultural perspective, that we need to create myths and stereotypes about them. Maybe, somehow, it makes us feel better about ourselves. Even the word “cult” is damning. How often, in the media, will you simply hear the word “community” being used to describe a community, oh, but that wouldn’t be sensationalist enough. Too boring and ordinary, I suppose.
You could do a lot of good focusing on the value of what Yogi Bhajan did in his nearly 4 decades here. A truly American story. He grew up quite well off, became a master of Yoga, gave up his very secure job with Indian Customs that was within a year or two of a full retirement. Why? Because he saw the huge numbers of Westerners coming to India in search of some kind of meaning that wasn’t available in the West. He saw them coming but not necessarily getting practical tools to make their lives more fulfilled. He decided to create a community that provided that for many, many thousands worldwide. That included many very successful businesses and many opportunities for employment.
That is part of his legacy.
This article speaks to none of that, but instead slanders and his quite useless.
Sounds like a reporter who hasn’t spent the time to research the story and chooses instead to peddle inuendo. Give me the New York Times!
What a nasty little article.
I too like to speak up about this article by this Ali Maran – whoever he/she might be.
How unfortunate, a true wast of one’s breath and pen. Writing for the public ought to involve an effort to be truthful – but then it wouldn’t come across as sharp & oh so condescending…so cynical.
I had the good fortune of meeting Yogi Ji at an early age; his word of wisdom & genuine interest in my well being resulted in me being able to maintain a marriage through difficult times & thus provide my now grown children with a stable home. His advise also got me on an even keel in my (now million dollar) business – and he charged me nothing!
So, dear Ali – take a few deep breath & get clear with your purpose: do you want to be just a silly one day wonder writer or actually contribute something of value while on this temporary earth?
Since you say that you have the “right to remove comments containing personal attacks”, please remove your own slanderous comments about Yogi Bhajan. First of all, he was not in the habit of making claims that he could see auras or see things in the future – he simply could. He never said, “I’m reading your aura” when he spoke of experiences from my immediate (or less immediate) past that no one else could possibly know. I wonder if Sadasat Singh of Italy will remember his own story of having Yogi Bhajan call him while he was in the process of using toothpaste to ask him why he wasn’t using alum and salt. I’ve never heard the term “Bogi Yogi” used in reference to Yogi Bhajan before. Is that your invention?
The term “Sensual well being” would more likely be used by those currently abusing their managerial positions at the Yogi Tea company; Yogi Bhajan is known for promoting a spiritual and holistic approach to life rather than a sensual one.
Our diet definitely has sattvic components – but unlike those who are afraid of the stimulating qualities of ginger, garlic, and onions, Kundalini Yogis consider these “trinity roots” fundamental to good energy and health. Kundalini Yoga makes it possible to transmute and elevate the energies within one’s own body.
Your most slanderous comment – the one that most misrepresents the focus of Yogi Bhajan – is your reference to Yogi Bhajan hiring 15 women to give him baths and group massages. As far as I’m concerned, you have lost all credibility as a reporter who checks sources and facts before printing slander. (And I pity anyone who repeated that slander to you – as someone who either lived in duality when Yogi Bhajan was alive, or lives in it now after his passing – or both, more likely.) You owe it to yourself and the public to interview others who knew Yogi Bhajan (in the thousands, and all over the world) – those people who are not in the process of trying to “steal” or demean both his legacy and gifts to our community and everyone else who might benefit.
It seems you expect to be appreciated for your insinuating “turn of phrases.” Instead, I feel they say more about you than Yogi Bhajan. I find both your tone and your lack of research unprofessional.
Correction #1: Yogi Bhajan frequently recommended garlic.
Correction #2: Those 15 women (and I’m not certain you have the number correctly) were hired to deal with the mountains of mail Yogi Bhajan received daily. NO group massages!!
I concur with Harbhajan Kaur Khalsa (we’re not biologically related) that you honor your own word and remove this “article.”
Ali,
Having a name like Ali, is not mainstream. I am sure you have had someone attribute a stereotype to you that was not based on truth. As such, I am shocked that you would write an article that was so stereotypical and just not sound journalism.
In arabic Ali is name of Muslim Prophet. I name honoring messenger of God. You use Ali as your name and lie about man who served humanity and sacrificed his own self interest. Each time you lie, You insult Ali,Messenger of Allah,God. I wish you to find your truth before you judge others for just mere coins.
