Yet another lawsuit from Yogi Bhajan's cult ministers!

by Gursant Singh ⌂ @, Yuba City California USA, Friday, January 06, 2012, 14:47 (4466 days ago)
edited by Gursant Singh, Friday, January 06, 2012, 17:09

"To the Death!" to the Ones of Destiny seems to mean
"Till we die from the effort!"

Sikh ministers sue lawyer, firm for $115 million

The lawsuit accuses a Portland attorney of orchestrating a takeover of Golden Temple natural foods
By Sherri Buri McDonald

The Register-Guard

Published: (Friday, Jan 6, 2012 04:25AM) Today

Three ministers in the Sikh Dharma religious community, including one from Eugene, have sued Portland attorney Roy Lambert, as well as one of Oregon’s largest law firms, for at least $115 million in a case involving a Eugene food company......

This discussion is taken from a forum with former and current Yogi Bhajan followers. I encourage everyone who considers themselves a Sikh, kundalini yoga student or just a concerned member of the public to join in this important discussion:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/Kamallarose/messages?msg=1602.1

Gursant Singh says: I'd like to see the truth come out in a jury trial. I'm sure there are some good reasons why Lambert did what he did and I hope Lambert just doesn't cave in and settle with these Yogi Bhajan ministers. I think this is a good opportunity for Lambert to tell the whole story of his time with Yogi Bhajan and 3HOers. The truth will prevail in the end. What if Roy Lambert were to make the defense that the Sikh Dharma Worldwide ministers suing him are not really Sikhs but only a cult of Bhajanism therefore they are not entitled to anything as a legitimate "Sikh community"? Lambert who was a well-respected attorney in Oregon would have real credibility with the general public. Lambert saw all the inside dirty deals and un-Sikh like conduct of Yogi Bhajan as YB's attorney and close confidant. Lambert should just expose these frauds who pretend to be "Sikh ministers". It seems to me that Lambert would be in a perfect position to win the PR war if nothing else which is the big picture here. Going after Sikh Dharma Worldwide as a Bhajan cult may not be a solid legal argument but Wow, if Lambert were to come out with a bombshell like this, the publicity fallout would be so great I think that these upstart SDW "ministers" would immediately drop their case. As an astute attorney pointed out to me: "That's called a "Dirty Hands" affirmative defense, arguing that the Plaintiffs are equally at fault because of their own bad acts."

TheSikhgeek says: IMO, the articles have opened up a window to the larger non-YBer population in New Mexico that have been just waiting for a chance to call it like they see it.

That's always the problem with being in a cult, you not only lose the perspective that everyone else has, but you can't even imagine how anyone could even have a worldview that differs from your own. "Well, not ALL of us think of Dear Leader® as our father... SOME of use think of him as our saintly brother."


Gursant Singh says: I'm sorry but I just have to laugh at these YBers. For the little bit of money they might get after paying the attorneys, the public relations damage to Yogi Bhajan and his group are immeasurably more costly. You'd think they'd get it after all the bad press but instead, with their new found success in the courts, they'll be going at it with a vengeance! Really, after the last article in the New Mexican and seeing the comments from the public, I think they've already lost the war and sufficiently dug themselves a grave too deep to get out of at this point.


TheSikhgeek says: This is a pretty amazing act of trench-digging, and a preview of the endless litigation and in-fighting to come.

You're right, Gursant. 3HO was always able to point to yoga as who they were, despite the various scandals, and that was always good PR. "There may have been this... but we are REALLY about yoga and health and meditation and..."

Now, and definitely in the future, people in the general public, especially in New Mexico, will immediately think "lawsuit," "fight for money," and "battle for control" whenever they hear of 3HO. There seems to be no one around on either side who will compromise to try and save the larger 3HO picture, which is fine by me. Give a cult enough rope and they will endlessly sue each other in court over it.

RoseLotus1 says: Bibiji's lawyer nephew knows why the Siblings are going after Lambert, even though Bibiji's suit already is going after him. It is because Bibiji and the Siblings are not on the same side. I completely agree that lawsuit fever is going to burn them up.

