About Yogi Bhajan

Yogi Bhajan began teaching in 1967 and founded  3HO (Organization for Healthy, Happy, Holy Living). His merit and credit was delivering the art of Kundalini Yoga and White Tantric Yoga which he shared around the world until his death in 2004. Inspired by this art, ashrams, yoga studios, festivals and a series of natural products, including the international Yogi Tea brand bloomed. He had a deeply mystical view of Sikhism and shared the humanitarian, altruistic values of this youngest of the world religions.

In 1999, the World Parliament of Religions took place in Cape Town, and it was an opportunity for Yogi Bhajan to visit South Africa.

In 2020, a book came out by a former student on abuse and malfeasance by the master which led to other voices speaking up, too. A wave of shock and sadness went through the sangats (communities) in the course of the posthumous discussions. Many yogis left the practice, others concluded they couldn’t be sure and some deny the possibility of wrongs entirely. Many of us continue a yogic lifestyle that has grown on us over decades. We salvage aspects that are dear. It is possible that we continue to deal with some sense of incomprehensible complexity around what he taught versus how he lived and we’d like to say, may this serve as a conscious incentive to the collective to do better. We stand by transparency vis-a-vis the past and deep empathy with the individuals who were hurt. We equally continue to teach what we experienced as wholesome and life-affirming and contextualise the lofty yogic teachings via models that do these teachings justice. 

Yogi Bhajan had individual teacher-student relationships with all the folk who learned from him in person, and there are many who attest to the priceless healing he brought. This does not exonerate the instances where the teacher exerted too much pressure resulting in unhealthy relationships. Finding a greater space of understanding and willingness, we try and learn from instances in the human collective, and deepen our knowledge on how trauma may occur and resolve. The knowledge contained in the enormous body of teachings that he shared remains ageless and priceless.

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