Greetings from the other side of reality. First I have seen no evidence that employees are at risk regardless of the legal outcome, so please don’t suggest this is about Oregon jobs.
What this is about, is a way for Yogi Bhajan to take care of his family after his death, by allowing his wife to collect royalties on the sale of a product line that he started from a company he created. It is about a Sikh Dharma for-profit company that was created to bring revenue into the non-profits and about a lawsuit in which the Oregon Justice department in conjunction with ordained ministers of Sikh Dharma are suing among others Golden Temple Management where in Golden Temple was the makers of Yogi Tea before their sale to Hearthside Foods. Yogi Tea is now made by a different company.
As for what’s in a beard? Usually if the person is wearing a turban it’s about respect for other people, their lifestyle, and their spiritual teacher even if slander does make such good copy.
No wonder it’s called the Mud Room. Why does a supposed journalist bother with this: flinging slander as though it were informing people of anything real. This is a waste of space and a waste of our attention.
In the early 70’s each issue of Time magazine had selected one particular spiritual teacher, usually from the east to write about in their religion section. And guess what the articles followed EXACTLY the same pattern that you did. First implying that a man who had a Degree in Economics and PhD in Psychology, who spent time meeting with officers at the World Bank in D.C. was somehow corrupt by being prosperous and helping and inspiring young people get off drugs and live healthy constructive lives.
And end up implying inappropriate sex, Sex SEX.
Your facts are all wrong, I was there! You don’t appear to have the slightest idea of the depth of corruption and damage the Management team at Golden Temple has perpetrated on people who have worked with them for nearly 40 years.
Why do you think the Attorney General of the state add his suit to the one existing?
Please reexamine the reality of the situation and see if you can print a withdrawal of your inaccurate article, like redeem yourself.
The cartoon reflects your own outdated ideas of who Sikhs are. It looks like the Air India mascot from years ago.
I can go on, just man up and recant this awful article about a really great man and a great community that has been committed to service and peace.
The comments from these members of Yogi Bhajan’s well-known cult are telling. Anyone with interest in Yogi Bhajan’s corrupt enterprise should read:
http://www.rickross.com/groups/3ho.html
Good reporting on the lawsuits that are ripping apart the late accused serial sex abuser’s yoga cult in the Eugene Register-Guard:
http://special.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/24671927-41/yogi-khalsa-bhajan-leaders-members.csp
I moderate the online forum called “The Wacko World of Yogi Bhajan” where former Yogi Bhajan students have co-written a big messy book about Yogi Bhajanism and cult mind control.
These “Siblings of Destiny,” as they call themselves, really did have marvelous healing experiences from coming in contact with Yogi Bhajan. They are speaking their truth. And many, of Yogi Bhajan’s students had horrible experiences. Shunned for sharing our “negatvity.” Most YBers (as we call them – we call ourselves X-YBers) have never read the court documents or X-YBer’s stories. They don’t know about the dark side. Most YBers are extremely innocent and good.
Don’t know if Ali Moran was tipped by an X-YBer or not. I didn’t do it. Just wish to say that X-YBers really care for innocent YBers. “The Wacko World of Yogi Bhajan” has helped many wake up and study the testimony of former members – and the court documents – over the decade we’ve been online. We exist to support “Siblings of Destiny” to exit the YB cult, and we exist to tell our side of the story.
The Wacko World of Yogi Bhajan
http://forums.delphiforums.com/KamallaRose/start
Who is Rick Ross, after all?
http://www.shawano-wisconsin.com/rickross.html
“Is Rick Ross working undercover for some purpose? How come he never singles out any mainstream church clergymen, those who have done terrible things to mankind?
He is working undercover to hurt minorities, to hurt their image and make their success to be a dream never come true. To make them feel that they are not in the land of freedom. To make them feel that this land belongs to someone else who makes their own laws and policies to oppress the minority. "
If the messenger is a problem there are plenty of resources beyond Rick Ross for any interested reader to consult to discover the nature of Yogi Bhajan and his 3HO Sikh Dharma group.
A good place to start is any of the ongoing coverage of the legal fracas that the cult is engaged in, well reported in the Eugene Register-Guard.
Try “Yogi’s Legacy in Question”.
Or “Khalsa Vs. Khalsa” in the Santa Fe Reporter.
