Thank you for doing this work. As someone who was sucked into this cult for 20 years I can confirm this is all true. It was a devastating blow to learn all of this. Actually soul crushing. I wish the current followers would come to their senses and interviews like this can be really helpful for bringing awareness to the truth of ‘yogi’ bhajan.
I was very badly affected by this man. I can't even write about it yet. But my life changed for the worse because of my contact with him. I was young and idealistic and thought he was a man of truth.
The egoism of this man Bhajan and his capacity to create a bubble of immunity around himself, during his life time, reminds me of Donald Trump. The corporate "culture" of avaricious wealth hording in the USA facilitates social inclusion into the highest levels of the ruling elite for these sorts of two faced, hypocritical people. One learns to avoid them and all their friends! like a plague. The the vast majority of Sikhs are well respected, and for good reason, imo. In British Columbia the community is noted for feeding the destitute and being protective of the public peace, which we all so desperately need and appreciate. Of course, the steriotyping is brutal, as it is for just about everyone in Canada, but Sikhs seem very capable of rising above this ignorance on the part of the WASP colonial social structure. The leader of the federal, cross Canada New Democratic Party, with a social democratic philosophy like that of Bernie Sanders, is Jagmeet Singh. He is doing a fine job.
We need to look at it from different perspectives. If you look at the organisation now, they are doing good sewa too. The biggest media network is theirs.
@@KalashnikovCult No they’re not. They are still defending bhajans actions and telling people that if they are raped they asked for it. I lived in this ashram for 26 years. This is a group of perverse and cruel people
Harbhajan S Puri (Yogi Bhajan) was a con, who used Sikhi to cover his cult of yoga, capitalist empire. I lived in this so-called spiritual lifestyle and was an integral part of several of 3HO businesses for 50 years! Phillip is 100% accurate in his research and presentation!
Born and raised in 3HO and having served on corporate boards everything stated in this podcast is true. Sadly, anyone who rejected YB and wanted to find a different path forward was fired. The institutions are now actively working to ‘restore’ YBs name. It’s all corrupt. They have intentionally slandered the people who were abused and those who have no issue rejecting YB. The majority now left in positions of leadership and authority are still his devotees.
As a 3HO Sikh for 14 years, I identified with the dharma more than Bhajan. I recall the Jonestown event and wondered how different we were from that cult. By then I had learned to be skeptical of Bhajan, but felt the community had a future despite him, precisely because we were connected to a solid tradition. Sadly we weren’t well connected to the traditional community.
It's difficult for you to connect with traditional Sikhs. Though not impossible. Communication, mannerisms, culture, there's a lot more to look forward to
I feel so sorry that u had to endure all that facade... I hope your life and mental state will get clear over time..I hope this hasn't left a scar for sikhi within u
Bhajan didn’t want his (students) “disciples” connected to Sikhi. It was a challenge to his authority! I was one of his strongest supporters until 3 years ago- he never built or help build any business- he stole, assumed ownership of businesses initiated or began by a follower of his! I was one, and it took me 49 years to wake up!
Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa (Miriam Garon) was my deceased husband's cousin. Yogi Bhajan called Shakti the Mother of 3HO and his Executive Secretary. Tim Garon started going to the ashram in 1968 that had begun to form around Bhajan and that's where Tim met Jim Baker, a successful restaurateur who had become a follower of Yogi Bhajan and per Tim; Jim Baker decided to leave the yogi after he found out about all the secret, sexual (mis)conduct between Bhajan and several young women at the ashram. Jim Baker left the yogi and began attracting his own group of devoted followers (The Source Family) and based many of his so-called teachings on what he'd taken from Kundalini yoga.
@1:28:08 I can confirm this is true. I completed my teacher training in 2020 and these were the phrases banded about by the people deep into the K.Y life when the Golden Cage book was released.
Thank you so much for this conversation that made such a good summary and diving in the topic. I hope that the reparation programm can support the second generation healing. That this content helps to distinguish all what happened with the structure of abuse and manipulate the 3HO comunity in the many ways. I'm aware that it could be shut down so many life perspectives about sikh religion and yoga lineage misuse. Having great empathy for all people involved in that difficult process.
One important part of our ashram communities was a motivation to serve, yoga classes offered regularly at a very low cost; and serving of free food in the LANGAR tradition of Sikh Gurdwaras in India, if centers were able to financially manage it. That was definitely a high point of our presence in America in the '70s.
I don’t think so. I was at the Espanola ashram for more than 20 years and other ashrams another 6 years. Langar was not like the Golden Temple. It was only for those who lived in the ashram. I wanted to bring in homeless people to eat with us but I was told not to do that.
It is so important to have this conversation inside the Punjabi - Sikh community, because this organization keep using Sikhi to profit, in South America, 3HO and Sikh Dharma International are the only sources of information about Sikhi in Spanish. Every time I try to bring this topic forward inside the punjabi Sikh community I got dismiss as we are not interested. But all around South America we have SGGS with spanish translations done by SDI with alteration with out been properly care, so many persons wanting to know and learn about Sikhi that end in the hands of this group.
Wait. A translation is a translation. Are you implying that had someone else done the translation it would be significantly different. From what I understand there was a guy named Babaji who dedicated his life to translating the Guru and now it's available to the world. I guess I don't really understand the concern here.
@harijotkhalsa9496 brother you already know. I already know what your motive is. It's plain to see. I've seen you post other places too. You want to follow yogi bhajan. I have no problem with that. If people want to tell the truth of yogi bhajan let them be. Why are you so worried about it. This is the reason I post on this now because the way the people who still want to follow yogi bhajan have tried to silence those who speak up about the abuse he did. Sant singh didn't have proper understanding of gurmukhi all he did was take the previous translations and was instructed by Yogi Bhajan to do it. Look at his owns words. I've seen even on sikhnet where the English translation done by him doesn't match what's been said in the shabad. It doesn't even match the punjabi translation they have with it. Dr. Sant Singh said, "The translation was based on the 4 available versions comparing and contrasting, and also using a variety of dictionaries, and sometimes using words and translations from the Siri Singh Sahib.
