LIGHTTRAVEL.ORG
A principle in life to remember is to travel light.
You are traveling all the time.
Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.
– Yogi Bhajan
Yogi Bhajan, 1971
Memoirs by Guruprem Kaur
Yogi Bhajan's classes were healing for our bodies, minds and souls. Just his presence worked, even when we were simply waiting for him and he was not physically there. The space became sacred. He was personally impersonal, or impersonally personal-either way, it was elusively impossible to label him as your teacher, father, friend, spiritual guide or beloved, for he was all of these, as you needed, and nothing. He spoke eternal Truth as he knew it from his great Guru, the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, and his most beloved, Guru Ram Das, Lord of Miracles.
I sometimes asked questions silently, such as when Yogiji taught a meditation for the Blue Ether, directing us to beam Guru Ram Das out through our crown chakra to infinity. Yogiji explained that this spot is located on the back of the head on a woman. But in doing the meditation, I could not pinpoint it! So, I mentally asked him to show me, and he walked off the stage, right over to where I was sitting, and gently placed his fingertips there.
I was blessed to do Yogi Bhajan's ironing-giant waisted kacheras and silk kurtas that arrived damp and cool after being wadded up and refrigerated overnight. As I ironed, the scent of sandlewood wafted up from the heated fabric. I felt gratitude and love for this sewa.
I began attending classes at the Melrose ashram, where a variety of student teachers gave classes. There was Guru Singh, whom we both loved and feared for his classes were so strenuously difficult, and Baba Lamb, a muscle-bound Mr. America, who had to reduce his muscle tissue before he could do basic postures. The Baba Lamb crowd included two men I sort of dated. It was unseemly to date in 3HO, so mostly we got together in groups, but two of them became good friends-one married the angel of Guru's house, Gurumeet Kaur, and the other, Babaji, Yogiji did not let marry me.
As summer approached, a friend of one of my UCLA housemates broke into the carved Indian box on my dresser and walked off with every last penny of my savings. I gave up my dream of wandering footloose in Europe, and gratefully cashed in my plane ticket. There was just enough money to cover the cost of attending 3HO's 1971 Summer Solstice gathering, a new Void.
My first Solstice was challenging and joyful. There were over 300 people camping out and only one small shower, the waiting line for which was at least fifty people long. I used to jump into the deep and wide rushing irrigation canal instead, grabbing onto overhanging branches. One morning I lost my hold and was swept a hundred yards downstream in freezing cold water. I emerged feeling crystal clear, powerful and free. From that moment, where ever I looked and felt there were people in white with sparkling eyes and graceful movements. Black Krishna led the huge group in rhythmical, high-spirited call and answer mantras where we called upon God.
Food was cooked in dirt trenches, and breakfast was banana curry, including the banana peels and garlic. Karma Yoga meant riding in a truck and pulling weeds for a local farm. It was all very cleansing. When I developed a case of severe nasal congestion, the elderly Doctor Bruns, a companion of Yogiji's, dug his thumbs in under my jaw and pulled up towards my ears with all his might for about five grueling minutes, releasing the toxicity from my swollen glands and healing me.
Yogi ji joined us to teach White Tantric Yoga in flowing silk kurtas, looking every bit a holy man. But we never knew what to expect! Tantric was unusual and difficult. In one exercise partners had to stand with right feet touching, left palms together and right hands up in the air-for 62 minutes! In another we had to sit holding hands and using our free hands, grab a sock from one another. I "won" this match by grabbing the sock with my teeth, with Yogiji heartily laughing. Towards the end of the ten-day "advance," we all chanted Guru Guru Wahe Guru Guru Ram Das Guru to heal a woman's sprained ankle, and experienced a miracle of Guru Ram Das. And Yogiji had us imagine the earth as our mother, laying face down on her breast to absorb the sensation, saying it would heal all those who, like me, had not been breastfed.
Following Solstice a few UCLA yoga students, Jean Paul and his wife, some single men and myself, decided to rent a house in West LA so we could help each other get up for early morning sadhana. We chanted long Ek Ong Kars for two and a half hours in the sweet predawn energy on a carpet hopping with fleas. My bedroom was sectioned off with sawhorses in the wide hallway leading from the sadhana room to the kitchen. My belongings were stacked beneath the blanketed sawhorses and my floor bedding fit snugly along the wall. We felt like spiritual adventurers.
Loving Blessings,
Guruprem Kaur
Yoga Gems - web-site of Guruprem Kaur
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