The Opening of Guru Ram Das Ashram Los Angeles in 1972

The above page from the January 1972 Beads of Truth issue #13, announces the opening of the Guru Ram Das Ashram in Los Angeles and shares a song written by Guru Singh, which is now fondly known as the “Golden Temple Song”.

Guru Ram Das Ashram Los Angeles

Arriving in Los Angeles in 1968, Yogi Bhajan began his mission to share the teachings of Kundalini Yoga, and to help people live healthy, happy and holy lives.  He first established Guru Ram Das Ashram as a yoga center in West Hollywood, and it was here in Los Angeles that Kundalini Yoga in the Western World was born.

In the spring of 1972, the ashram was moved to the current location, a former chiropractic and hydrotherapy office, where it was established as a formal Gurdwara.

Yogi Bhajan lived at Guru Ram Das Ashram until the early 1980s. He resided in the small living quarters in the back, joined by his wife, children and staff.  In that humble living room, countless came for his guidance, the Khalsa Council was born, both spiritual and world leaders have been welcomed and babies were named.

What is now a gurdwara with marble floors, then served as a sadhana room and gurdwara in the morning, yoga center by day, and is where the Siri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan sat and taught classes two nights a week for over 15 years.

Guru Ram Das Ashram is a sacred place, where for nearly 50 years people of all walks of life have come to be healed, to meditate, to bow to Guru, and to find peace.  The walls of Guru Ram Das Ashram now resonate with the vibration of over 1900 Akhand Paths that have taken place on a weekly basis since those early days, and the chanting, prayer and divine Kirtan from gurdwara services that have been held here 365 days a year since its inception.  Countless individuals have come to partake of the Guru’s langar that has been served daily since the mid-1980s.

By Guru’s grace, all of these traditions continue, with daily gurdwara and kirtan, langar, meditation, seva and weekly akhand paths.  Literally the birthplace of Sikh Dharma International, Guru Ram Das Ashram in Los Angeles truly is, to us, the “Golden Temple of the West.”

The Golden Temple Song

Guru Singh remixed this song, “Whoever Thought We Could Find a Holy Man” or the “Golden Temple Song”, with students at Miri Piri Academy in 2002 on his album “Chantz 2 IMPAct Earth”.

Hail Guru Ram Das, Heal the World.

Guru Guru Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru

Whoever thought we could find a holy man to take away our cares,
Whoever thought we could find a holy man who never put on airs.
Come with us as quickly as you can and we’ll take you there.
If you don’t see God in All, you don’t see God at All.
Hail Guru Ram Das, Heal the World.

Take a hold of your Golden Temple.
Guru Guru Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru
Hail Guru Ram Das, Heal the World.

~In January of 1969, after meeting Yogi Bhajan, Guru Singh began his daily Kundalini Yoga practice. He was the first Westerner to wear the turban, and began accompanying the Master, Yogi Bhajan, as he taught at Universities, lecture halls, spiritual centers and Sikh Gurdwaras around the world.