Straight-Freak-Yogi-Sikh: Will the real Yogi Bhajan please stand up?

 

Credit: Saleem Hameed

"Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization" (3HO), also known as "Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere", is a New Religious Movement founded by Yogi Bhajan (real name Harbhajan Singh Puri) during the 1960´s in California (it was officially incorporated in 1969). While Yogi Bhajan himself was a real Sikh from Punjab, most of his followers were White Americans from the hippie counter-culture. Yogi Bhajan died in 2004, but his group still exists. I´m not sure what happened to his extensive business empire. 

I´ve recently read two short scholarly papers on the 3HO: "3HO/Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere: The `Forgotten´ New Religious Movement?" by Doris Jakobsh (published in 2008), and "From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric: The Construction of Yogi Bhajan´s Kundalini Yoga" by Philip Deslippe (2012). Jakobsh gives a general overview of the movement, while Deslippe proves that Yogi Bhajan made things up as he went along, his Kundalini Yoga not being as ancient as claimed. I admit that nothing in the articles particularly surprised me, except perhaps that Yogi Bhajan (a former customs officer) turned out to be a good businessman (rather than simply soaking his own supporters for money). High ranking US politicians sent condoleances when he passed away. 

While Yogi Bhajan claimed to be the official representative of Sikhism in the "Western hemisphere", he was of course nothing of the kind. The 3HO are a fringe group, and most Punjabi Sikhs would consider their practices strongly heterodox. Their white dresses remind many Sikhs of mourning rituals, and the 3HO practice that both men and women wear turbans is also unheard of (in official Sikhism, only some men wear turbans). Many Sikhs consider yoga to be Hindu in character, while 3HO consider their form of "kundalini yoga" to be central to liberation. The 3HO veneration of Guru Ram Das and Yogi Bhajan himself could be considered idolatrous. These are just a few examples of differences between Yogi Bhajan´s operation and orthodox Sikhism. Ironically, 3HO are often more strict and disciplined compared to mainline Sikhs. For instance, 3HO supporters drink absolutely no alcohol and take no drugs. The 3HO school in Punjab is considered too strict by many native Sikh parents. 

Another ground for conflict is the activist character of Yogi Bhajan´s organization. It´s usually 3HO which fights perceived religious discrimination against Sikhs in American courts, thereby becoming identified with Sikhism in the media and (perhaps) the eyes of the public - something standard Sikhs might not appreciate. In the era of the Internet, the high profile nature of the 3HO cemented the impression that somehow they are the authentic voice of Sikhism in the West (at least back in 2008). According to Jakobsh, many Sikhs consider 3HO to be "another caste" and avoid them as much as possible. However, some grounds for cooperation did suggest themselves after 9/11, when Sikhs were harassed in the United States, since ordinary White Americans can´t tell them apart from Muslims! 

Yogi Bhajan claimed that his teachings, which as already indicated he called "Kundalini Yoga", were 26,000 years old and thus expressed a very ancient tradition. It seems to be a very demanding form of hatha yoga (or perhaps modernized hatha yoga), combined with strict rules concerning diet, sleep and so on. Bhajan claimed to have been initiated into this practice already as a teenager by Sant Hazara Singh, a Sikh mystic and master of martial arts, Kundalini Yoga and "White Tantric Yoga". Bhajan hasn´t met Sant Hazara Singh since Partition (the master stayed behind in Pakistan while Yogi Bhajan´s family fled to India), and apperently, neither has anyone else. Deslippe believes that Hazara Singh is a purely fictitious character. If so, this is a real blow to 3HO´s worldview, according to which Yogi Bhajan´s teacher is part of a "Golden Chain" that should be invoked to tap its supernatural powers everytime Kundalini Yoga is practiced. 

Yogi Bhajan´s real teachers turn out to be two very different personages, both of which resided in India. One was Maharaj Virsa Singh, whom Bhajan actually acknowledged as his teacher during the first years in California. Virsa Singh´s teaching was centred on mantras and a mantric initiation, which could apparently trigger a mystical experience in the person initiated. (The mantra in question is "Ek Ong Kar Sat Nam Siri Wahe Guru". The first three words sound familiar somehow, don´t they?) The hatha yoga aspect comes from a Hindu teacher, Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari (who had connections to both Nehru and Indira Gandhi). At least from a Sikh perspective, the combination of mantras and physical postures is apparently problematic and heterodox. Yogi Bhajan essentially combined, in a somewhat original manner, two completely different systems. He also revised aspects of both, for instance dropping Dhirendra Brahmacari´s insistence on "absolute sexual continence" (not clear what Deslippe is refering to here - presumably celibacy) and the avoidance of garlic, onions and ginger. I assume hippies in California liked sex and garlic!

Deslippe argues that complex questions of authority were involved when Yogi Bhajan constructed his pedigree. Externally, as when speaking to the media, he would emphasize the connection to the Hindu swami, a "professional" yoga teacher with famous students such as Indira Gandhi. Internally, he rather emphasized Virsa Singh, the mysterious mantric mystic who was to Bhajan what Don Juan was to Carlos Castenada. At the time, many young seekers (inspired by Castaneda´s books or "The Autobiography of a Yogi" by Yogananda) wanted to find a master who was the pupil of an even higher master. However, there was also a problem with this approach. What if the great teacher was still alive, and spiritual seekers from the United States would try to find him and approach him directly? This could lead to rivalry, but also to the realization that Bhajan´s teachings were very different from those of his purported gurus. This probably explains why Yogi Bhajan decided to break with his teachers in India, stop mentioning them, and invent the personage of Hazara Singh. (Note the similarity between this and Don Juan or Babaji.) 

Yogi Bhajan also claims spiritual guidance from Guru Ram Das, an important 16th century Sikh leader, credited with founding the holy city of Amritsar. Apparently, Ram Das appeared supernaturally to Yogi Bhajan during a visit to India, the same trip during which he broke all relations with Virsa Singh after botched negotiations about who should control what turf. It was during this trip in 1970-71 that Yogi Bhajan began to emphasize the specifically Sikh character of his group, and even took his White American students to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Rather than being somebody else´s best student, Yogi Bhajan wanted to be seen as a power in his own right, perhaps as the man who could bring Sikhism to the West. 

The final phase of the transformation came when Yogi Bhajan took the title Mahan Tantric, supposedly a very high function in the spiritual hierarchy, which can only be held by one person on Earth at any one time. Before Bhajan, a Tibetan lama named Lilan Po held the title. And guess what? There is no evidence that he is real, either! Comments Deslippe: "With decades to solidify, this shift has become the accepted standard within 3HO today, where nearly all practitioners know of the claimed connections that the practice has with Sant Hazara Singh and Guru Ram Das, but hardly anyone is aware of Maharaj Virsa Singh or Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari."

The most obvious reflection when reading this is: If this is how modern religions usually evolve, why should we believe ancient religious to be any different? Why should we think that Christianity, Islam or Buddhism were unique and unproblematic revelations given by one unsullied man? If religious fundamentalists had brains, they would prohibit scholarly studies of New Religious Movements...