The book, and the subsequent response from the Kundalini Yoga community, is believed to have prodded the 3HO group leadership to launch an official investigation into the allegations against Yogi Bhajan, which has since see more women coming forward with their own grievances. Many traditional Sikhs were impressed to see the legion of Westerners, donning an all-white attire, doing kirtan and reading the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib.īut the January 2020 release of the book by Pamela Sarah Dyson, who was known as Premka Kaur Khalsa during her involvement with the 3HO community since the 1970s when she was in her mid-20s, has taken the community by storm. He is also credited to have brought the Sikh teaching to Westerners as a band of white, black and coloured men and women, not of Punjabi origin. He died in 2004, leaving behind thousands of yoga students, a thriving yoga business network and a host of businesses, most of them connected to organisations like the Kundalini Research Institute (KRI), Sikh Dharma International, Siri Singh Sahib Corporation and the 3HO Foundation International. Unlike most teachers, they have had personal engagements with Yogi Bhajan as and when he visits Europe.īhajan, whose real name is Harbhajan Singh Puri and worked as a custom officer in India, moved to the United States in 1968. She appeared in a sharing along with a fellow director Shiv Charan Singh. “There will be continue to be abuses and there will continue to be desperate women who put themselves in very vulnerable positions will be taken advantage of.”
What is there to change now?” said Satya Kaur, a director of Portugal-based Karam Kriya International School of Kundalini. Scanning for the various responses, Asia Samachar came across one respond that was rather dismissive of the issue. There were some voices in support of Yogi Bhajan. “We are independent kundalini yoga instructors who teach what has resonated with us personally as healing and healthy.” YB was a horribly flawed, unenlightened man,” Andrea Fiondo from the Kundalini Yoga in Detroit told Asia Samachar in an email response when asked to comment on their position in light of the new revelations. “Sat nam! We have amended our website to reflect our stance. Some Kundalini Yoga centres are making a clean break with Bhajan and his legacy organisations. “He abused his power and the people who knew about it kept it a secret for a long time.” However, the Copenhagen-based teacher was clear about what Yogi Bhajan did. “My journey was the love for the Kundalini technology.” Still reeling from the revelations, the teacher with two decades of experience has decided to suspend some of her classes as “I don’t know what I’m teaching right now.”Ī yoga teacher for the last seven years, Lotus Dayánde said Yogi Bhajan was never an important part of her of my Kundalini Yoga journey, that her training did not involve watching hours of his teaching on video as was the norm for many others.
I won’t be doing that anymore,” said Valinda Cochella who runs Los Angeles-based South Bay Yoginis. I used his quotes, I used his image a lot. “It’s heartbreaking for me and it’s been difficult reading the book. Like Aimee, many kundalini yoga teachers were clearly anguished and devastated with the revelations that tarnished the reputation of Yogi Bhajan, the self-styled yoga master who had brought Kundalini Yoga to the world from his base in Los Angeles.
“Yogi Bhajan wasn’t the white wizard that, perhaps, we believed he was or that we hoped he was,” mulled Spain-based KY teacher Aimee (Indra) Rai in a social media entry. Teacher after teacher went online to connect with their yoga students on the pointed allegations made by a former staff member and long-time devotee of the late yoga master in newly released book ‘ Premka: White Bird in a Golden Cage (My Life with Yogi Bhajan)’. The avalanche of outpouring continues to build up as the Kundalini Yoga world comes to grip with the devastating impact of Yogi Bhajan’s alleged sexual and other abuses. Clockwise, left to right: Valinda Cochella, Satya Kaur and Shiv Charan Singh, Lotus Dayánde and Aimee (Indra) Rai By Asia Samachar Team | UNITED STATES | WHAT THEY SAY: Some Kundalini Yoga teachers.