@harijotkhalsa9496 bhai has been translated to Siblings of destiny when it means Brother. How many times has Bhai been mentioned in Gurbani. I've seen other 3H0 people avoid using the word hell in their translations and will write things like face the consequences. Just write Hell. Naraks means hells.
They have an ashram here in Massachusetts, US, where I've had many "unfortunate" interactions with various of their members. Unfortunate because I foolishly thought they there would be place for rationale and dialogue speaking with them. I also believe there's a lot of Nirmala influence in the "mumbo-jumbo" of the Yogi, as their members mostly only want to talk about Guru Ramdas ji and many of them wouldn't even know about Guru Nanak. The back story is when Nanak's son BaBa Sri Chand visited Ramdas ji, the Guru out of humility bowed down and swept Sri Chand's feet with his beard. This has become a talking about and source of arrogance in the 3HO against our own Gurus. Numerous other things though. Eat 'high-vibration" food such as khichdi so as to elevate your soul. Leave Gurbani running when not at home to elevate the aura of your surroundings and thus your own self. The Ardaas was a prayer coined hundreds of years ago regarding some kundalini BS. The Khanda is a symbol hundreds of years old representing an "Aad Shakti", an energy something kundalini again. The "in-your-face" all white clothing to elevate your aura again. A lot more that I might be embarrassed to even admit knowing about, basically in Biden's words, a "bunch of malarkey" cooked up by the Yogi to sell to innocent and gullible people, aided by other cunning, egoistic people looking to benefit, some of whom might still be living today. Snatam Kaur is the biggest name that comes to mind. Her name should also be a clue, no? It's also unfortunate that only a few of us South Asian Sikhs have ever raised their voice while most have been happy to ignore, and some mistakenly feeling proud. Looks like Philip and Stacie have done a lot of work to uncover this entire unfortunate history, many thanks to them for bringing the truth to light!
That was deep.... Especially hit the nail on the head regarding his unhealthy stages towards his death😮😮😮 (he obviously didn't practice what he taught)
How many lives did he change and saved The reality of Us Human being is a man or wanna can do 20yrs of good but the min one bad come about we condemn so is this existence of most
The Community is shattered. Those who believe the Staff & others stories & those who don't. There's division between husband & wives, sisters & brothers, friends. Yoga & meditation can be life altering. meditation can be life altering.
I was involved peripherally with 3HO for 10 years. An Indian American friend, we used to play in the same punk band together for a year or so, said to me about my interest in taking up Kundalini yoga, he said, "Ya know, my mom is all into that stuff and she likes to say, 'In India, we have a saying, "Alas...one must have an enlightened guru to be successful on the path. But if the guru is too far away, if we don't have a close very tight relationship with the guru, we don't really benefit from our practice no matter how diligent and motivated we are. But then if the guru is too close we end up simply annihilated, burnt to a crisp, and do not get enlightened that way either. And we never can tell which one it is until its too late." Theres kin dof similar things said in Tibetan Buddhism as well which I now practice as opposed to Kundalini Yoga. But I took heed of that, gradually began to feel that was it was kind of true, and from all of the stories about Yogi Bhajan "abusing" his innercircle members sounds like it holds true in this case also, they got too close and got burned. But most of the Sikhs (western sikhs) struck me as having no special qualities, they were too bourgeoise for me, were not adept levitators or even good mind readers, to me it always seemed a shame that none of them say disappeared into caves for years, or lived om the streets as homeless beggars, and of course Yogi Bhajan was against all of that and wanted people to become yuppies, and I hated that aspect, its like the worst aspect of the western culture we grow up in taken to the enth degree, so there was no way I could have got very far in my involvement with them or too close to the guru as it were and they were also all a bit cliquey, and i was too scruffy so there was never any pressure, nobody was going to hypnotize me with a mind control mantra and a bagel and then take me to Esalen and wrap a turban around my head and give me a Sikh name and tell me I had no past and my future as Sikh and yogi was now all ther was. So, yes, If you weren't wearing all the gear you got sort of mostly politely ignored and I was fine with that they were just a bunch of squares and gumbies (as in the claymation cartoon character, kind of silly and gee whiz character who in one episode climbed the endless ladder out of his grandfathers fire truck and ascended all the way to the moon) anyway as far as I was concerned. I don't really doubt what people claim about Yogi Bhajan being "abusive." And I feel bad that people seem to have got put through th e meat grinder, and I doubt they were warned as I was about the need to tread carefully around any tantric tiger's den. so to speak. That is what the kerfuffle is down to, if I may run roughshod for a moment over people who feel they were extremely hard done by Yogi Bhajan. Kundalini is a wild and dangerous force and then also too, Tantric gurus are notorious for not respecting anyone's personal needs and limits, that sthe whole point. Its like Tibetans say about the Vajrayana, "Don't. Just don't even go there. There are other sane and pleasant ways to become liberated." Its a tragedy I suppose that these people in Yogi Bhajans inner circle never got the memo, I'm glad I did from my friend's mom. I never really met Yogi Bhajan but I went to a couple of solstice "White" Tantric intensives in New Mexico and one year he was very present and gave us a lot of talks and explanations about some interesting traditions and techniques that were being highlighted called tratakam, the meditative art of using the eyes and the gaze to affect conciousness. I never took it up as a practice but it really opened something up for me during the retreat and also i received what was called darshan too, the first I had ever heard of that, which of course is rather basic to dharmic religions that make use of gurus and that rather blew me out of the water and I had what I now chalk up as perhaps having had a very powerful pointing out of the nature of mind. I saw something in Yogi Bhajans cursory glance at me that later would reccur in my practice of Buddhist and Dzogchen. Also During the White Tantric sessions I began to witness everything around me as transparent and felt a few times that I was being hit with drops of rain and heard thunder many times, yet the sky was clear as a bell, not a cloud in sight. One night during the retreat I went to my tent to go to sleep, completely exhausted closed my eyes to find that instead of the usual darkness, my head seemed filled up with the clear blue sky complete with the sun and the moon and one point this massive ufo that transmogrified often appearing as a