Adding to the Addendum - Yogi Bhajan's Story is a Story of Dharma

[Guru Fatha Singh Khalsa]

Sat Nam, everyBody -

Today I received a timely email from Gurumarka Singh in Germany advising that: 1) he has a copy of the sought after video Sunseed (​link here); 2) and that for all my efforts at clarify, from his point of view I did not clarify so much. Specifically he wanted to know definitively whether there ever was a Sant Hazara Singh and whether in fact he was a teacher to our Yogi Bhajan.

Those of you who know me a little will realize that where a simple answer does not present itself, I will go into context for a contextual answer, and that is where we are going today...

First of all, while Yogi Bhajan was a fine story-teller, I have never known him to make up a story, so I am going to assume there was a Sant Hazara Singh ji and that he was his teacher. Philip Deslippe will argue the other side, but I will stick with my assumption.

Why? Big picture, Yogi Bhajan, the “Siri Singh Sahib” to us, was a teacher of dharma in this kaljug, this dark age. Let me explain.

Had he merely taught physical poses like Pattabhi Josh or B.K.S. Iyengar, the exact physical lineage of his teachings might have been very important. It would have explained “where he was coming from” and also given him legitimacy. But our Siri Singh Sahib was not just a physical mechanic. By his account, he studied widely and garnered his teachings from a number of teachers.  Moreover, I feel our teacher derived his legitimacy foremost by his heartfelt service and relevance to our needs.  Of course, Guru Ram Das was and is also in the picture, not so much as a legitimizer but as a gracious guardian spirit.

I don't pretend to know all the swamis and teachers whose brains the Siri Singh Sahib picked to arrive at the mix which he conveyed to us as 3HO teachings. As well as Swami Dhirendra Brahmacharya and Baba Virsa Singh, a yoga writer named Georg Feuerstein claimed that he also learned from someone named Dev Atma. Some of us might also remember the story of how officer Harbhajan Singh delivered his own carrot pudding to a reclusive yogi for forty consecutive days to receive the yogi"s teaching. In his recollections, I believe he also visited Swami Sivananda and Satya Sai Baba. Though the Siri Singh Sahib tactfully wove the story so as not to mention their names, he also clearly was not impressed.

The bigger question which is raised by Deslippe's paper, is why Virsa Singh and Dhirenda Brahmacharya, especially Virsa Singh, were written out of the 3HO narrative and Sant Hazara Singh ji entered apparently in his stead. While this was an important change, no doubt, let us remember that the Siri Singh Sahib was not impervious to self-examination and that he did occasionally correct himself. Those on his staff might be experts on this subject, but from my humble point of view I can point to two instances where the teachings were changed significantly.

One case where the Siri Singh Sahib changed things was in naming his students. When the Siri Singh Sahib named me and wrote my name out on a piece of paper, it was unmistakably “Gur Fatha Singh.” It was not until some weeks later that I received a letter from Shakti Parwha Kaur telling me Yogiji had recently announced that all those who had been given a name beginning with “Gur” should actually use the spelling “Guru.” “Gur” means technical know-how and “Guru” means one who imparts the technical know-how.

Why the change? I can't say if anyone asked, but this is what I can tell you: using “Gur” at the start of a name and blending them together, as in “Gurcharan” has been the traditional practice among Sikhs, although I did find a historical reference once to a Sikh named “Gurumukh.” Changing from this abbreviated form to the fully spelled out form of “Guru,” and perhaps making two words out of it (In her letter, Shakti Parwha said they should be one word and I did that for a time, but a number of us do not.) is very radical. It reminds us that the Guru made us to stand as his equal – and that is a powerful statement. For the Sikh nation that suffered a century under the heel of colonialism, it was too powerful really, but that's what the Siri Singh Sahib did. Another exercise in poke, provoke, confront, and you know...

Another case was where the Siri Singh Sahib instructed us to change our pronunciation of the mantra we had always known as “Wha Guru” to “Wahe Guru.” Frankly, I do not have details on exactly why that was done, although it did differentiate us from the Akand Kirtani Jatha's loud, animated style of chanting, which the Siri Singh Sahib did not favour.

Really, in those first years, I don't think anybody, even the Siri Singh Sahib, knew where we were going. There was no map for where we were headed because what we were doing was unprecidented. Meditation and the guidance of God and Guru led the way.

