|
The
3HO Foundation Before 3HO The 'Birds' moved to Florida from the Midwest in early 1969 after Hari Singh attended a January conference of Opticians in Sarasota, Florida. Before returning home they explored the idea of moving to Florida if the logistics could be worked out. Hari Singh then acquired a job offer with the Merritt Optical Laboratory in Orlando so they returned home and put their house up for sale, which they had just purchased prior to Thanksgiving of 1968. It was decided that if the house sold quickly, and they realized enough cash flow to pay the moving expenses, they would make the move to Florida. They subsequently moved to Orlando in February of 1969. Orlando - The City Beautiful
The Beginning Sat Nam. The Birds first contact with Yogi Bhajan happened a few weeks after Hari Singh attended a Theosophical Society meeting in Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando in early 1970, a few months after the historic Woodstock Music Festival. The guest speaker was John Twombly, a local resident who was living with his parents on Nela Avenue in South Orlando. John had recently returned to Orlando from a music festival where he met and became a student of Yogi Bhajan. John was the first Central Florida Kundalini Yoga teacher and the first head of a 3HO ashram in the Orlando area. John addressed the Theosophical Society chapter concerning Kundalini Yoga and the traditions of India. When Hari Singh returned home from the gathering, he told Hari Kaur that “a guy with long hair, who looked like Jesus” had spoken to the group. He asked Hari Kaur, “What do you think about inviting him to dinner sometime?” She said anytime would be fine, so a date and time was arranged. When John came to dinner he advised the Birds that his spiritual teacher -- Yogi Bhajan -- was coming to Orlando in the near future to teach some Kundalini Yoga classes. He also advised that since his parents did not relate to his lifestyle, he did not feel that Yogiji could be properly accommodated in their home. So he asked if Yogiji could stay with the Birds. We agreed. And when he indicated Yogiji would be bringing a secretary and asked if she, along with John, could also stay we again agreed. What really ended up happening was that hours after Yogiji and his secretary, Premka Kaur, arrived a total of 26 house guests showed up, as well as some 'Hog Farm' folks who fortunately stayed in their 'Road Hog' bus since the house had just three bedrooms and only one bathroom. Yogi Bhajan, 1970
It was a real tight fit, to say the least. The swimming pool in the
back yard ended up being used for bathing, and several holes were
dug with shovels to accommodate “nature’s call”
on numerous days, since the waiting-line for the one and only bathroom
was always a good wait. (Early on Hari Singh became aware of the presence
of pot on the premises, so he advised all the visitors to dispose
of any drugs while in the residence, especially with Yogiji as our
special guest. Unfortunately, as a consequence, the only toilet got
plugged due to a bag or bags of pot being flushed.) On one occasion, a large boil had developed on Hari Kaur's forehead just prior to one of Yogiji's visits. When Yogiji saw the boil he advised Hari Kaur to slice an onion in half and to heat one half as hot as possible to the touch. He then applied the hot onion to the boil several times in succession and then popped the boil. Yogiji also introduced Hari Kaur and those present to Ashiatsu or 'Back Walking' whereby the spine is realigned and a great deal of tension is released. The first time he applied this technique to Hari Kaur he registered shock at how much adjustment occurred. Hari Kaur has used this technique on receptive people ever since. It really feels great. See OnsiteFamilyHealthcare.com. On another occasion, Hari Singh introduced Yogiji to a special rice dish that he perfected as a young teenager. It's called Sopa Seca or just plain sopa. It's made with 'tons' of garlic, and lots of onions and tomatoes. Yogiji could not get enough of this dish, and he requested, actually he ordered that Hari Singh prepare a batch of sopa whenever he visited Orlando. Yogiji in turn introduced everybody to things like his renowned Yogi Tea and beet and carrot cassarole. Then, there was avocado on toast with raw garlic, and some of his now famous spicy dishes, some almost too hot to handle. See SopaSeca.com. In 1970, during a Yogi Bhajan visit to Florida, a photographer by the name of Mikio Kuzumoto, a Kundalini Yoga student and active duty Major in the U.S. Air Force at the local airbase, took a series of exceptional photos of Yogiji in the courtyard of a church in Orlando. Yogiji had gone there to conduct a lecture and Kundalini Yoga class. The photos (see below) were taken before a background of blossoming orange trees on the church property. These photos are now in the possession of Sat Kartar Singh and Gurubachan Singh of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yogi Bhajan Amidst Orange Blossoms
On
another occasion, Hari Kaur was looking out of the kitchen window
into the back yard and the pool deck. On the deck, were John
Twombly and a young woman, Noreen, in full lotus, both naked,
being photographed by Mikio. Wondering what Yogiji would think of
this, Hari Kaur called for him to come see, and when he looked, he
rolled his eyes, shook his head from side to side, shrugged his shoulders,
and just walked away without a word. Then,
while Hari Singh was preparing to leave, Yogiji again called and said
that he and Premka had just enough money between them for a bus ticket
to Orlando, and would we please meet them at the Orlando bus station,
whereupon Hari Singh drove to the bus station and brought the weary
travelers back to the “Bird’s Nest” (Yogiji's words)
for a few days of rest and relaxation.