If newspapers don’t cut it for you, there are hundreds of survivors of this mess that Yogi Bhajan created who will help set you straight.
I am an American Sikh who studied with Yogi Bhajan for 30 years. It sounds like Ali read "Sikhism and Tantric Yoga”; a rare and out of print book by a Sikh scholar and historian which tells the true story about Yogi Bhajan and takes a critical look at Yogi Bhajan’s kundalini and tatric yoga systems. I discovered this book during my two years in India.“Sikhism and Tantric Yoga” has been a real eye-opener for me and makes complete sense when I think about the last thirty years of my life with Yogi Bhajan. Written by the esteemed Dr. Trilochan Singh, author of over twenty books on Sikh history and philosophy and lecturer at sixteen Universities, “Sikhism and Tantric Yoga”, describes the Sikh mystical path and is critical of Yogi Bhajan’s Tantra and Kundalini Yoga.
I have included here a sample of one chapter and the entire book can be downloaded for free at:http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?mode=page&id=1
Join Gurmukh yoga on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=1837368253332&id=1214270541&aid=108156
You may also view individual chapters to “Sikhism and Tantric Yoga” at these links:
& Tantric Yoga A Critical Evaluation of Yogi Bhajan[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=192
Doctrines and Yogi Bhajan’s Secret Science[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=193
Bhajan’s Adi Shakti Shaktimans and Shaktis[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=194
Bhajan’s Clap Trap Theories of Kundalini Yoga[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=195
Bhajan’s Ego Maniac Utterances[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=205
Bhajan’s Seven Years in America and His Tinkling Titles[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=206
Bhajan’s Arrest and Release on Bail[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=207
Bhajan Becomes the Only Maha Tantric in the World[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=208
Leaders without Conscience[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=209
to Truth and Authentic Sikhism[/size][/link]http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=210
Dr. Trilochan Singh also stated in a Time magazine article titled [link=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915413,00.html]“Yogi Bhajan’s Synthetic Sikhism[/link],”Bhajan’s synthesis of Sikhism and Tantrism is a sacrilegious hodgepodge."
What I learned in India about the Sikh Mystic Path By Guru’s grace, while being detained by authorities in India, I lived for almost one year at the Golden Temple. After visiting Guru Sahib at the Harmandir Sahib everyday, singing the divine Gurbani Kirtan and contemplating God’s Name, the Guru showed me, how all the Yogic asanas I performed over the last 30 years were a complete waste of time and cannot match to 1 percent of the devotional contemplation on the Name of God.“In contrast to Patanjali’s Yoga, and other schools of Hindu Yoga (Hatha, Tantric, Laya, Kundalini, etc.), the Sikh Gurus call Sikh mystic path, Brahm Yoga (the Yoga which does not use any yogic technique but concentrates on God and achieves Him through devotion and contemplation). It is also called Gurmukh Yoga (Yoga of the Enlightened), Sahajya Yoga (Natural Yoga based on spontaneous devotion and contemplation). The word Yoga is used just to mean union with God.” Dr. Trilochan Singh.
II Eight Steps of Sikh Mystical Path…….Thus Guru Nanak clearly rejects the eight steps of spiritual progress as enunciated by Patanjali and replaces them with ethical and spiritual discipline of his own. The Sikh scriptures also clearly reject asanas (physical postures), pranayama (breath control), nauU-dhautz (cleaning the intestine with a piece of cloth inserted in the mouth and taken out through the anus). Those followers of Yogi Bhajan who frequently quote him as saying that the Scriptures of the Sikhs sanction all these Yoga practices, voice only his glaring ignorance of Sikh scriptures. I have not known any saint or seer in contemporary or past Sikh history who ever practiced these Yoga asanas. But all saints and all scholars have firmly called these and more so Tantric practices as directly opposed to Sikh doctrines. The following quotations, from Adi Granth make it clear that there is no place for Yoga practices in Sikhism:
If a man learns all yogic asanas of perfect adepts, If he controls and subdues his senses through such feats;
Even then impurity and dirt of his mind cannot be removed.
The filth of egoism will not depart from the heart. The human mind cannot be cleaned and made pure, By any yogic discipline and restraint. It can be made pure and controlled only by seeking, Through love the sanctuary of the true Enlightener.