multi-faceted diamond. I carried on the whole night and I felt as though my perspective became multiplied many times as though my mind had become a faceted blue sapphire that could see many presents, pasts and futures. It was like being on a very hard but pleasant acid trip and i still wonder if somehow it wasn't and all of the other experiences weren't induced by some kin dof black project psychotronic device, after all, thsi retreat was helf in New mexico where no doubt there are things of that nature and Yogi Bhajan had a lot of ties to powerful people in New Mexico, so perhaps he thought he'd give us a boost! I also was lucky enough to get instruction in a yoga set directly from Yogi Bhajan and he said a number of times he chuckled "Lets see, what should the next posture be? You know I always just make these things up you know. It doesn't matter. The yoga either works for you or doesnt. Don't get hung up on, "Is this real authentic yoga." At some point someone has to just make it up. In Vajrayana Buddhism there is this notion of people who have acquired special powers from many years of intensive practice to do just that. Others are even born with such powers to just say "OK, do this with your fingers and say Babaghanouj and you'll be cured of all diseases when you wake up tomorrow." Also what is called hatha yoga is also just mixed ancient techniques with British army calasthenics. If you want to really see an authentic Hatha Yoga text it is Vimalamitra's tantra of the Sun and Moon from I believe the 11th century or so, it was preserved and practiced in Tibet and Dzogchen Community currently teaches the sets which are quite astonishingly powerful and which they have made into a repertoir they call Yantra Yoga or Trulkhor. Soon after starting Kundalini yoga, I felt surely many of the postures were made up by Yogi Bhajan, I didn't care, certain sets were very powerful for me and overcame physical and psychological obstacles i had had all of my life, several of my friends whom I taught the yoga also became practitioners. And aslo one other guy, was this really scary gang banger teenager kid. He wanted help from me because he was concerned that his girlfriend, had sucked all of the kundalini energy out of his dick with her vagina. Thats what he told me had happened. I have to say, his energy and his whole demeanor was pretty disturbed and he seemed to have some kundalini thing going on where when we'd try to meditate, he kept spontaneously standing up very quickly, unable to sit back down for some time. He told me that his arms would fly straight up as well and stay there for minutes at a time and nothing he could do to put them down except to wait till the thing passed. I told him not to worry, just do Kundalini Yoga everyday for an hour or two and it would all get ironed out. If his girlfreind sucked something out of him he'd soon get it back. He was convinced I was the guy he had to see to get straightened out for what this girl had done to him. He was psychotic, adamant and practically threatened me if I didn't teach him Kundalini Yoga. I let him borrow my 3HO books and he fucked off with nearly all of them and I never saw him again after a few months of regular weekly sessions with him. What was bizarre too was, that he found me at my job initially, he just barged in to the office, wild eyed, the boss called the police and he went right up to me, "You're Shemus, right!? Your friend Steve told me you know all about this Kundalini yoga stuff. My girlfriend attacked me and got my kundalini! You gotta help me homes!" WTF?! After a a few weeks he had really calmed down a lot and he would always say again and again, "You really helped me. I can't believe what happened and I can't believe you actually got me out of it! Thank you man! I will never forget you!" and he always brought me a bag of Mexican food take away, which is all i asked for payment. Also, what was bizarre, was he looked like Yogi Bajan, minus the turban and with gang tatoos. The whole thing was completely freaky. How did he know where to find me at my work? My friend Steve who was taking Kundalini yoga along with his girlfriend from me didn't know where i worked, it was no where near my apartment. But they were as suroprised as I was when they foun dout about it. Steve said, "We invited him to come with us and do a class, he must have really wanted his own private session!" And there were many other experiences that I link back to my Kundalini Yoga practice and the people who were having genuine work done by practicing Yogi Bhajan's "fake" yoga.
Thanks, I enjoyed reading that. I’ve been a kundalini teacher for almost 15 years. I never met yogi bhajan and always got weird vibes about him. But my teachers were good people and I never Got sucked into the whole cult aspect of it. So now it’s hard finding out all this info and trying to figure out how to move forward.
@@rubycrystal1 What 3HO teaches is reasonably within the range of what is loosely called hatha yoga, so I just do some form of hatha yoga if I wanted to quit 3ho because I didn't like Yogi Bhajans activities. Tho I don't practice 3HO yoga anymore, I got a lot out of it when I did. Let the yoga speak for itself, we don't really know what really was happening with Yogi Bhajan anyway, its just what other people say about him, but we do know how the yoga affects us, if the yoga is good I would keep up as they say. If you are not comfortable doing 3HO yoga, I would try another group like Iyengar yoga or one of many other legit organizations offering hatha yoga classes. I got into Buddhist practice and that is an amazing universe to explore and build your practice further. Don't let doubt stop you on the path, its a pitfall that has stopped many practitioners right there and then. So many paths to go along and keep progressing.
@@shemusmcquillaide I already teach other styles of yoga, but liked the energetic effects of kundalini yoga. But I have a feeling I’m going to figure out how to adjust going forward. Thanks for your encouragement.
He never started AKAL Security, nor Golden Temple Bakery, Yogi Tea, SGN, Inc (Natural products brokerage) 3HO Super Health! His students initiated all the businesses and he manipulated them all into KIIT! Only top managers made $$$!!
This is true. Bhajan took Akal security away from Gurtej by promising him a younger wife. This was after my neighbor, GuruNam, killed their sweet little girl by taking her for a walk on a cliff without her glasses. During their grief Bhajan took over Akal.
3ho Sikhs are some of the healthiest people I know so there’s that. I’m always suspicious when a master doesn’t follow what he preaches. In the end being vigilant about health isn’t wrong. There are definitely ranks where the average 3ho follower is not a Sikh, even if they wear a turban, they really don’t have much interest in Guru Granth Sahib but there are obviously some that do. I wish the best for both categories but I just hope that the temptation to monetise Sikhi doesn’t influence too many because they end up doing a disservice to themselves and others, but go ahead and monetise the ‘kundalini yoga’. I took classes for awhile but found that dancing Bhangra with some discipline was just as effective if not more and when I started teaching it lots of 3ho came to my classes and preferred it.
