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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
The House of Shiva
by Guru Fatha Singh
Yogi Bhajan met a young lady outside the Phyllis A shram. It was an unusually quiet day. The student who usually came to answer the phone and do the secretarial work was dozing, and there was no one around.
Yogi Bhajan recognized the woman. He had seen her coming and going from one of the houses across the street. They introduced themselves. She said she worked for a company that arranged hospitality and accommodations for Hollywood 's many actors and performers. To Yogi Bhajan, it sounded like a reasonable occupation.
The lady invited her yogi neighbour to visit across the street where she worked. Inside were apartments, where apparently the denizens of the Hollywood scene might spend a night or catch a few hours rest between shootings. It was clean and tidy. It also looked fairly ordinary from the outside. The stars sometimes seemed to enjoy a few hours out of the limelight.
Everything seemed fine and ordinary and reasonable enough. Then, this hospitable woman asked, "Do you worship Shiva, in India I mean?"
"Many people worship Shiva. He is a God of gods."
"I mean how do people worship Shiva?"
"People chant mantras. They practise yoga. They bring garlands to the temple. People have many ways of dedicating themselves to Lord Shiva in their love and meditation."
"You know, many of our clients are really into Shiva. We have a room in the house next door which we call our "pooja" room. Would you like to see?"
It seemed a little odd. Shiva, the great ascetic, with devotees in this harem of Western superficiality. But when Yogi Bhajan saw the room, he began to understand. The pooja room was adorned with a large image of the dancing Shiva and a solid Shiva "lingam". There were flowers too, and candles, and many other, smaller lingams. These, his hostess helpfully informed Yogi Bhajan had been formed with plaster of Paris from the members of her select clientele. She named some of them. They were all well-known on the American entertainment scene.
Since the young woman had first mentioned the name of Shiva, Yogi Bhajan had sensed there was something terribly wrong here, and when later on his hostess directed her oddly familiar gaze into his, he recognized that it had become rather late, and that he had better be returning to his work at the ashram, in the name of Shiva, for the sake of the Indian God's reputation, and for the sake of this and every fallen angel.
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