Adi Granth, Guru Amar Das, Vadhans p 558
For me the only asana (posture) worthwhile is to fix steadfastly the mind on the Vision of God and let the heart and soul be absorbed in such a spiritual condition of transcendent revelation as to continuously reflect on His Presence and listen to the enchanting melody of Unstruck Music (Anhad Shabad)
(a) Savikalp Samadhi (ecstasy within the realm of consciousness): to be absorbed in the meaning and philosophical and mystical contents of the Divine Word is Savikalp a samadhi. (b) Nirvikalpa Samadhi (ecstasy of the Transcendent vision of God): to be absorbed in the Spirit and Essence of the Divine Word is Nirvikalpa samadhi.
If one does the nauli dhauti karma (of cleaning the intestine with a piece of cloth), and becomes adept in eighty-four asanas, and yogic exercises, he cannot attain any peace of mind by these yogic techniques. Let him do such Japa or Tapa through such techniques for years and years and wander about in search of perfection, he will not attain genuine inner peace even for a moment.
A. G. Guru Arjan, Majh,
Its inevitable that along with those of us who love and respect the Siri Singh Sahib your article will attract those who belong to a “cult” that they themselves were caught in. The socalled "YBers as I suppose I am are dumb and disillusioned. We all met Yogi Bhajan between 1968 and before 2004. Some have been blessed to experience the real teachings of Siri Guru Nanak as lived by millions of Sikhs before us. Some as shown by above posts first attached themselves to Yogi Bhajan’s personality and then got distracted and unfulfilled by that. I have known Yogi Bhajan since 1970 and adopted Sikhi in 1971. I have NOT fallen in love with his personality but respect and love him as GurSikh and servant of humanity. All the slander Guru Sant Singh and his small Manmukhs share will not bring down the Legacy of Siri Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa. Try as he might and as articles like yours display you cannot attack a man who did more in his lifetime for humanity then any one man could do in thousands of lifetimes. Time will tell my words are truth. Its never the teacher which remains it is his teachings. When you through stones at the sun, they will hit you as they return to earth. I (we) know only ONE Guru and Yogi Bhajan never claimed that title or role in our lives. I find it very shallow and cowardly that men and women attack a man who has been deceased since 2004 but could not confront their own insecurities and ego when he was alive. Very curious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8BBipmqKxg
Dear Kamalla Rose Kaur aka Premka,
I have heard the rumors and the charges and don’t dispute them. I am hesitant to read through court documents or prepared statements because that’s exactly what they are,…… prepared statements. There is an agenda, anyway and by definition and can’t be a middle ground.
I have it from a confidant of yours, many years ago, that whatever went on between you and Yogi Bhajan was not how you’d like it to be portrayed. I’ll leave it at that as the details are damning more so for you than Yogi Bhajan.
We can all have and hold anger for parental figures even until our deathbed. It’s is through Sunia that we can resolve the most horrific pains in our lives. It is only through deep listening than we can own the events in our lives, and then empower ourselves make a change
Sat Nam,
Barry Brown
These are strange times but they only come around every 2,000 years. So a man calling himself a Yogi comes to North America. He attracts wealthy Beverly Hills folks, rock star/ Johnny Rivers (Look to Your Soul) and a bunch of “long hairs” who we refer to as “Hippies”. He sets up shop in Hollywood and starts teaching this new yoga (which is really old yoga) called Kundalini. He gives out spiritual names and shows folks how to get off their attachments to drugs and alcohol. He inspires these young and old adults to start small businesses and be self-reliant. He is married, has children, comes from a far off land called India and his legend begins. During this time in the US he becomes a US citizen (1976), registers to vote, pays lots and lots of taxes (unlike other successful citizens), creates a concoction known to millions as “Yogi Tea”, goes shopping at Antique stores wherever. He meets with two Popes, Archbishop in Anglican Church, Presidents, senators, congress people, homeless people, other spiritual leaders (calling themselves GURUS), travels millions and millions of miles in a 25 year period, settles in northern New Mexico and drills a 1,000 foot well in Espanola (Sangre de Christo Mts), authors “Peace Prayer” day as an annual event, gives and gives and gives and so forth. But now he is physically gone and its fashionable to attack him with fantasy and mythology that he was a so and so and never created or chaired any businesses or companies which he inspired or directed. To name one: Akal Security. What is this? Ask the US Marshalls.