43:51"I don't know how he can detail a lie that brilliantly"... Sorry but none of his lies are brilliant. They just aren't. Breeze on over to KRI's Library of Teachings and you'll see this. It's incoherent drivel. The audience isn't actually paying any attention to the words coming out of this man's mouth. They sat obediently, feverishly taking notes on yellow legal pads. They weren't absorbing any of the actual words. The lies he told were not brilliant. Malevolence is not brilliant.
We were sleep deprived and we thought we couldn’t understand bcuz he said it would take like 8 generations to prepare our nervous systems. He made us believe he was so advanced that it was our fault for not seeing the psychobabble nonsense.
I think anyone criticizing Yogi Bhajans ethics when it comes to paying employees, should recognize any culture, including western capitalist companies that rely on cheap labour abroad. If you contribute to a capitalist production standing on the exploitations of poor people in countries without laws to protect minimum weigh etc. We should be grateful for any demon exposing an aspect of our society that we recent, so we collectively and holistically can take responsibility over it. Rather than putting ourself above one person not realizing most people accept to give money and pay taxes to war machines benefiting an elite, destroying the opportunity for the rest. This should call upon a greater revolution to not consume blindly, but to only give our (labour worth) money to only invest in transparent and correctly executed production lines. I dont know one smart phone company that are transparent or even knows where they resource their minerals and exactly what the people are being paid and under what contract and safety rules they live under.
Why then influencers like Brett Larkin and Guru Singh not under radar to preach his teachings ? His teachings and method never endorse by any Indian gurus from Yoga field or Sikhs
Thank you very much for the work and time you put in the conversation. Hopefully more awareness will rise up. I was "only" a practicioneer of this type of Yoga and after all the things came up with this I couldn't even practice it because it felt odd to me. Interesting question about separation the teaching from the teacher. I've tried it and for me it felt not right with the thought in back of my head that he have made awful harmful things.
I think everyone in LA tried Kundalini and Brikram at least once, I didn't get all these fabulous white folks wearing white wraps on their head and all white clothes and it all felt fake to me, like no real east indian culture to it at all, nothing every lasting, it always seemed annoying to me the constant short breathing, the heavy marketing with little substance, never made me into a meditative state, no written text to follow sancript, or bible of sorts, and it didn't feel like it had any ties to real Hinduism, it felt very like a club I did not want to be a part of ....I was like what is going on. glad I avoided it.
Yogi Bajans story sounds like a Masand who got away with it. Masands are everywhere, whoever steers your conscious away from dharam, dharam raj is waiting.
YB Cult was more like Nation of Islam with Elijah Mohammed than Jonestown or Rajneesh! Sikh Dharma, white turban, Bana, naming his followers was BRANDING!
Phillip is spot on, except SD and 3HO were far more reaching than Branch DAVIDIAN. Jonestown, HARIKRISHNA, Integral Yoga! He used his students in US, Canada, GB to network with politicians and religious leaders (presidents, US GOVERNORS, CONGRESS, PMs, POPES, etc!
surely it works! the two most known practictioners died of heart attack! you move around a lot of energy. it's your responsibility how to use this technology. and be mindful on how all these kriyas where conceived and under what specific intention (=vibration). the signal you ping out needs to be very clear, and you have to be mindful on the purposes you do it. the outcomes will reveal that frequency. its your responsibility to observe it.
The most wild part about all of this is the long Ek ong kars from baba versa Singh, the mule mantra, apsahee hoa, all the mudras, a lot of kryias seem insanely transformative etc. What a wild reality this turned out to be.
That is all made up and fusion. It all worked is an illusion as drugs also work. When one has never tasted real fruit then how they can separate that is real vs fake. His entire teaching is nothing but mix up elements from many and completely cut off from original tradition of yoga and mixed Sikhi and Indian people highlighted this several times and still doing it but it is a business - white tantric yoga is now under white people and they want to keep it alive with repackaging and rebranding but when root is rotten, tree has to come down. Just a time needs to take it course to make it happen
If all this happened how come there is not one police report? Let’s talk facts. Where’s the proof. I love the Internet but it’s not a court of law. I’m fine with the possibility that this happened. I’d just like some proof. Because I’ve been in this dharma for 20 years and I’ve never seen one valid shred of proof of any of these allegations. It’s all hearsay. Furthermore all of this is coming out 19 years after his death? And still no police reports. Not one?
I’m not religious and don’t care about any of this junk. I don’t believe any of those accusations, people love exaggerating stories and omitting details to their benefit. There might be some truth but it’s ridiculous these “victims” and others bashing on a dead guy.
Moron... It's not about bashing a dead guy this guy was disgusting to the core and would rape and molest young girls. They were money and power hungry get over it.
Listen the guy created his type of yoga-no different then the guy who created pilates. I love the yoga and it works. everything made up. People are just trying to believe in something. I personally think Yb put the Sihks on the map. to put the guy to the sword your actually putting yourself on notice. Its clear this guy doesnt practice. everyone teaches his own way. Im a teacher, im the evolution of yb, im not him.
Thank you for doing this work. As someone who was sucked into this cult for 20 years I can confirm this is all true. It was a devastating blow to learn all of this. Actually soul crushing. I wish the current followers would come to their senses and interviews like this can be really helpful for bringing awareness to the truth of ‘yogi’ bhajan.
Yet the opposite has happened. Satwant Singh is going after the women who were sexually assaulted as little girls
I was very badly affected by this man. I can't even write about it yet. But my life changed for the worse because of my contact with him. I was young and idealistic and thought he was a man of truth.
💜
So sorry to hear this. True Sikhism has nothing to do with Yogi Bhajan who was corrupt and degenerate.
He didn’t build any businesses, his students did! He profited from our devotion and blind commitment
Sad that u feel this way as I remember he helped many build their own business to prosper then they betrays him and got greedy
As an American who has adopted Sikhi, I find the whole 3HO thing embarrassing...
