I discovered Yogi Bhajan's yoga classes on Melrose Avenue in 1971 through Baba Singh, my Kundalini Yoga teacher at UCLA's Experimental College.
Yogiji gave difficult, strenuous yoga sets and sophisticated, dynamic meditations in classes that were healing for our bodies, minds and souls. His presence worked even when we were simply waiting for him and he was not physically there. The space became sacred. He was personally impersonal, or impersonally personal--either way, it was elusively impossible to label him as your teacher, father, friend, spiritual guide or beloved, for he was all of these, as you needed, and nothing. He spoke Eternal Truth as he knew it from his great unchanging Guru, the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, and his most beloved Guru, the fourth Sikh Guru, Guru Ram Das, Lord of Miracles.
"Guru", I learned, means more than "spiritual teacher". "Gu" is darkness. "Ru" is light. A Guru is one who follows love, bringing us from darkness to the Light, transmuting darkness to light within his enlightened being so we may share that light with the world.
Like the Guru, Yogi Bhajan has always been best known to me in subtle, unseen ways.
I sometimes expressed my questions silently, such as when Yogiji taught a meditation for the Blue Ether, directing us to spin Guru Ram Das out through our crown chakra to infinity. Yogiji explained that this spot is located on the back of the head on a woman. But in doing the meditation, I could not pinpoint it! So, I mentally asked him to show me. He walked off the stage, right over to where I was sitting and precisely placed his fingertips there. I never opened my eyes to see, but silently thanked him.
In the early seventies I was blessed to do Yogi Bhajan's ironing--giant-waisted cotton kacheras and silk kurtas that arrived damp and cool after being wadded up and refrigerated overnight. As I ironed, the scent of sandalwood wafted up from the heated fabric. I sensed his sacred presence with every breath and heartbeat.
In 1972 Yogiji married me to a turbaned Sikh, which was rare in those days--at our marriage I wore a simple white scarf. We lived in the Seattle Ashram, a cozy, thriving Yoga/Sikh community. My sadness at being so far away from Yogiji was resolved by doing what he did--teaching Kundalini Yoga classes and giving Unity of Man picnics, inviting every new age spiritual group in town to join us, and seeing Yogiji walking down the street when he couldn't possibly (?) be there.
Yogiji told one of his secretaries that I loved him more than anyone else.
It was true in the sense that I followed his guidance in my life against my better judgement, knowingly marrying men who negated my spirit. Early on, in my first marriage, realizing I would be getting lots of flack, Yogiji told me I could recite Guru's Banis silently.
I trusted Yogi Bhajan's higher purpose and went through four suppressive relationships, each denying they were true marriages, beset with the threat of divorce, with blissful respites inbetween. The trauma of each impossible test--all of which failed, was hurdled by my practice of the Sikh and yogic technologies that Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib HarBhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji, in loving respect, shared with us. Each hurdle purposefully transmuted consciousness to a higher plane of awareness in love and acceptance of God's Will.
Yogi Bhajan's name grew long from sharing the teachings with us. Over time he was honored with "Siri Singh Sahib" for spreading Sikh Dharma throughout the West ("West of what? East of what?" he once asked), and as "Bhai Sahib", widely recognized as a loving title of respect for a spiritual man.
May all be blessed to study with such a great and fearless spiritual warrior, who pokes, confronts and elevates you to go through the gauntlet of life and come through pure, a warrior saint. The process is like heating butter and separating out all impurities, clarifying it to make ghee. Ghee is the purest form of grass. It is a healing food and never spoils, and may be used as a candle to bring light, warmth and hope.
We are all candles shining as one and that One Light is guiding us on.
Wahe Guru ji ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru ji ki Fateh
The Pure Ones belong to God, and to God the Victory
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