I have a Yogi Bhajan story.

It was early 1974 and I was in Denver living at a ‘premie house’, waiting to be admitted into an ashram.  I had been on some serious meditation binges during which I typically sat in a small closet off the meditation room and closed the door for hours at a time.  One morning in meditation, my body entered a sort of rigamortis state and I lost contact with it, all hell broke loose and I experienced some phenomenally powerful light, sound, bliss and other stuff that wreaked havoc with my nervous system for a day or two. The following weekend, a few of us decided to go over to Boulder for a hike.  I went along and we parked at Chautauqua Park to walk one of the trails there.

As I started up the hill, I noticed a large group (about 50) of white clad, mostly turbaned folks in a meadow sitting in concentric circles with a large, bearded, Indian dude (Yogi Bhajan) providing the entertainment as the focus of attention.  As I walked nearer to look, the person sitting immediately to his left got up and left.  On a whim, I entered the inner circle and sat next to him.  It was a hot, sunny day and I remember that during the time a solitary cloud parked over us for a few minutes, he remarked, “God has answered my request for an umbrella”.

At one point after rambling, he asked if there were any questions from the group.  He motioned to me and I relayed the experience I had earlier in the week in my closet and asked him what he thought the significance of my experience was.  He laughed and bluntly told me "You read that in a book".  I informed him that it truly was my own experience but I did not ‘understand’ it.  He asked me if I had a Guru and I said “yes”.  He asked who and I said ‘Guru Maharaji”.  He said, “The only thing Guru Maharaji is good for is that he introduced the word Guru to America”.  I responded, “So how do you explain my experience?”  He raised his voice ominously and announced (I remember all of this verbatim): “I am a phony man.  But if you offend me, you might offend my Guru.  And if you offend my Guru, he might just string you and your Guru up”.  I repeated that I was speaking only from my experience, got up and left the circle wondering what the f__k he was talking about.  About a hundred yards away, three white-clad, turbaned kids ran to me from the circle with pretty freaked out expressions on their faces and expressed their concern about the extremely heavy and threatening vibes that came from Yogi Bhajan.  I told them that I too would be very concerned being about anyone that was not coming from a place of love, especially someone that was supposed to be a spiritual teacher.  They agreed and walked downhill away from the circle almost in tears.

So my only recollection of Yogi Bhajan is that he is one of the most arrogant, pompous and shitty people I have ever met. 

Anyway, just peaked into the Forum and thought I’d relay the story of my ambassadorship between Maharaji and the 3HO community (and still wondering what went on in that closet).

Mike