Guru Fatha Singh interviewed Bibi Amarjit Kaur, the ragi who lives in Virginia (who has been part of the 3HO community since the early 1970s). She met the Siri Singh…
Read: "The Story of Amarjit Kaur – Part One"Categories: 3HO History, Our Stories
3HO History
We had thought we were working on a sign for the Siri Singh Sahib. But we soon realized that he was working on a nation for us. He was helping us to see our greatness and our destiny. He was helping us to build our identity as the Khalsa nation and to help us build our history. “Sarkar e Khalsa” still stands manifest as a testimony of our hope for the future and a witness of the pure Khalsa Spirit.
Read: "Summer Solstice: Dignity"Categories: 3HO History, Events, Our Stories
Do you want the opportunity of finding yourself in a Sangat who, through humility and brotherhood, meets to celebrate the sacred lineage of Kundalini yoga and the treasures of knowledge that Yogi Bhajan bequeathed to us?
Read: "Summer Solstice – Character"Categories: 3HO History, Events
On a cold day in February 1977, Kundalini yoga was growing and starting to expand to Europe and beyond. The Siri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan, along with about a dozen yogis, were looking for a permanent home for the Summer Solstice Sadhana, to lay roots for our global community.
Read: "Summer Solstice – Commitment"Categories: 3HO History, Our Stories
We, the Members of the Khalsa Council of Sikh Dharma, exist to serve God, Siri Guru Granth Sahib, Sadh Sangat and all of humanity.
We acknowledge our responsibility to provide leadership to Sikh Dharma and we commit to live, spread, preserve and protect the teachings of Sikh Dharma as embodied in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib and according to the Rehit Maryada of the Father of the Sovereign Khalsa Spiritual Nation, Siri Guru Gobind Singh.
Read: "Khalsa Council Mission Statement, Member’s Oath and Pledge of Allegiance"Categories: 3HO History
Tags: Khalsa Council
According to Guru Singh (Los Angeles), who recounted this story to me in 2012, there was a need to have photos of Yogi Bhajan for brochures and posters, so in October 1969 Guru Singh and Shakti Parwha Kaur took him to a photo studio located on Melrose Ave. near Jules Buccieri’s antique store, where the first kundalini yoga classes were held. The photographer was well known for doing “head shots” for movie stars so he took numerous photos of Yogi Bhajan.
Read: "History of the Tratakam Photo"Categories: 3HO History, Our Stories, Yogi Bhajan
Tags: Tratakam
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
It was September 13, 1968. Harbhajan Singh Yogi, now thirty-nine years of age, waited his turn in the line-up that had just disembarked at Toronto’s international airport. In the queue were tourists, professionals, government people and hopeful immigrants. Gradually, Harbhajan’s place in line moved up, as people were cleared at the front by the customs inspectors.
Read: "Yogi Bhajan Arrives In North America"Categories: 3HO History, Yogi Bhajan
Before Enya, before Deva Premal, and before today’s burgeoning chant music movement, there was Singh Kaur .
In the 1970s and 1980s Singh Kaur was the best-selling vocalist in the New Age music scene. She was the first American Sikh musician whose music reached beyond 3HO and impacted the worldwide spiritual community.
Read: "Remembering Singh Kaur"Categories: 3HO History, Music
To fully convey the impressions that are deepest within me of the early years in Europe, I wish I could show moving pictures and video glimpses of expressions and situations: like Tantric in Holland, the Siri Singh Sahib’s eyes as he counselled, welcoming smiles in Hamburg, a Golden Temple Restaurant kitchen scene.
And then I remember the sounds of the Siri Singh Sahib’s voice, the melody of voices translating into languages of the Mediterranean and the North, at the Yoga Festival, the clatter of pots, and the hum of restaurant machines in the Golden Temple Restaurants. The Golden Temple Restaurants were the hub of our 3HO life in Europe in the early days. They were at the heart of our growth as a group and in each of our psyches, our memories of working there live on and warm us even now.
Read: "3HO Europe the ’70’s and ’80’s"Categories: 3HO History
Tags: Beads of Truth, Beads of Truth - 1988-Winter-Bead 21 Vol II
Livtar Singh Khalsa recounts his experience as one of the two first students of Yogi Bhajan in the West to take Sikh vows
Read: "Livtar Singh Recounts His Experience of Taking Sikh Vows in 1970"Categories: 3HO History, Our Stories
Tags: 1970, History of Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere
Yogi Bhajan instructed these young men to go to the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, who is the only Guru of any Sikh. Since the young American Sikhs did not yet have the Siri Guru Granth Sahib available to them, they went to the Sikh Study Circle of Los Angeles, a prominent Sikh Gurdwara in the area.
Read: "Two Students of Yogi Bhajan take Sikh Vows in 1970"Categories: 3HO History, Our Stories
Tags: 1970, History of Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere
Krishna Kaur tells the story of the origin of the women’s turban in the early days of Sikh Dharma and 3H0 :
I first started wearing an African head wrap in 1965 or so. It was something I did on a whim. I was sewing my own clothes at that time and had extra fabric left over, wrapped it around my head and liked it. It felt good, better than I imagined it would. It felt right for some reason, so I kept wearing it. I wore the head wrap often, because it reminded me of my African roots which I had been wondering about. And I never stopped.
Categories: 3HO History, Our Stories
On this particular morning during the Siri Singh Sahib’s meditation, his teacher, Guru Ram Das, had given him a mantra. “Guru Guru Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru.” He carried that mantra in his heart to the Sadhana site with the spirit of a true son of the Guru and shared it with us all.
Read: "Guru Guru Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru"Categories: 3HO History, Our Stories