So this man lives 75 years and may be imperfect but what about all the energy which happened around him in that period. Could Gurusant ever have known Sikhi or Premka (Camilia Rose) ever authored a book (Peace Lagoon)? Could the fools, now trying to steal funds from a non-profit to stuff into their own pockets ever succeed with Yogi Tea, Golden Temple Bakery, Sunshine or any other enterprise if he hadn’t been in their lives?
A man’s legacy and remembrance is known by the life he lived while alive by those who know and love him. History will not alter what many souls experienced when Harbhajan Singh Khalsa was on this earth.
I truly don’t care how many things he did wrong or if he did this or that. What matters to me is the result of the technology he shared with me and hundreds of thousands of others. The technology and availability of the Shabd Guru (Siri Guru Granth Sahib) was brought to the West by him and his widowed wife (Bhai Sahiba Indirjit Kaur Khalsa (Bibiji). No other Sikh since they first came here in the 19th century has done more to spread the Guru’s teachings.
Anyone who says Yogi Bhajan is a fool or liar or phony “Cult” leader are themselves the liars and fools. What is done is done by the One who takes care of all affairs. Yogi Bhajan (Harbhajan Singh Khalsa) known as Siri Singh Sahib to many was one person who loved God, his wife, his children, his Guru. Anyone of us who were fortunate to come in touch with him, learned many things. As for me, I learned – “Patience”. I am patiently waiting for all this to unfold. I pray the pain that some souls claim they have because they attached themselves to a man who they once loved, is healed and released. I have none and I was around him for 33 years.
I am now 61 years old. I am a grandfather myself. My children knew Yogi Bhajan, even one of my grand-children spent time with him. They are doing well and what we are grateful for from this “Long Tall Yogi” is his compassion, his love, his kindness and service to our family. This man I watched grow old and gray was a man who kept his word and followed through on what he said. This is my (our) experience and by God’s Grace I keep up each day though around me is confusion and sometimes fear. I never called him my Guru. I know who and what that means. I always thought of him as a guide post, a beacon light showing the way to safe shores. Some now want to refer to him as “Cult” leader and such. My faith and devotion is given beyond a man’s personality. The Creator I worship is greater than my mind can grasp, therefor with even more gratitude, I thank Siri Guru Gobind Singh for giving his Khalsa the Siri Guru Granth Sahib so our souls will be soothed by listening. (Sunia).
Lets see if these once inspired middle-class folks who have never known despair, famine, war or torture, can attack Guru Gobind Singh. He is the Guru I follow. Anyone of us (YBer’s) who have taken the Amrit Pahul of the 10th Master have transcended the attachment to Yogi Bhajan’s personality and physical form. When one slanders the life (living or deceased) of a Gurmukh, then one him (her) self is dammed to Hell. Rise up, oh Manmukh and listen the words of the Shabd Guru. Yoga, Meditation, prayer, chanting the Naam are all there. There is NO duality with devotion to the One. I am the Light of my Soul, I am bountiful, beautiful and bliss. I am, I am!
Sat Hanuman Singh,
In the last year you have stated “I truly don’t care how many things he did wrong or if he did this or that” more than once in your effort to defend the indefensible.
Brother, you and I were in the same boat together at one time. I know you as a student of history and as such you have studied the lives of great leaders. I find it remarkable that you will not acknowledge that your teacher’s wrongdoings destroyed or nearly destroyed the lives of of his students. Perhaps you “truly” don’t care. As you have spent your adulthood droning after Truth for the enrichment of Yogi Bhajan, I suggest you meditate on that what you do “truly” care about. Sat Nam.
I assure you I am not Premka Kaur Khalsa.
http://yogibhajan.tripod.com/id16.html
I admire Premka but nope, she ain’t me.
Yes, I am student of history and one who is drawn to Truth otherwise I would not be on this path, nor call myself a Sikh of the Shabd Guru. I’ve never called myself a disciple of Yogi Bhajan or worshiped him as my Guru Sahib. He gave me the name Hanuman and changed it to Sat Hanuman so I wouldn’t submit my ego his or any other personality.
Why are there not attacks on Guru Maharaj Ji (his father was a Sikh) he had folks bow to his Lotus Feet (Premies), or Sant Kirpal Singh who was worshiped as the incarnation and lineage of Guru Gobind Singh or Paul Tillich who said Ek Ong Kar was (Soul Tavel). Guru Nanak has influence many contemporary Sants, Yogis and men of spirit.