The egoism of this man Bhajan and his capacity to create a bubble of immunity around himself, during his life time, reminds me of Donald Trump. The corporate "culture" of avaricious wealth hording in the USA facilitates social inclusion into the highest levels of the ruling elite for these sorts of two faced, hypocritical people. One learns to avoid them and all their friends! like a plague. The the vast majority of Sikhs are well respected, and for good reason, imo. In British Columbia the community is noted for feeding the destitute and being protective of the public peace, which we all so desperately need and appreciate. Of course, the steriotyping is brutal, as it is for just about everyone in Canada, but Sikhs seem very capable of rising above this ignorance on the part of the WASP colonial social structure. The leader of the federal, cross Canada New Democratic Party, with a social democratic philosophy like that of Bernie Sanders, is Jagmeet Singh. He is doing a fine job.
We need to look at it from different perspectives. If you look at the organisation now, they are doing good sewa too. The biggest media network is theirs.
@nihangkhalsa the media network you speak of refuses to take down yogi bhajans videos.
@@KalashnikovCult No they’re not. They are still defending bhajans actions and telling people that if they are raped they asked for it. I lived in this ashram for 26 years. This is a group of perverse and cruel people
Is the 3ho the sect in New Mexico?
Harbhajan S Puri (Yogi Bhajan) was a con, who used Sikhi to cover his cult of yoga, capitalist empire. I lived in this so-called spiritual lifestyle and was an integral part of several of 3HO businesses for 50 years!
Phillip is 100% accurate in his research and presentation!
Born and raised in 3HO and having served on corporate boards everything stated in this podcast is true. Sadly, anyone who rejected YB and wanted to find a different path forward was fired. The institutions are now actively working to ‘restore’ YBs name. It’s all corrupt. They have intentionally slandered the people who were abused and those who have no issue rejecting YB. The majority now left in positions of leadership and authority are still his devotees.
I didn't know about the smuggling of weed but he supposedly was against weed consumption, he says so in his books, damn such hypocrisy
As a 3HO Sikh for 14 years, I identified with the dharma more than Bhajan. I recall the Jonestown event and wondered how different we were from that cult. By then I had learned to be skeptical of Bhajan, but felt the community had a future despite him, precisely because we were connected to a solid tradition. Sadly we weren’t well connected to the traditional community.
It's difficult for you to connect with traditional Sikhs. Though not impossible. Communication, mannerisms, culture, there's a lot more to look forward to
I feel so sorry that u had to endure all that facade... I hope your life and mental state will get clear over time..I hope this hasn't left a scar for sikhi within u
Bhajan didn’t want his (students) “disciples” connected to Sikhi. It was a challenge to his authority!
I was one of his strongest supporters until 3 years ago- he never built or help build any business- he stole, assumed ownership of businesses initiated or began by a follower of his!
I was one, and it took me 49 years to wake up!
Dharma, Ashrams and Yoga…all Hindu!
Even early names given by him were Hindu!
Thank you Rambling of a Sikh for doing this. Also Philipe and Stacie.🙏
Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa (Miriam Garon) was my deceased husband's cousin. Yogi Bhajan called Shakti the Mother of 3HO and his Executive Secretary. Tim Garon started going to the ashram in 1968 that had begun to form around Bhajan and that's where Tim met Jim Baker, a successful restaurateur who had become a follower of Yogi Bhajan and per Tim; Jim Baker decided to leave the yogi after he found out about all the secret, sexual (mis)conduct between Bhajan and several young women at the ashram. Jim Baker left the yogi and began attracting his own group of devoted followers (The Source Family) and based many of his so-called teachings on what he'd taken from Kundalini yoga.
OMG I did not know this
@1:28:08 I can confirm this is true. I completed my teacher training in 2020 and these were the phrases banded about by the people deep into the K.Y life when the Golden Cage book was released.
Thank you so much for this conversation that made such a good summary and diving in the topic. I hope that the reparation programm can support the second generation healing. That this content helps to distinguish all what happened with the structure of abuse and manipulate the 3HO comunity in the many ways. I'm aware that it could be shut down so many life perspectives about sikh religion and yoga lineage misuse. Having great empathy for all people involved in that difficult process.
One important part of our ashram communities was a motivation to serve, yoga classes offered regularly at a very low cost; and serving of free food in the LANGAR tradition of Sikh Gurdwaras in India, if centers were able to financially manage it. That was definitely a high point of our presence in America in the '70s.
I don’t think so. I was at the Espanola ashram for more than 20 years and other ashrams another 6 years.
Langar was not like the Golden Temple. It was only for those who lived in the ashram. I wanted to bring in homeless people to eat with us but I was told not to do that.
Great stuff. Thanks so much.
It is so important to have this conversation inside the Punjabi - Sikh community, because this organization keep using Sikhi to profit, in South America, 3HO and Sikh Dharma International are the only sources of information about Sikhi in Spanish. Every time I try to bring this topic forward inside the punjabi Sikh community I got dismiss as we are not interested. But all around South America we have SGGS with spanish translations done by SDI with alteration with out been properly care, so many persons wanting to know and learn about Sikhi that end in the hands of this group.
Wait. A translation is a translation. Are you implying that had someone else done the translation it would be significantly different. From what I understand there was a guy named Babaji who dedicated his life to translating the Guru and now it's available to the world. I guess I don't really understand the concern here.
@@harijotkhalsa9496a translation influenced by yogi bhajan is not a translation.
@@ramindersingh1360 Have you read it? What parts are influenced by him and how?
@harijotkhalsa9496 brother you already know. I already know what your motive is. It's plain to see. I've seen you post other places too. You want to follow yogi bhajan. I have no problem with that. If people want to tell the truth of yogi bhajan let them be. Why are you so worried about it. This is the reason I post on this now because the way the people who still want to follow yogi bhajan have tried to silence those who speak up about the abuse he did. Sant singh didn't have proper understanding of gurmukhi all he did was take the previous translations and was instructed by Yogi Bhajan to do it. Look at his owns words. I've seen even on sikhnet where the English translation done by him doesn't match what's been said in the shabad. It doesn't even match the punjabi translation they have with it.
Dr. Sant Singh said, "The translation was based on the 4 available versions comparing and contrasting, and also using a variety of dictionaries, and sometimes using words and translations from the Siri Singh Sahib.
@harijotkhalsa9496 bhai has been translated to Siblings of destiny when it means Brother. How many times has Bhai been mentioned in Gurbani. I've seen other 3H0 people avoid using the word hell in their translations and will write things like face the consequences. Just write Hell. Naraks means hells.
