The Beginning (Part 5)

Destination Denver

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.

Yogi Bhajan, in his role as the Siri Singh Sahib, ordained Hari Singh and Hari Kaur as Sikh ministers, i.e., Singh Sahib and Sardarni Sahiba of Sikh Dharma respectively, September 1, 1973, in Denver, Colorado. He later proclaimed Hari Singh to be Mukhia Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma in April, 1978, in Los Angeles, California.

In this excerpt from his December 6, 1979 lecture, Siri Singh Sahib Ji references Hari Singh: and how he started his daily sadhana –  “for his ten years of complete Sadhana, I honored him as a Mukhia Singh Sahib”.

Excerpt of December 6, 1979 Lecture

Ten years, ten years of service have proven that we have not let down one single most obnoxious person. Ten years have proven that we have not cut down communication with our most worst enemy. Ten years of proven record is that under most adverse circumstances, most exciting circumstances, most desirable circumstances we have not reacted negatively. Ten years of service has proven to us that we always take practice to be better people because we have one common thing in all of us, we want to be healthy, we want to be happy and we want to be holy and that’s a very powerful relationship which we all have in common. It can become very easy if we all help each other to make it so. It’s very convenient. Each one of us have one specific goal, we all want to be healthy, we all want to be happy, we all want to be holy and we all know it is desirable but it can’t happen, that’s why we need Sangat, we need the company, we need the people, we need each other and we will never have each other if we are not honest to each other.

With unsteady, be steady, with unhappy be happy, with unwanted be wanted, with unknown be known, with unacknowledged acknowledge, with unpleasant be pleasant, with uncommunicative communicate, with unexpansion, expand. There is no way to stop, life is a all way, the going experience. Life is inspiringly an expiring experience, life is beautiful. Life is the most beautiful gift you ever got and each day you lived you must be very, very grateful that each way you’ve lived that’s why next day you should get up to in gratitude and do Sadhana. I am yet to see in ten years, one single man who has done his Sadhana honestly having any problem. I have seen one man who had tremendous problems and he went through it solving all, all, without any problem and this year after ten years, for his ten years of complete Sadhana I honored him as a Mukhia Singh Sahib.

It is amazing, if you understand his history. When I met him I was only to stay at his home. He was at that time approximately, I do not know, was earning thirty to thirty five thousand dollar a year. He has a beautiful home in Florida, Orlando. He has two beautiful children and I remember the first party he called people to come and meet me around the swimming pool in his house, huge, vast variety of people came. We sat down and talked and he said very simply. He said, “I do not know what I can do but I want to do something in my life.”

And I said to him, “Without experience of God what life is?”

He said, “How one can get experience of God?”

I say, “The answer is Sadhana.”

And next morning he was doing Sadhana. It was ten years ago. He continue doing Sadhana, his job was gone, he had to sell his house, he had to lot of things, he had to take children to the schools, he has to do the whole thing, he is re-established today. There’s nothing wrong. They are the happiest married couple. Children, first time in America, I can example two children who are loving to their parents and absolutely obedient, absolutely honest, frank and truthful. May the blessing of Guru Ram Das and God be with this family so that at least we have one example to quote.

Listen to this full lecture here:

• Read “The Beginning: Part 1“
• Read “The Beginning:  Part 2“
• Read “The Beginning:  Part 3“
• Read “The Beginning:  Part 4”