On occasion Yogiji could be seen rotating mala beads in his hand and we learned that this practice had a very practical as well as a deeply spiritual meaning that involved an ancient technology.
"Malas
are used not just by Sikhs, but by members of various
religions We learned that the mala beads are used as an aid to meditation. The use of a mala can assist the mind to enter a meditative state. The mala beads are moved in rhythm with the breath and mantra, so that both sleep as well as excessive mental distraction can be prevented. See Meditation: How it works. Yogi Bhajan With The Children
Ong Kar, now of Herndon, VA, and Sat
Kartar, now of Albuquerque NM, were in pre-school at this time,
and Hari Singh, a licensed Optician,
had lost his job with Winter Park Opticians after he began growing
his hair and beard, which was especially unacceptable by many employers
at the time of the Viet Nam war. In the summer of 1970, Yogi Bhajan participated in an informal "Holy Man Jam" at the University of Colorado at Boulder with Swami Satchidananda, Stephen Gaskin of The Farm in Tennessee, Zen Buddhist Bill Quan-roshi, and other local luminaries. A few weeks later, Yogi Bhajan carried that inspiration forward and organized a gathering of spiritual teachers to engage and inspire the 200,000 attendees of the Atlanta Pop Festival on the stage between the performances of the bands. See The Beginning of 3HO by Shakti Parwha Kaur. Yogi Bhajan Reaching Out to Young People
First 3HO Winter Solstice Sadhana In
December 1971, in preparation for the first 3HO Winter Solstice Sadhana,
John Twombly arranged for the gathering
to occur at the newly acquired ashram in a residential area called
Pine Hills, in western metro-Orlando, on a very small pond. Hari Singh,
who was then employed by the Orange County Health Department as an
anti-drug, youth counselor and yoga teacher at Thee Door, advised
against holding the Winter Solstice
Sadhana gathering at the Pine Hills location. The site was seen
as being too small and without adequate facilities and permits. John
however, indicated that he preferred not to engage any “establishment
red tape” with the authorities and that despite Hari Singh's
advice he would proceed as planned. Orlando Sentinel clipping provided by the family of Livtar Singh Khalsa.
We returned to the Pine Hills ashram with the kids in the early evening
intending to drive to the site in a caravan. Upon arrival, Yogiji
met us and directed the four of us to take him in our little VW Bug
to the Green Acres campsite, which was located at 9701 S. State Road
434, on Forest City Road in Seminole County, before its demise in
the late 90s or early 2000. More 3HO History During the 1970-1972 time frame Hari Singh taught Kundalini Yoga classes in the Orange County Jail as a part of an Orange County initiative called 'Thee Door', an anti-drug youth outreach program of the Orange County Health Department. Hari Singh coined 'Thee Door' as the name of the program. In 1971 Governor Reuben Askew appointed a visionary* figure, Mel Coleman, to succeed retiring Sheriff Dave Starr, who was an alleged Ku Klux Klan figure. (Note: "Former Orange County Sheriff Dave Starr, who served from 1949 to 1971, was identified as a Klansman in sworn statements to the FBI.") Sheriff Coleman authorized the unprecedented access by Thee Door counselors to serve the jail population, mostly drug offending inmates, which included the teaching of Kundalini Yoga and meditation by Hari Singh, inside the jail. This program was administered from Health Department facilities on West Central Avenue, in a former grade school building just west of downtown Orlando, where Hari Singh also conducted classes and counseling. Thee Door was under the direction of Dr. Wilfred Sisk, the Orange County Health Officer, another visionary who initiated the program. It later came under the supervision of his appointee, Marge Jackson. *Note: The time frame of these events was the late 60's - early 70's in the Deep South during much civil rights unrest. During this time, Yogi Bhajan made plans to again visit Orlando on a Florida teaching tour. Hari Singh advised the student inmates well in advance of Yogiji's possible visit inside the jail, which generated all kinds of excitement. After Yogiji