But now after 6 years Yogi Bhajan is being attacked by so many of his former students. I am sorry folks but those negative experiences did not happen to me, my wife, to my two daugthers, my son-in-laws, their parents. What is it that Yogi Bhajan did that has hurt you so badly? You are stuck and now attack a ghost. Did Kundalini Yoga work? Did White Tantric work? Did the Khalsa businesses not become strong and prosperous businesses?
You are telling me that Japji doesn’t work? That Jaap Sahib is foolish! Kirtan Sohila and Rehiras are just philosophy? Without Yogi Bhajan and his wife Bibiji (Indirjit Kaur) would any of you have heard of Guru Nanak, Guru Ram Das, Guru Teg Bahadur or Siri Harimandir Sahib?
Amazing. God Bless all of us.
I apologize to Kamila Rose and Premka Kaur for saying anything against either of them. I acted on information that was incorrect. Thanks Soorya Kaur.
Humbly submitted
Sathanuman-
As a student of history, you must know that criticism of Yogi Bhajan has gone on for a long time before his death, and it is foolish and self-centered to think that if nothing happened to you and yours, than nothing could have happened to anyone at all. While it might help you sleep better at night to think of Yogi Bhajan’s transgression as petty slights that some took personally, most people would the sexual misconduct alone to be serious and worthy of concern.
You claim to not hold Yogi Bhajan as your Guru Sahib, but you let him name you (twice) and in your comments you seem to think of him and the Shabad Guru as inseparable, and the light of Guru Nanank as needing Yogi Bhajan to spread through the world, something that puts you awkwardly in the same theological boat as many disciples of Sant Kirpal Singh.
Gurfateh!
Hi Soorya Kaur and Sathanuman Singh Khalsa,
“The Wacko World of Yogi Bhajan” (online forum and book about YBism – http://forums.delphiforums.com/KamallaRose/start) got started ten years ago. And, in the mid 1990s Dr. Constance Elsberg interviewed me (amd many others) and then she wrote a book about us, called “Graceful Women – Gender and Identity in an American Sikh Community.”
We’ve been yelling, “Get out, Yogi Bhajan and his inner circle are bad, bad!” for many years! Trying to warn you!
It’s hard to read the denial in the words from you who are followers of Yogi Bhajan. I know you are desperate to hold on to what is slipping away.
I’m a person whose family has been lost to Sikh Dharma for decades. It’s painful to hear the delusional echo that I’ve also heard from my own loved ones " He didn’t do anything wrong. So what if he did. It’s just slander and lies."
I know Yogi Bhajan’s Oregon sangat can’t be unaware of the story of Governor Neil Goldschmidt and his rape and sexual abuse of a young girl while he was mayor of Portland. The abuse went on for years with the complicity of people close to Neil Goldschmidt. But because he was a man of power and influence he got away with this crime. His victim died last month and her story is being retold, I’m sure you have heard it. Her story is the story of your dead spiritual teacher’s victims, too. It is the story of all women who are sexually exploited by powerful men. How can you allow yourselves, your children (especially your daughters) to continue to join in the complicity that covering up for a serial sex abuser demands of you?
Like Neil Goldschmidt, Yogi Bhajan paid off his victims to shut them up. But unlike Neil Goldschmidt, Yogi Bhajan never admitted that he had harmed the women he abused.
The world does not see you as leaders of the Aquarian Age. They look at you and they see dupes and fools. Do you ever reflect on how that has made your birth families feel?
I, too, have family in 3HO. The loss of my family member to this cult has been the single most painful element in my life. In the early years, I had an open mind and tried hard to appreciate the life style, even attending their soltice events. However, it soon became clear that I and others of her birth-family were being abandon. The developed self-serving arrogance shown toward me and all things not 3HO demonstrated a distinct change in who I knew my family member to be. I was also kept from knowing my family members own child, until her young adulthood, when we were able to connect through a different channel. My heart goes out to all those who have been caught in the tendrils of 3HO and for their children who have been kept from knowing, and denied the love from, their blood relatives. After 40-years I can say I’ve seen and experienced 3HO up close and personal and it is no healthy life-style. I love my family member and always will and will always be here for her, should she need me.
I would so love to meet and speak with the writer of “By Family is in 3HO on Feb 09, 2011 at 9:20PM.”