Yogi Bhajan or Harbhajan Singh Puri, was the 'Sikh Dharma Brotherhood' founder and modern Hindu missionary.
In 1969, he arrived in the United States, leaving behind a
job as a customs agent at the Delhi airport.
His first teachings were classical hatha yoga and kundalini
yoga disciplines, with his followers grouped into the "Happy, Healthy,
Holy Organization" (3HO).
Hatha yoga is a religious discipline (yoga) based on a
sequence of body postures known as asanas.
It is commonly thought that this practice provides a variety
of physical advantages, including enhanced bodily flexibility and the potential
to treat chronic diseases.
Kundalini yoga is a spiritual practice whose main goal is to
awaken the kundalini, the dormant spiritual power that lives in everyone's
subtle body.
The kundalini is supposed to be awakened by a mix of yoga
practice and ritual action, and it is said to provide further spiritual
capacities and, eventually, total soul liberation (moksha).
Yogi Bhajan claims to be a master of tantra, a hidden,
ritually based religious practice, but his teaching expanded in the 1970s to
incorporate ancient Sikh beliefs and symbols.
The most visible of these symbols are the "five
Ks," which include uncut hair (kesh), a comb (kangha), a jewelry on the
right wrist (kara), shorts (kacch), and a ceremonial sword (kacch) (kirpan).
Many of Yogi Bhajan's followers adhere to Sikh symbols
considerably more rigidly than most individuals born as Sikhs, yet there are
two major differences between the movement and the traditional Sikh society.
One of them is its concentration on tantra, which isn't very
popular with Sikhs.
The most notable distinction, however, is Yogi Bhajan's
religious authority over his followers, which is considerably different from
the traditional Sikh community's decentralized, essentially democratic
structure.
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