arrived and was granted clearance to enter the jail, he spent almost an hour of quality time with the inmates inside their classroom cell, an experience they long remembered. Then, the head teacher of the Denver, CO ashram resigned in late 1972. Yogi Bhajan contacted Hari Singh at the December, 1972, 3HO Winter Solstice Sadhana and asked that he fly to Denver to check out the possibility of moving there to fill the vacancy, which he did. Upon his return, Hari Singh learned that the Health Department office building had burned to the ground and that there were no immediate plans to rebuild the structure. The Hari's saw this development as a significant indicator of the direction of their destiny, whereupon they put their Orlando residence up for sale and subsequently moved to Denver in February of 1973. Yogi Bhajan, in his role as the Siri Singh Sahib, ordained Hari Singh and Hari Kaur as Sikh ministers, i.e., Singh Sahib and Sardarni Sahiba of Sikh Dharma respectively, September 1, 1973, in Denver, Colorado. He later proclaimed Hari Singh to be Mukhia Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma in April, 1978, in Los Angeles, California.
The Denver House of Guru Ram Das There were several 3HO students living in the rented Clayton Street ashram in Denver who were operating the Hanuman's Conscious Cookery restaurant (renamed Golden Temple Conscious Cookery) on University Boulevard just around the corner from the Denver University campus. See I replaced drugs with Kundalini Yoga. Within a few months the Hari's purchased a larger two-story brick home at 1072 Josephine Street across from the Denver Botanical Gardens, in which to house the residents of the ashram known as the House of Guru Ram Das. A short time later, the Hari's children, Ong Kar Kaur and Sat Kartar Singh, left for grade school at Nanak's 5th Centennial School in Mussorie, India for one school year, in 1974. This experience gave them valuable insights, which have remained with them to this day. Special Note: Some years later, upon visiting India again, Sat Kartar Singh sent a letter and a photo home dated January 8, 1991, which reads in part: "At Paonta Sahib, there was this old man that stayed in a corner on the 2nd stoop. He faced the Gurdwara. He was dressed in a white turban, white beard, and white body wrap. He had a bowl, mat, blanket and cane.
His
clothes and possessions were grayed from dirt. The slow dirt. The
dirt from little washing and a lot of time, his brown skin actually
made his clothing seem white now that I think about it. In any event,
his life was Bani and
Shabad (to do with Sacred Words and Sacred
Songs). The Khalsa String Band came to Denver for a concert in 1975 and entertained patrons at the Golden Temple Conscious Cookery. The restaurant closed later in that year. The 70s also saw the arrival in Denver of Guru Maharaji, the juvenile spiritual teacher from Dehra Dun, India, who established the Divine Light Mission organization in Denver. The Khalsa String Band
The Hari's purchased an additional residence in 1976, on a cul-de-sac in Aurora, CO, a suburb of Denver on East Gunnison Place, with the intention of creating a community of separate, clustered, satellite residences. Meanwhile, the ashram business evolved from the restaurant into Khalsa Residential and Commercial Services, a successful janitorial-cleaning enterprise until 1984, when it closed due to attrition of staff. Hanna and Harvey Not
all doctors are healers. In 1974 Hari Kaur had the good fortune to meet Hanna Kroeger in Boulder with regard to some health issues. Hanna was well known as a healer and health educator. She was the proprietor of Hanna's Herb Shop in Boulder and was the subject of considerable controversy among the established medical community. (Hanna passed away in May of 1998.) After seeing Hari Kaur, Hanna recommended that she visit a man "with X-ray vision" (her words), named Harvey Bevier, a former World War II bomber pilot, who was a visionary mystic and shaman-healer in Denver. He normally provided his treatments out of a small residence on Hooker Street. Hari Kaur's successful treatments at the hands of Harvey turned out to be the beginning of a very special relationship between Harvey and the entire 3HO Denver-Boulder community.
