I Found Grace Within at Women’s Camp

Written by Kirn Kaur Khalsa (date unknown)

Just this morning I was reflecting over the many, many, many hours I spent at Women’s Camp with Yogi Bhajan. We did wild things: climbed walls, marched with babies in baby carriers on our backs in the NM dessert, did our own security for the camp, cooked our food, washed our own dishes and clothes, built and sat in mud-pits, gathered in sweat lodges, took turns as we sat for many 72-hour long meditations, hand stitched our ripped big top back together after a torrential storm….and on and on it goes.

During these summers we got to disconnect from life as we knew it and immerse ourselves in the company of just women with Yogi Bhajan as our only male polarity, and it was transformational.

Because no one had ever told me that as a woman I contain the powerful energy of creation.  That through the purity of my heart, I could learn to beam my psyche to create my life.

That prayer is not sitting down and closing my eyes and repeating some words, hoping someone would hear them and comply with my wishes.  Instead, I learned that prayer was my every projection, my thoughts, words, actions.  At first it was a bit overwhelming to be told again and again that we as women were the nucleus of it all.  That women hold the power to bring peace, save generations from falling, and keep families together.  

Of course, the main question we had was:  Well, what about him?  what is his responsibility?  what about the government?  what about….?  Basically, we were asking those questions which helped us to identify that we had been afflicted with:  no way it’s my responsibility…..too big….

Yet, at our camp,  as I practiced the art of living simply, doing yoga and tons of meditations, day after day, week after week, I did feel a sense of power which I had never  experienced.  A power from the connection to my pure heart.  Not the power of dominance.  A power of merging, of flowing, of allowing.

And life was forever changed.  Now that I had “tasted” it.   I would notice each time I tried to disconnect and not stay present with what was, that I in fact was giving up on an opportunity to bring healing.

I was taught that grace was lipstick and polished nails, but I found grace within.  It was and continues to be a journey of reflecting the light of my soul and the purity of my heart versus my fears and contraction