Guru Ram Das was a “Raj Yogi” (Royal Yogi). He designed Harimandir Sahib (Temple of God), the famous Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. Sikhs all over the world consider it the holiest of holy places. Open to people of all religions, colors, and nationalities, tens of thousands of people visit this sacred shrine daily to be inspired and uplifted by the sound current created by the continuous recitation of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib , the Shabd Guru, and to sip and dip in the healing waters surrounding the Temple
Read: "Yogi Bhajan and Guru Ram Das"Categories: Our Stories
They say two things are inevitable, death and taxes. We are all born to die. That’s a fact. Well, that being the case, it seems advisable to get all your accounts in order, save all your receipts, and be ready for the examiner to see what karma you may still have left to pay. Yet, it is only the body that dies when the soul departs. The soul is already immortal, indestructible. Although there is still air left in the body, it is the “prana”—the divine life force that is withdrawn and, ideally, returns directly to God, without having to come back into another human form.
All things come from God, and all things, including us, shall return to God, the source of all life. The trick is to die consciously. And that’s what yogis have done while still in the body. They tell us that death is simply a return to Source. It is nothing to fear. Many of us work to achieve that state of yoga, or Divine Union, while still alive, so that when it is finally time to leave behind this rented vehicle, we shall have a swift and smooth, direct, non-stop journey home. Meanwhile we do trial runs, field trips called meditation.
Read: "The Big Sleep"Categories: Our Stories
Gratefully accepting everything that comes to us as a gift of God invokes a remarkably dynamic response from God. An “attitude of gratitude” invites and allows the power of God to work faster and easier to bless and heal us.
Read: "Gratefully Accepting Everything"Categories: Teachings
Thirty-four years ago, when I first heard Yogi Bhajan speak of his vision of creating the 3HO Foundation, a “Healthy, Happy, Holy” Organization, I didn’t like the word “holy.” It sounded too churchy to me. Holy? I thought: sanctimonious, holier than thou, bor—ing! Of course, that’s not what he meant at all.
Fortunately, I kept listening. He explained, “If you’re holy, you don’t do to anyone what you don’t want them to do to you.” So far, so good—the Golden Rule. Then he added that to be holy also means that you receive each inhalation gratefully, aware that it is God’s gift to you. Wow. Having that consciousness is a big order. It would require amazing focus to actually be aware of each incoming breath, but what a profound impact the acceptance of such a concept would have on our lives. Such a belief might cause us to be a lot more careful how we use each breath. We might change how we talk to one another. We might choose our words more thoughtfully. We might decide our actions with the thought in mind that God is living and breathing in us 24/7.
Read: "Who Wants to be Holy?"Categories: 3HO History, Our Stories
“Man” means mind. “Tra” means to tune the vibration (just as one tunes the strings of a guitar). Mantra is a sound current which tunes and controls mental vibration. It is the “directive psyche,” a word or words, combinations of syllables, which help focus the mind. Such words have enormous power.
Read: "How Mantras Work"Categories: Our Stories, Teachings
The scientific use of sound to affect consciousness is called Mantra Yoga, or Naad Yoga. Next to breathing, the use of Mantra is the most important aspect of the practice of Kundalini Yoga.
“Man” means mind. “Tra” means to tune the vibration (just as one tunes the strings of a guitar). Mantra is a sound current which tunes and controls mental vibration. It is the “directive psyche,” a word or words, combinations of syllables, which help focus the mind. Such words have enormous power.
“What does it mean to master a mantra? When you have repeated it so much, so often, and so well that you hear it within your being, and it comes handy to you—especially at the moment of death, you have mastered a mantra.” ~Yogi Bhajan
Read: "The Basics of Sound & Mantra"Categories: Teachings
On my own, I certainly couldn’t teach Kundalini Yoga. This is not false modesty. It is a fact I learned from Yogi Bhajan. Every evening before he sat down on the teacher’s bench at Guru Ram Das Ashram in Los Angeles, he would stop at the altar, hands folded in prayer. One time I asked him what he was doing. He told me he was praying, “Oh Guru Ram Das, I’m just a nut, please teach this class for me.”
Read: "Being a Teacher"Categories: Our Stories
Seldom can any place live up to its reputation, but the Golden Temple is one reality that truly defies adequate description. It is so much more than the physical beauty of its marble and gold exterior. Hundreds of years of the divine vibrations of Shabd Guru and Gurbani Kirtan permeate its walls and floors. The very air within offers the devotee of any religion an experience that is unequalled anywhere on the planet.
Read: "Harimandir Sahib – 1974"Categories: Our Stories
Shakti Parwha Kaur at first served as his personal assistant, secretary, and driver, helping Yogi Bhajan to establish classes at YMCAs in the Los Angeles area. Within a couple of months, he also had her teaching Kundalini Yoga classes. As the yogi’s teaching mission began to flourish, she became the Executive Secretary of the 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization) Foundation and editor of numerous publications. From the beginning, Yogi Bhajan designated his student, a real life single mom, as “the Mother of 3HO,” an honorific she eventually acknowledged.
Read: "The Mother: Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa"Categories: Our Stories
Yogi Bhajan was making soup in the kitchen of the East-West Cultural Center in Los Angeles when he told me, “I have a vision, to create an organization called “3HO,
Read: "The Beginning of 3HO"Categories: Our Stories
