When Yogiji came to Orlando for another teaching tour-visit, we advised that it was time to pick up the children from Montessori pre-school. We all walked to the school where Yogiji picked up the kids and carried one under each arm, and began playing with them. He indicated to Hari Singh that he really missed his personal family in India. His own children were older, but at least he could be a part of the Bird family since he was seldom able to go back to India to visit them and his wife.
Read: "The Beginning (Part 3)"Categories: Our Stories
Most of the folks enjoyed acid rock music, but we preferred the music of the Mantovani Strings with full orchestra. Most of our 33-1/3 stereo recordings were of this easy-listening genre. Yogiji indicated that he really enjoyed this type of music, so we placed a sign on the stereo indicating, “This stereo is to be operated by the Birds only,” which ensured that Yogiji’s favored music would be played. Yogiji indicated several times that he really appreciated the gesture
Read: "The Beginning (Part 2)"Categories: Our Stories
Our family’s first contact with Yogi Bhajan happened a few months after I (Hari Singh) attended a Theosophical Society meeting in Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando, Florida in 1969, not long after the historic Woodstock Music Festival.
Read: "The Beginning (Part 1)"Categories: Our Stories
The head teacher at the Denver, CO ashram resigned in late 1972. Yogi Bhajan contacted me at the December, 1972, 3HO Winter Solstice Sadhana and asked that I fly to Denver to check out the possibility of moving there to fill the vacancy, which I did.
Upon my return, I learned that the Health Department office building had burned to the ground and that there were no immediate plans to rebuild the structure. My wife and I saw this development as a significant indicator of the direction of our destiny, whereupon we put our Orlando residence up for sale and subsequently moved to Denver in February of 1973.
Read: "The Beginning (Part 5)"Categories: Our Stories
During the 1970-1972 time frame Hari Singh taught Kundalini Yoga classes in the Orange County Jail as a part of an Orange County, Florida initiative called ‘Thee Door’, an anti-drug, youth outreach program of the Orange County Health Department. Hari Singh coined ‘Thee Door’ as the name of the program. During this time, Yogi Bhajan made plans to again visit Orlando on a Florida teaching tour. Hari Singh advised the student inmates well in advance of Yogiji’s possible visit inside the jail, which generated all kinds of excitement. After Yogiji arrived and was granted clearance to enter the jail, he spent almost an hour of quality time with the inmates inside their classroom cell, an experience they long remembered.
Read: "The Beginning (Part 4)"Categories: Our Stories