My sense is that in the course of his first years in North America, Harbhajan Singh Puri saw and experienced the Guru's hand at work in a new culture, a subculture really, at a time of social upheaval in a way he could never anticipate and only barely understand. By the time he returned to India, Harbhajan Singh had been an unfathomable instrument of the Guru's will for many months. As Ganga Bhajan Kaur put it, the hopes of a generation rested in him. The longhaired, psychedelic flower children had found a kickass, gentle saviour in a turban and curly-toed shoes – and they loved him.

In coming to Gobind Sadan, home of Baba Virsa Singh, there were a number of challenges. One was that the money that had been wired ahead to secure their accommodations at the ashram had mysteriously disappeared. The cultural and linguistic divide between Virsa Singh and the Yogi's students must have also been huge, even unbridgeable. Again, Ganga Bhajan recalled that whereas Yogiji as always the “cool cat,” charming, humble, disarming, this Virsa Singh had a very hard time connecting. Not that he did not try.

Alan Singh Weiss, now a doctor, recalled how Virsa Singh took a steel tube of water and chanted over it with a sword, making a kind of Amrit, and how drinking that enchanted water gave him an experience of transcendence unlike any he had ever known that stayed with him for days. Baba Virsa Singh was powerful, no doubt, and a dedicated man of hard work and devotion, but he did not care for yoga and, according to our narrative he wanted Yogiji's students to himself. This, Ganga Bhajan recalled, would have been a betrayal and the Yogi remained true to his students and his teachings.

Yogi Bhajan was in a dilemma however. He had realized the excellence of kundalini koga, likely in increasing degrees during his time in America. He had seen what it could do, how it could move and change people, even the most unenlightened. Moreover, through his sadhana, he was charged like a spiritual version of the Energizer bunny. He hardly slept.

But where could he bring these trusting students of his? Where could he bring them for refuge and inspiration? Swami Dhirendra was a hatha yogi. There was nothing doing there. Baba Virsa Singh would not acknowledge the power of yoga and moreover wanted authority over Yogiji's students. And Sikhs in general did not care for yoga either, though their scriptures overflowed with visionary poetry about chakras and the unstruck melody. While their Gurus had clearly practised powerful meditation techniques, those techniques had long been lost, lost to the Mughals, lost to the British, lost just managing to survive.

That is when Guru Ram Das stepped in and gave Yogiji his mantra. That is also where Krishna observed the candles melted and the cloth on Yogiji's altar burnt to ashes without any fire being lit. It is also where Guru Gobind Singh appeared to the Yogi Bhajan to give him guidance.

If you have any doubt about the integral part of yoga and meditation in the essential Sikh experience of cherdi kala, please access my research on this subject in The Essential Gursikh Yogi: The Yoga and Yogis in the Past, Present and Future of Sikh Dharma.

The rest is history really. Sant Hazara Singh ji filled a useful role in the Siri Singh Sahib's stories as the teacher's teacher. Even if they were only half true, I would not care. There is a Sufi saying which I believe that if a story exalts the spirit, it is true.

The Siri Singh Sahib was recognized in Amritsar as a teacher of dharma, hence they gave him his title. Many people in the East and West since have not known what to make of him. Some have disparaged his yoga teachings. Some have disagreed with his dharma lessons. Yogiji, the Siri Singh Sahib said they were practically one and the same. Many fail to get this, expecially since both call for discipline which is not very much in favour these days.

There are problems too with weak teachers and watered down teachings. Nowadays I understand you can do just five sadhanas and shave your head and still be certified as a kundalini yoga instructor. In the old days, a teacher kept their crowning glory and sadhana was the centerpiece of their daily life.

Someone once asked our teacher, “Why do you want to create Sikhs? Why do you want to do this?”

He replied, “I am not doing anything. But if I teach kundalini yoga and do not give people dharma, it means making somebody a home and putting no roof on it. I can't do that. And if I give them dharma and I do not give them discipline hard enough and they can't crystalize themselves, then everything will be lost because it's the crystal that shines, not the person.” (Los Angeles, October 15, 1984, GTE tape 411)

I think there is a problem in transmission. It is not only a problem with Philip Deslippe's interpretation. I do not believe the folks at the Kundalini Research Institute want to be known as people who teach and inspire people in dharma.  And the people at Sikh Dharma International don't generally teach yoga, so there is a bifurcation now that was not there when Yogi Bhajan started teaching. 

I hope this answers Gurumarka Singh's question. Moreover, I pray that we might all authentically serve the Siri Singh Sahib's mission, Guru Nanak's mission by His Grace. Sat Nam.

In the Name of the Cosmos which prevails through everyBody, and the Holy Nam that holds the world,

Humbly yours,

Guru Fatha Singh Khalsa