Tejwant Jee
Yes. Though she claims her Guru is Guru Granth Sahib but follows Yogi Bhajan's advice on simran, meditation, kundalini and even understanding of gurbani. I had noticed Yogi Bhajan really had a God gift chrisma to mobilize and convert thousands but instead of connecting people with sabd guru, he could have done wonders but become victim of his own mahima and result is in front of us. Guru truely advise us, ' ਏਤੇ ਚਾਨਣ ਹੋਦਿਆਂ ਗੁਰ ਬਿਨੁ ਘੋਰ ਅੰਧਾਰ ॥੨॥ with God gift chrisma, resources, without divine wisdom, there remains pitch of darkness.
Sahni Sahib,
Guru Fateh.
You hit the nail right on the head. Yogi Bhajan is their demigod. When he was weak and unwell after a kidney transplant in India where it was bought because he could not get it quick enough in the US, his chair was next to the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji where he sat. After people doing Matha tek to the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, they did the same to Yogi Bhajan. In their "Ardaas", his name has been added for a long time.
Yogi Bhajan was a very charismatic person. He also did a lot of good things when he arrived here in the late 60's. He took many people off the drugs during the Hippy era and brought them to his fold with yoga as his calling card. He admitted himself to my family that he had no idea about yoga because he was just a Government worker. So he made up a story of some Guru who had taught him Kundalini to put the icing on the business model of his.
There is no doubt, that he did a lot of good at that time unlike OSHO's Rajneesh where free open sex, abortions and drugs were common in Oregon. Rajneesh also translated Jap, I am sure you must be aware of. I know lots of people in Latin America and Europe who still flock towards OSHO and go to Pune to his Ashram without having an inkling that he and his chelas tried to poison the water of a city in Oregon to get some permits approved. They also do not know that Rajneesh was deported from here rather than facing jail, the deal that was struck but his chelas, among them his lady secretary faced jail time. The most interesting part of Rajneesh is that this was not even his real name. He was a Jaini, born as Chandra Mohan Jain and later on called himself Bhagwan Rajneesh. And you know the Jaini theology quite well.
The same kind of route Yogi Bhajan took but in a much better way. Unlike Rajneesh who used his charisma and snake oil, Yogi Bhajan made those drug addicts self-sufficient by creating boiler rooms all over the west coast to sell Copy machines', Fax machines' and other kinds of toners 10 times the retail price. He created a sales pitch where his salespeople only talked to the secretaries and enticed them with gifts. His go to man was an American Sikh named HarJiwan Singh Khalsa who managed all these boiler rooms. They made millions but eventually, things got caught up and the whole operation was closed down after the raids by the government and HarJiwan ended up spendig some time behind bars. One of his other chelas was involved in smuggling Marijuana and spent some time in the prison too. And there are many worse things about Yogi's life that are not worth discussing.
The reason, I have mentioned the above is to agree with you that it is a business model where “fairy tale spirituality” is sold under the guise of Sikhi as the main intangible ingredient, with the tangible business plans which consist of “Mantras, Meditation and Kundalini Yoga stores” as the Boiler Room business was closed down forcefully and one more important thing to mention here is that 3HO works with the changing times. 3HO was the first one to establish Call Centres in India and then spread them to other countries.
Kudos to Ambarsaria ji in his post to Akasha ji to decipher "Spiritual and non- Spiritual" from the Sikhi viewpoint with the quotes from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. This is what we all have to do because Sikhi is not just about "me feel good" thingie but "me do good in order to feel good" way of life.
Now, the most dangerous part is that they are translating Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, under the same mindset which has nothing to do with Gurbani as you must have noticed, but they have a captive audience among themselves around the world to generate funds and keep on doing the same.
This is the reason, the Sikh honchos like the SGPC and others who have given their stamp of approval to the English Translation of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji by Sant Singh Khalsa who is a Gora Sikh (and his translation is the most misleading) make things more dangerous. They should rather invest on Sikh Scholars like IJ Singh and others in the diaspora who are fluent in multiple languages to translate the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji to stop this very dangerous and non Sikhi incursion into Sikhi.
The case in point is my interaction with EK Ong Kaar Kaur. She posted a picture of a Chinese Sikh and a Hispanic Sikh who translated her Jap in English to those languages on her FB page. I offered her to do the same in Portuguese for which she was very happy about it and here is part of her message,
” Have you read the translation of Japji a Sahib that Yogiji guided me to do? If you do not have a copy, please send me your mailing address and I will be grateful to send it to you. You can read it for yourself and decide whether you think it is an appropriate translation. Then, if you do like it and you would like to use it as a base to do a translation in Portuguese, it would be an honor to have you do so”.
The reason I am posting this is to show you that all the so called Sikhi mindset has been constipatedly coming out of Yogi Bhajan’s mind. She is sending me the book.
Finally, you are absolutely right. “ Guru truely advise us, ' ਏਤੇ ਚਾਨਣ ਹੋਦਿਆਂ ਗੁਰ ਬਿਨੁ ਘੋਰ ਅੰਧਾਰ ॥੨॥ with God gift charisma, resources, without divine wisdom, there remains pitch of darkness”.
Just my thoughts.
Thanks & regards
Tejwant Singh
:cheerleaders:
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Galaxy of Understandables :whistlingkudi::whislingmunda: