The
year I began taking Kundalini Yoga classes my life changed a hundred and eighty
degrees. I broke away from plans for my future when my father rejected me as
a mindless hippy and stopped paying for me to attend UCLA.
At
first I looked outwardly and bought a one way ticket to Europe to give my fate
to the unknown. But yoga and the yogic lifestyle was a greater Unknown. It
called me to set out on an inner journey that had resonated with me since my
childhood--to be a healthy, happy, fulfilled and divinely attuned, serviceful human being.
It
was a joyful departure from friends who relied on drugs to get high and a
family for whom appearances seemed to mean everything. My brother could not
understand why I wanted to wear white. He said that he would do anything to
please our father--even wear polka dots!
My
transformation came about from Kundalini Yoga challenging my will, the
sublimation of mantras, a vegetarian diet and a fastidious yogic lifestyle.
Our
disciplined way of life was making us into good Sikhs before we knew what a
Sikh was.We rose before dawn to
take cold showers, practice yoga and chant"Ek Ongkar Sat Nam Siri Wah Guru" for two and a half hours,
worked hard and jammed together, making up songs that we still sing to this
day.
We
did not realize in those early days that our earnest and seemingly fanatic
efforts were not so much for our personal growth as they were to clear pathways
of conscious living into the New Age for others to follow. We were and still are spiritual
pioneers, charting new territories of awareness, living our dreams, watching
them crash and rising to meet the call of our souls.