Later, the Hari's introduced Harvey to Yogi Bhajan during one of Yogiji's meditation and White Tantric Yoga* teaching tours in the Denver area. Harvey treated Yogi Bhajan thereafter with his special 'karate chiropractic' procedures at the Denver ashram on several of Yogiji's visits. In fact, the first time Harvey applied his moves to Yogiji, a much larger man, Yogiji registered his surprise at Harvey's ability to effortlessly lift him off the stool. Yogiji's response, a resounding, "Wow!" *White Tantric Yoga White Tantric Yoga Meditation “A Kundalini Yoga kriya is a sequence of postures, breath and sound that are integrated together to allow the manifestation of a particular state. When you execute a kundalini kriya the result of its repetition is the access to, and mastery of a particular, predictable and stable state – a facet of your awareness.” The Aquarian Teacher
More About Harvey At one point, Hari Singh asked Harvey about his characteristic navel-setting cough each time he applied one of his many body-aligning moves. Harvey said that the practice was taught to him by his teacher in order to prevent any over-adjustment in the application of his technique. Yogiji later said that Harvey employed a kind of treatment use by the ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago. He was so impressed with Harvey's treatments that he always insisted on seeing him whenever he came to Denver. Harvey came to the Denver ashram one Sunday each month for a while to treat those who wanted to see him. He never charged a fee, but folks always left sizable offerings for his services. Harvey passed away in December of 1993. The Voice of An Angel During the 70's Hari Singh taught Kundalini Yoga and meditation classes in several Colorado locations including the state and federal prisons. At this time Singh Kaur Khalsa was a resident at the Denver House of Guru Ram Das and she accompanied Hari Singh on numerous occasions to these classes. Singh Kaur had a crystal-clear, angelic voice and presence. She led the meditation portion of the classes with her voice and her guitar.
Transforming 'Me' Into 'We' Utilizing his training and experience as a Drill Instructor in the Marine Corps Reserve, Hari Singh incorporated close order drill into the Denver ashram early morning sadhana in the 70's, as a means of stimulating and maintaining maximum group participation. Yogi Bhajan subsequently asked Hari Singh to travel to the Phoenix, AZ and San Francisco, CA ashrams to lead close order drill as a part of their early morning sadhana experience. ("If you cannot walk together, you cannot work together." Yogi Bhajan) Also, in the late 70's and early 80's, at the request of Yogi Bhajan, Hari Singh served as the Drill Master for the Select Rifle Drill Team at the 3HO Women's Training Camp, formerly Khalsa Women's Training Camp (KWTC), Espanola, NM, now the International Women's Camp, IWC. See an inspiring account of one woman's Drill Team experience at the Khalsa Women's Training Camp. The Denver Experience Ends From February, 1973 until its closing in June of 1984, the Josephine Street House of Guru Ram Das ashram was a host to many Kundalini Yoga students and others looking for shelter, rest, counseling, food, employment, and other assistance. Some of today's baby boomers are former residents and guests of the Denver ashram. And the ashram hosted the Indian Sikh community as a Gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, for a number of years as well. (See the November 4, 1974 issue of the Denver Post's Religion News Weekly with photos by Bill Peters.) In June of 1984 the Hari's returned to residency in Florida, in Winter Park, a suburb just north of Orlando, whereupon Hari Singh opened a private, joint Optometrist-Optician practice in Southeast Orlando some months later. The practice was sold to a group of local eye physicians in 1992 when Hari Singh joined the optometric practice of Dr. Steven Burkstaller in Roswell, NM while volunteering his services as the Sikh Chaplain for the newly admitted Sikh cadets at the New Mexico Military Institute, from whence Ong Kar and Sat Kartar had previously graduated in 1982 and 1984 respectively as the first Sikh attendees and graduates of NMMI, thanks to the efforts of then Assistant Chancellor for Sikh Dharma, M.S.S. Ram Das Singh. Both of them graduated with high honors along with many fond memories of their experiences as cadets. -- See More 3HO letters and stories. The New Mexico Military Institute
Awtar Singh's Early 3HO History Kirpal Singh's Early 3HO History The Songs of Livtar Singh Khalsa The Solstice Sadhana Experience Sat Santokh Singh's Early 3HO History The Sikh Who Changed Modern-Day India The 1974 Transition of Bhai Sahib Dyal Singh
|
|