They have an ashram here in Massachusetts, US, where I've had many "unfortunate" interactions with various of their members. Unfortunate because I foolishly thought they there would be place for rationale and dialogue speaking with them. I also believe there's a lot of Nirmala influence in the "mumbo-jumbo" of the Yogi, as their members mostly only want to talk about Guru Ramdas ji and many of them wouldn't even know about Guru Nanak. The back story is when Nanak's son BaBa Sri Chand visited Ramdas ji, the Guru out of humility bowed down and swept Sri Chand's feet with his beard. This has become a talking about and source of arrogance in the 3HO against our own Gurus. Numerous other things though.
Eat 'high-vibration" food such as khichdi so as to elevate your soul.
Leave Gurbani running when not at home to elevate the aura of your surroundings and thus your own self.
The Ardaas was a prayer coined hundreds of years ago regarding some kundalini BS.
The Khanda is a symbol hundreds of years old representing an "Aad Shakti", an energy something kundalini again.
The "in-your-face" all white clothing to elevate your aura again.
A lot more that I might be embarrassed to even admit knowing about, basically in Biden's words, a "bunch of malarkey" cooked up by the Yogi to sell to innocent and gullible people, aided by other cunning, egoistic people looking to benefit, some of whom might still be living today. Snatam Kaur is the biggest name that comes to mind. Her name should also be a clue, no? It's also unfortunate that only a few of us South Asian Sikhs have ever raised their voice while most have been happy to ignore, and some mistakenly feeling proud.
Looks like Philip and Stacie have done a lot of work to uncover this entire unfortunate history, many thanks to them for bringing the truth to light!
That was deep.... Especially hit the nail on the head regarding his unhealthy stages towards his death😮😮😮 (he obviously didn't practice what he taught)
How many lives did he change and saved
The reality of Us Human being is a man or wanna can do 20yrs of good but the min one bad come about we condemn so is this existence of most
Another documentary said that he was obsessed with Taco Bell (I'm not joking) and he would have them mush all the food together and eat it then.
The Community is shattered. Those who believe the Staff & others stories & those who don't. There's division between husband & wives, sisters & brothers, friends. Yoga & meditation can be life altering. meditation can be life altering.
I was involved peripherally with 3HO for 10 years. An Indian American friend, we used to play in the same punk band together for a year or so, said to me about my interest in taking up Kundalini yoga, he said, "Ya know, my mom is all into that stuff and she likes to say, 'In India, we have a saying, "Alas...one must have an enlightened guru to be successful on the path. But if the guru is too far away, if we don't have a close very tight relationship with the guru, we don't really benefit from our practice no matter how diligent and motivated we are. But then if the guru is too close we end up simply annihilated, burnt to a crisp, and do not get enlightened that way either. And we never can tell which one it is until its too late." Theres kin dof similar things said in Tibetan Buddhism as well which I now practice as opposed to Kundalini Yoga. But I took heed of that, gradually began to feel that was it was kind of true, and from all of the stories about Yogi Bhajan "abusing" his innercircle members sounds like it holds true in this case also, they got too close and got burned.
But most of the Sikhs (western sikhs) struck me as having no special qualities, they were too bourgeoise for me, were not adept levitators or even good mind readers, to me it always seemed a shame that none of them say disappeared into caves for years, or lived om the streets as homeless beggars, and of course Yogi Bhajan was against all of that and wanted people to become yuppies, and I hated that aspect, its like the worst aspect of the western culture we grow up in taken to the enth degree, so there was no way I could have got very far in my involvement with them or too close to the guru as it were and they were also all a bit cliquey, and i was too scruffy so there was never any pressure, nobody was going to hypnotize me with a mind control mantra and a bagel and then take me to Esalen and wrap a turban around my head and give me a Sikh name and tell me I had no past and my future as Sikh and yogi was now all ther was. So, yes, If you weren't wearing all the gear you got sort of mostly politely ignored and I was fine with that they were just a bunch of squares and gumbies (as in the claymation cartoon character, kind of silly and gee whiz character who in one episode climbed the endless ladder out of his grandfathers fire truck and ascended all the way to the moon) anyway as far as I was concerned.
I don't really doubt what people claim about Yogi Bhajan being "abusive." And I feel bad that people seem to have got put through th e meat grinder, and I doubt they were warned as I was about the need to tread carefully around any tantric tiger's den. so to speak. That is what the kerfuffle is down to, if I may run roughshod for a moment over people who feel they were extremely hard done by Yogi Bhajan. Kundalini is a wild and dangerous force and then also too, Tantric gurus are notorious for not respecting anyone's personal needs and limits, that sthe whole point. Its like Tibetans say about the Vajrayana, "Don't. Just don't even go there. There are other sane and pleasant ways to become liberated." Its a tragedy I suppose that these people in Yogi Bhajans inner circle never got the memo, I'm glad I did from my friend's mom.
I never really met Yogi Bhajan but I went to a couple of solstice "White" Tantric intensives in New Mexico and one year he was very present and gave us a lot of talks and explanations about some interesting traditions and techniques that were being highlighted called tratakam, the meditative art of using the eyes and the gaze to affect conciousness. I never took it up as a practice but it really opened something up for me during the retreat and also i received what was called darshan too, the first I had ever heard of that, which of course is rather basic to dharmic religions that make use of gurus and that rather blew me out of the water and I had what I now chalk up as perhaps having had a very powerful pointing out of the nature of mind. I saw something in Yogi Bhajans cursory glance at me that later would reccur in my practice of Buddhist and Dzogchen. Also During the White Tantric sessions I began to witness everything around me as transparent and felt a few times that I was being hit with drops of rain and heard thunder many times, yet the sky was clear as a bell, not a cloud in sight. One night during the retreat I went to my tent to go to sleep, completely exhausted closed my eyes to find that instead of the usual darkness, my head seemed filled up with the clear blue sky complete with the sun and the moon and one point this massive ufo that transmogrified often appearing as a multi-faceted diamond. I carried on the whole night and I felt as though my perspective became multiplied many times as though my mind had become a faceted blue sapphire that could see many presents, pasts and futures. It was like being on a very hard but pleasant acid trip and i still wonder if somehow it wasn't and all of the other experiences weren't induced by some kin dof black project psychotronic device, after all, thsi retreat was helf in New mexico where no doubt there are things of that nature and Yogi Bhajan had a lot of ties to powerful people in New Mexico, so perhaps he thought he'd give us a boost!
