The Yogi Bhajan Kriya, or The Most Healing Kundalini Yoga Kriya Cloaked In Irony & Scandal

The most powerful kriya Yogi Bhajan gave us for healing is the scandal he left behind.  Practice of this kundalini yoga kriya brings exceptional peace, but not everyone is ready for this level of healing.

If you search Yogi Bhajan online, you'll find a wealth of information about the many abuses of his followers.  If you're interested in this topic, I highly recommend reading the Olive Branch report, a third party investigation that details the evidence of abuses (more details here). 

The Yogi Bhajan Kriya is this —

1. believing survivors of his abuse, alongside:

2. holding the truth of the healing power of some of the yogic teachings (some teachings perpetuate Yogi Bhajan's abusive patterns, careful discernment is necessary to discontinue the legacy of abuse),

3. forgiving Yogi Bhajan and understanding he was an imperfect human abusing his power over imperfect humans who worshiped him like God, 

4. acknowledging that all humans, including ourselves, have the same capacity for evil and would act no differently if we were in his shoes, and

5. continuing to practice/teach kundalini yoga and meditation with discernment and humility.

Few are able to practice this kriya, but those who can practice this kriya will transcend duality and find a peace like no other. 

This kriya points directly to behavior like Jesus Christ, another polarizing figure in these times.  Jesus forgave his persecutors while they were persecuting him, and if Jesus can forgive his persecutors, we can forgive Yogi Bhajan. 

Just like Jesus' persecutors, “they know not what they do” perfectly describes Yogi Bhajan. 

His lack of awareness around his crimes is ironic for a kundalini yoga master, but also the master teaching of how we all are prone to blindspots of our own abuses of power.  That same abuse has been perpetuated through some of Yogi Bhajan's followers, like the late Guru Jagat, who denied the experiences of survivors and abused her own collection of followers.  

Yogi Bhajan left us both a wealth of healing teachings and a legacy of destructive abuse. 

These two truths seem impossible to hold in one mind, but they lead to another truth: that God uses even the most evil of us for good, and all things work together for good.  This doesn't excuse Yogi Bhajan's behavior or Guru Jagat’s, but it should provide relief from the guilt of our own imperfection — for we all fall short of perfection — and in that imperfection, God can still use us for His good. 

None of us exist outside a plan God has for good.

Many people stopped practicing and/or teaching kundalini yoga in the style of Yogi Bhajan when the scandal broke, much like many people stop attending church when scandal breaks out.  This pattern has been going on for thousands of years.  It is a problem of imperfect humans and their imperfect institutions, and demanding perfection from imperfect humans is always a fool's errand. 

Many of us have found that throwing the baby out with the bathwater doesn't work.  

Personally, I quit the practice of kundalini yoga and meditation for a short time.  My mental, emotional, and physical health quickly deteriorated (I am recovering from childhood trauma and a myriad of traumatic experiences in early adulthood), even though I maintained a spiritual practice with the religion of my birth and a fitness routine.  The religious faith practice and fitness routine alone was not enough to keep me in good health.  I found that I need both a religious faith practice and a kundalini yoga and meditation practice to maintain good physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. 

The vast library of Yogi Bhajan’s teachings are the most comprehensive and organized collection of teachings that are readily accessible for ease-of-use. There’s the Library of Teachings website, the vast number of books containing written and visual details for practicing the technology, and numerous other resources. Even kundalini yoga teachers who do not hold the KRI Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan® certification use the same system because it simply works, safely and effectively.

So yes, I continue to practice and teach kundalini yoga and meditation in the style of Yogi Bhajan, and: 

1. I believe survivors, and 

2. I use careful discernment to ensure I do not:

• perpetuate manipulative teachings, or 

• abuse my power over students, or 

• dodge accountability, or 

• overstep boundaries.  

I humbly accept my role as a teacher, as a vessel for carrying some of these teachings to the masses who need deep healing.  I also accept my role as an imperfect human who makes mistakes and readily confesses them.  More than once have I publicly apologized for my littlest missteps in my role as a teacher — “to whom much has been given, much will be required; from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded”.

• I strongly discourage cult-like devotion to Yogi Bhajan, Guru Jagat, and any other human kundalini yoga and meditation teachers, including myself. 

• I encourage strong boundaries when participating in kundalini yoga and meditation practices. 

• I strongly encourage students to create or restore a personal religious faith that can be practiced alongside kundalini yoga and meditation, rather than adopting the pseudo-Sikh religion of Yogi Bhajan's and Guru Jagat’s followers.

• I pray for the people I know who are participants of the Yogi Bhajan/Guru Jagat cult and deny the experiences of survivors — “they know not what they do”.