That said, most of the issues of this case have already been decided by Judge Roberts, so I understand how they can't resist. Lambert wasn't a defendant in the Portland suit because the Siblings didn't know the depth of his participation until the suit got going.

Sikh ministers sue lawyer, firm for $115 million

The lawsuit accuses a Portland attorney of orchestrating a takeover of Golden Temple natural foods
By Sherri Buri McDonald

The Register-Guard

Published: (Friday, Jan 6, 2012 04:25AM) Today


Three ministers in the Sikh Dharma religious community, including one from Eugene, have sued Portland attorney Roy Lambert, as well as one of Oregon’s largest law firms, for at least $115 million in a case involving a Eugene food company.

The ministers allege that Lambert put together the 2007 corporate restructuring that enabled Kartar Singh Khalsa, CEO of Golden Temple natural foods company, and other top executives to gain 90 percent ownership in the company , at the expense of the Sikh religious community founded by the late Yogi Bhajan.

They also allege that Lambert should be held accountable for the failure of his client, Unto Infinity, to safeguard the religious community’s assets. Unto Infinity consisted of Khalsa and three others who oversaw the Sikh community’s for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations. The suit was filed Dec. 27 in Multnomah County Circuit Court

Last month, Multnomah Circuit Judge Leslie Roberts ruled that the Unto Infinity members had breached their fiduciary duties when they allowed Khalsa and other Golden Temple executives to personally benefit from assets that should have been held in trust for the religious community.

Two of the Sikh Dharma ministers who brought that earlier case, Guru Amrit Kaur Khalsa and Avtar Hari Singh Khalsa, both of New Mexico, have joined Viriam Singh Khalsa, a minister in Eugene, to sue Roy Lambert and the law firm Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt. With more than 170 attorneys in six offices, Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt is the second-largest firm in Oregon, according to its website.

The ministers are asking for a jury trial and for damages of at least $115 million, to be paid to the Sikh Dharma community. They claim that their religious community was harmed by the breaches in fiduciary duty and that Sikh Dharma ministers “have been unable to perform the same level of services or perform their functions at the same level.”

An answer has not yet been filed, and Lambert could not be reached for comment.

Lambert was a shareholder in Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt, where he had worked since 1975. He specialized in nonprofit tax-exempt organizations and foundations.

Managing partner Mark Long said Lambert turned 65 on Nov. 15 and decided to retire at the end of the year, so Dec. 31 was his last day with the firm.

The Oregon State Bar is investigating Lambert for ethical violations. The investigation was prompted by a complaint filed by Surjit Soni, the attorney for Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Puri, Yogi Bhajan’s widow. She sued Roy Lambert, Kartar Singh Khalsa, and other Sikh business leaders in Multnomah County Circuit Court in December 2010.

Soni said the ministers’ lawsuit “seeks to ride our coattails.”

“Our complaint already asserts exactly everything that this new complaint does against Roy Lambert, and seeks all of the relief they seek and more,” he said. “I don’t understand why they brought this at all.”

The ministers’ attorney, Robert Banks, said his clients’ case is “certainly not a copycat” because when it was filed he wasn’t aware of the yogi’s widow’s case.

Banks said the main reason his clients sued Lambert and Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt is that they learned through the earlier case that “all the actions that were taken to divert assets of the community into the hands of certain individuals was really assisted to a large degree by Mr. Lambert and his law firm, and under the law, people who aid others in breaching fiduciary duties ... are also responsible for that breach.”

In June, Banks obtained a $7.7 million jury verdict against Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt in an unrelated case that involved attorney Roy Lambert.

“It was a very different kind of case,” Banks said, that involved “a mistake in drawing up real estate documents.”

The ministers’ new lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Lambert came up with the idea for the 2007 corporate restructuring of Golden Temple that gave company executives 90 percent controlling interest; that “despite a clear conflict of interest” Lambert advised the buying management group, led by Kartar Khalsa, and also acted on behalf of the other side of the transaction: Unto Infinity and KIIT, a Nevada for-profit company controlled by Unto Infinity.

The lawsuit also alleged that Lambert crafted statements for Unto Infinity and KIIT board members, in which they denied any change in Golden Temple ownership and “concealed the true nature of the transaction.”