I also was lucky enough to get instruction in a yoga set directly from Yogi Bhajan and he said a number of times he chuckled "Lets see, what should the next posture be? You know I always just make these things up you know. It doesn't matter. The yoga either works for you or doesnt. Don't get hung up on, "Is this real authentic yoga." At some point someone has to just make it up. In Vajrayana Buddhism there is this notion of people who have acquired special powers from many years of intensive practice to do just that. Others are even born with such powers to just say "OK, do this with your fingers and say Babaghanouj and you'll be cured of all diseases when you wake up tomorrow." Also what is called hatha yoga is also just mixed ancient techniques with British army calasthenics. If you want to really see an authentic Hatha Yoga text it is Vimalamitra's tantra of the Sun and Moon from I believe the 11th century or so, it was preserved and practiced in Tibet and Dzogchen Community currently teaches the sets which are quite astonishingly powerful and which they have made into a repertoir they call Yantra Yoga or Trulkhor. Soon after starting Kundalini yoga, I felt surely many of the postures were made up by Yogi Bhajan, I didn't care, certain sets were very powerful for me and overcame physical and psychological obstacles i had had all of my life, several of my friends whom I taught the yoga also became practitioners. And aslo one other guy, was this really scary gang banger teenager kid. He wanted help from me because he was concerned that his girlfriend, had sucked all of the kundalini energy out of his dick with her vagina. Thats what he told me had happened. I have to say, his energy and his whole demeanor was pretty disturbed and he seemed to have some kundalini thing going on where when we'd try to meditate, he kept spontaneously standing up very quickly, unable to sit back down for some time. He told me that his arms would fly straight up as well and stay there for minutes at a time and nothing he could do to put them down except to wait till the thing passed. I told him not to worry, just do Kundalini Yoga everyday for an hour or two and it would all get ironed out. If his girlfreind sucked something out of him he'd soon get it back.
He was convinced I was the guy he had to see to get straightened out for what this girl had done to him. He was psychotic, adamant and practically threatened me if I didn't teach him Kundalini Yoga. I let him borrow my 3HO books and he fucked off with nearly all of them and I never saw him again after a few months of regular weekly sessions with him. What was bizarre too was, that he found me at my job initially, he just barged in to the office, wild eyed, the boss called the police and he went right up to me, "You're Shemus, right!? Your friend Steve told me you know all about this Kundalini yoga stuff. My girlfriend attacked me and got my kundalini! You gotta help me homes!" WTF?! After a a few weeks he had really calmed down a lot and he would always say again and again, "You really helped me. I can't believe what happened and I can't believe you actually got me out of it! Thank you man! I will never forget you!" and he always brought me a bag of Mexican food take away, which is all i asked for payment. Also, what was bizarre, was he looked like Yogi Bajan, minus the turban and with gang tatoos. The whole thing was completely freaky. How did he know where to find me at my work? My friend Steve who was taking Kundalini yoga along with his girlfriend from me didn't know where i worked, it was no where near my apartment. But they were as suroprised as I was when they foun dout about it. Steve said, "We invited him to come with us and do a class, he must have really wanted his own private session!" And there were many other experiences that I link back to my Kundalini Yoga practice and the people who were having genuine work done by practicing Yogi Bhajan's "fake" yoga.
Thanks, I enjoyed reading that. I’ve been a kundalini teacher for almost 15 years. I never met yogi bhajan and always got weird vibes about him. But my teachers were good people and I never Got sucked into the whole cult aspect of it. So now it’s hard finding out all this info and trying to figure out how to move forward.
@@rubycrystal1 What 3HO teaches is reasonably within the range of what is loosely called hatha yoga, so I just do some form of hatha yoga if I wanted to quit 3ho because I didn't like Yogi Bhajans activities. Tho I don't practice 3HO yoga anymore, I got a lot out of it when I did. Let the yoga speak for itself, we don't really know what really was happening with Yogi Bhajan anyway, its just what other people say about him, but we do know how the yoga affects us, if the yoga is good I would keep up as they say. If you are not comfortable doing 3HO yoga, I would try another group like Iyengar yoga or one of many other legit organizations offering hatha yoga classes. I got into Buddhist practice and that is an amazing universe to explore and build your practice further. Don't let doubt stop you on the path, its a pitfall that has stopped many practitioners right there and then. So many paths to go along and keep progressing.
@@shemusmcquillaide I already teach other styles of yoga, but liked the energetic effects of kundalini yoga. But I have a feeling I’m going to figure out how to adjust going forward. Thanks for your encouragement.
He never started AKAL Security, nor Golden Temple Bakery, Yogi Tea, SGN, Inc (Natural products brokerage) 3HO Super Health!
His students initiated all the businesses and he manipulated them all into KIIT!
Only top managers made $$$!!
This is true. Bhajan took Akal security away from Gurtej by promising him a younger wife.
This was after my neighbor, GuruNam, killed their sweet little girl by taking her for a walk on a cliff without her glasses. During their grief Bhajan took over Akal.
Pamelas book, not only is out with pandemic but also during Trump narcissism and sociopathic behavior with similar cult themes!
3ho Sikhs are some of the healthiest people I know so there’s that. I’m always suspicious when a master doesn’t follow what he preaches. In the end being vigilant about health isn’t wrong. There are definitely ranks where the average 3ho follower is not a Sikh, even if they wear a turban, they really don’t have much interest in Guru Granth Sahib but there are obviously some that do. I wish the best for both categories but I just hope that the temptation to monetise Sikhi doesn’t influence too many because they end up doing a disservice to themselves and others, but go ahead and monetise the ‘kundalini yoga’. I took classes for awhile but found that dancing Bhangra with some discipline was just as effective if not more and when I started teaching it lots of 3ho came to my classes and preferred it.
43:51"I don't know how he can detail a lie that brilliantly"... Sorry but none of his lies are brilliant. They just aren't. Breeze on over to KRI's Library of Teachings and you'll see this. It's incoherent drivel. The audience isn't actually paying any attention to the words coming out of this man's mouth. They sat obediently, feverishly taking notes on yellow legal pads. They weren't absorbing any of the actual words. The lies he told were not brilliant. Malevolence is not brilliant.
We were sleep deprived and we thought we couldn’t understand bcuz he said it would take like 8 generations to prepare our nervous systems. He made us believe he was so advanced that it was our fault for not seeing the psychobabble nonsense.
I think anyone criticizing Yogi Bhajans ethics when it comes to paying employees, should recognize any culture, including western capitalist companies that rely on cheap labour abroad.
If you contribute to a capitalist production standing on the exploitations of poor people in countries without laws to protect minimum weigh etc.
We should be grateful for any demon exposing an aspect of our society that we recent, so we collectively and holistically can take responsibility over it. Rather than putting ourself above one person not realizing most people accept to give money and pay taxes to war machines benefiting an elite, destroying the opportunity for the rest. This should call upon a greater revolution to not consume blindly, but to only give our (labour worth) money to only invest in transparent and correctly executed production lines.
I dont know one smart phone company that are transparent or even knows where they resource their minerals and exactly what the people are being paid and under what contract and safety rules they live under.
If someone says your lineage doesn't line up, just say its the Dalai Lama effect.
Why then influencers like Brett Larkin and Guru Singh not under radar to preach his teachings ? His teachings and method never endorse by any Indian gurus from Yoga field or Sikhs
Thank you very much for the work and time you put in the conversation. Hopefully more awareness will rise up. I was "only" a practicioneer of this type of Yoga and after all the things came up with this I couldn't even practice it because it felt odd to me. Interesting question about separation the teaching from the teacher. I've tried it and for me it felt not right with the thought in back of my head that he have made awful harmful things.
The tragedy is that yogi Bhajan was able to get away with murder, leaving behind many women and children bruised for the rest of their life.
I think everyone in LA tried Kundalini and Brikram at least once, I didn't get all these fabulous white folks wearing white wraps on their head and all white clothes and it all felt fake to me, like no real east indian culture to it at all, nothing every lasting, it always seemed annoying to me the constant short breathing, the heavy marketing with little substance, never made me into a meditative state, no written text to follow sancript, or bible of sorts, and it didn't feel like it had any ties to real Hinduism, it felt very like a club I did not want to be a part of ....I was like what is going on. glad I avoided it.
Yogi Bajans story sounds like a Masand who got away with it. Masands are everywhere, whoever steers your conscious away from dharam, dharam raj is waiting.
YB Cult was more like Nation of Islam with Elijah Mohammed than Jonestown or Rajneesh!
Sikh Dharma, white turban, Bana, naming his followers was BRANDING!
Sikh Dharma- SIKHI
NATION OF ISLAM- Islam
Phillip is spot on, except SD and 3HO were far more reaching than Branch DAVIDIAN. Jonestown, HARIKRISHNA, Integral Yoga!
He used his students in US, Canada, GB to network with politicians and religious leaders (presidents, US GOVERNORS, CONGRESS, PMs, POPES, etc!
who cares about Sikh and Bhajan ... the yoga works - do it, build your resilience + self reliance and don't follow others!!!
alot of people care about Sikhi and do not want to see it being corrupted at the hands of a charlatan
surely it works! the two most known practictioners died of heart attack! you move around a lot of energy. it's your responsibility how to use this technology. and be mindful on how all these kriyas where conceived and under what specific intention (=vibration). the signal you ping out needs to be very clear, and you have to be mindful on the purposes you do it. the outcomes will reveal that frequency. its your responsibility to observe it.
Аминь 🙏
The Donald Trump of yoga.
Very apt. His lectures were the same steam of conscious doubletalk Trump does.
Similar , and yogi Bhajan ‘s hard core followers and MAHAGAGA Trump brainwashed cult followers are similar.
The most wild part about all of this is the long Ek ong kars from baba versa Singh, the mule mantra, apsahee hoa, all the mudras, a lot of kryias seem insanely transformative etc. What a wild reality this turned out to be.
That is all made up and fusion. It all worked is an illusion as drugs also work. When one has never tasted real fruit then how they can separate that is real vs fake. His entire teaching is nothing but mix up elements from many and completely cut off from original tradition of yoga and mixed Sikhi and Indian people highlighted this several times and still doing it but it is a business - white tantric yoga is now under white people and they want to keep it alive with repackaging and rebranding but when root is rotten, tree has to come down. Just a time needs to take it course to make it happen
Hmmmm
97 days😵
If all this happened how come there is not one police report? Let’s talk facts. Where’s the proof. I love the Internet but it’s not a court of law. I’m fine with the possibility that this happened. I’d just like some proof. Because I’ve been in this dharma for 20 years and I’ve never seen one valid shred of proof of any of these allegations. It’s all hearsay. Furthermore all of this is coming out 19 years after his death? And still no police reports. Not one?
So, in short, you're telling me you've not listened to this podcast or read any of the reports linked in the description.
Yes, it looks more and more like competitor repeating and augmenting BS to destroy a mans reputations 19 years after his death!
does heart hattack not being enough of a proof? all is one.
Influence of current age(Kalyug)
I’m not religious and don’t care about any of this junk. I don’t believe any of those accusations, people love exaggerating stories and omitting details to their benefit. There might be some truth but it’s ridiculous these “victims” and others bashing on a dead guy.
Moron... It's not about bashing a dead guy this guy was disgusting to the core and would rape and molest young girls.
They were money and power hungry get over it.
Listen the guy created his type of yoga-no different then the guy who created pilates. I love the yoga and it works. everything made up. People are just trying to believe in something. I personally think Yb put the Sihks on the map. to put the guy to the sword your actually putting yourself on notice. Its clear this guy doesnt practice. everyone teaches his own way. Im a teacher, im the evolution of yb, im not him.