“Some of you who are sitting here will become great Teachers of the Age of Aquarius. You must understand that you have to build your character first. Care for yourself, be kind to yourself, be compassionate to yourself. That is what you have to do.”–Yogi Bhajan April 23, 1997 That I never met Yogi Bhajan in physical form left me with many regrets. I often felt envious that his earlier students had access to a living master that could answer their questions. I had a lucid dream years ago with Yogi Bhajan in it. I saw him and was thrilled…

An experiment led by the French Federation of Kundalini Yoga Imagine if your immune system was unable to recognize the layer of myelin around your nerves, and started to attack it, disrupting the transmission of nerve impulses to the brain and causing a variety of very disabling effects : fatigue, muscular weakness, difficulty moving, muscular rigidity and spasms, involontary contractions, pain, tingling sensations, trembling, difficulties with balance, partial or complete paralysis, … on the physical level, anxiety, depression, impaired vision, difficulties with speech, memory problems, sleep disorders, … on the mental level. These are the symptoms experienced by people who have…

How do we choose to change our lives? What part of us makes that choice that leads us closer to the center of our own heart? Who do we become when we become the best version of ourselves? This is the story of my journey through the Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training Program. As I glided past the closed door on my way from a Hot Yoga class to change out of my hot sweat-drenched clothes, I was stopped short by the strange yet somehow familiar sounds that were emanating from inside. Others pushed past me in their rush to the…

“It’s very important that you should know you and it’s most important that everybody should know you as trustworthy, honorable, graceful, steadfast, serviceful, kind and compassionate. These are a few faculties of a Teacher.” —Yogi Bhajan, April 23, 1997 Yogi Bhajan’s teachings are astounding. He was given to long lectures at times and lengthy discourse about any and every subject and sometimes, many times, my head was in a spin listening to him or reading a passage. I needed them translated into down-to-earth language. Therefore, I appreciate those Kundalini masters such as Gurcharan, Guruatma and Mehtab that can interpret and bring them to me in a way that…

Yogi Bhajan described two styles of spiritual teachers, the Saturn teacher and the Jupiter teacher. Both look to the soul of the student, but each uses a different mode to evoke results. Saturn Teacher: The planet Saturn is the only planet with rings. The rings provide limitation and constriction. The Saturn teacher is all about discipline. He specializes in always doing the unexpected and he “carries a stick” so he can suddenly “whack” any student who gets out of line. His role is to give the discipline and the limits.  It is through limitation that we gather our strength and become potent…

Q: Is it permissible to chant Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo silently before teaching a Kundalini Yoga class? Yogi Bhajan: No. Sound purifies the inner and outer environments. Chanting it on one breath is preferred.   Q: Is there anytime one would teach a Kundalini Yoga class and NOT tune in with Ong Namo aloud? Yogi Bhajan: Is there anytime when a pipe is not fitted with the gas tank and you can fill the car? This mantra is for tuning the flow of personal energy with universal energy. That’s a fact. Do it with the group to tune them in too.   Q: Is…

By Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa Dr. Michael Gottlieb together with Dr. Joel Weisman wrote a report that appeared in the June 5, 1981 issue of the Centers for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report identifying Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome as a new disease. That report signaled the official start of the AIDS epidemic. Under the guidance of Yogi Bhajan, I started the first Kundalini Yoga classes for people living with HIV in 1986. The health and fitness industry was booming; Jane Fonda’s Workout studio was just up the street from Guru Ram Das Ashram in Los Angeles. From the beginning…