Golden Temple made granola and branded cereals, including Peace cereal, and tea. It sold its cereal business to Hearthside Food Solutions in May 2010. It still owns Yogi Tea, which has about 50 employees in Springfield and about 100 employees in Europe.

Yogi battle brews on Estate fight continues between Yogi Bhajan's widow, female assistants
Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican
Posted: Thursday, December 29, 2011

[image]
Musicians perform during a 2004 memorial service in Española for Yogi Bhajan. Yogi Bhajan’s widow is involved in a legal dispute with the late spiritual leader’s assistants over distribution of his assets. - New Mexican file photo

More than seven years after his death, Yogi Bhajan's widow and his younger female assistants disagree over how to divide his multimillion-dollar estate — which now includes the trademark rights to Yogi Tea.

Less than a year before his death in 2004, Yogi Bhajan, founder of a religious community near Española, signed a codicil to his 1987 will that called for a portion of his estate to go to a living trust to support 15 of his assistants.

His widow, Inderjit Kaur Puri, also known as Bibiji, did not immediately move to open a probate on his estate or to challenge the codicil assigning at least $4 million to the trust.

But in October 2007, the three trustees of the living trust sued Puri, claiming she was delaying distribution of funds to the trust by claiming she knew nothing about it.

In a counterclaim, Puri asked that the trustees be removed because, as three of the 15 assistants benefiting from the trust, they are in breach of their fiduciary duties.

Noting that Yogi Bhajan was suffering from physical and mental ailments at the time the codicil was signed, the counterclaim says the "assistants to Yogi Bhajan signed his name to the documents."

In April 2009, state District Judge James Hall dismissed the trustees' complaint but left the counterclaim intact. Hall retired at the end of 2009, and the case was transferred to District Judge Sarah Singleton, who waited until Nov. 7 to hold her first meeting on the case. She set a trial date for March 19.

Neither the trustees' lawyer, J. Katherine Girard, nor the trustees themselves, Sopurkh Kaur Khalsa, Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa and Ek Ong Kar Kaur Khalsa, have been available for comment.

Puri's attorney, Surjit Soni of Pasadena, Calif., agreed that the former assistants are due income from the trust. But he said that because Yogi Bhajan had handled his family's financial affairs, "like most guys tend to do," Puri was unaware of his donations to the living trust.

Soni, who is also Puri's nephew, said he is asking the judge to apply community-property rules to the case, so that the "marital estate" is divided in half and payments to the 15 assistants come out of Yogi Bhajan's portion, not Puri's.

Not until 2009, five years after Yogi Bhajan's death, did Puri move to open Yogi Bhajan's will to probate proceedings in state District Court in Santa Fe. Judge Barbara Vigil assigned Christopher Cullen, a Santa Fe lawyer, as the personal representative of the estate, but "gave him very specific but very limited instructions about what he could investigate and how he could investigate," Soni said.

As a result, Cullen was unable to identify all of the assets of the estate, and Vigil ordered the probate closed, "saying no other assets have been discovered," Soni said. "We disagree with that because we don't think the investigation was complete." He said he is appealing that closure.

This year, the estate became significantly more valuable because of a federal trademark case over Yogi Tea — a blend of black tea, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger and peppercorns that Yogi Bhajan used to serve at his kundalini yoga classes and went on to sell at his restaurants and health-food stores.

In 2004, a Eugene, Ore., company called Golden Temple of Oregon began marketing Yogi Tea, using Yogi Bhajan's name and likeness, under an agreement with him. This continued for four years after his death, with royalties split between Puri, the assistants' trust and a religious trust. In 2008, Golden Temple quit paying royalties and using Yogi Bhajan's name and likeness, but continued to use the name Yogi Tea to begin selling another tea called just Yogi.

Puri sued, and this fall an arbiter ordered Golden Temple to cease using the trademark by Jan. 1 and pay $822,302 to Yogi Bhajan's estate, based on sales in recent years. With Yogi Tea sales of $27 million in 2009 in the United States and Europe, the Eugene Register-Guard estimated the heirs might be owed another $485,905 by the end of 2012 — plus what they might gain from selling the trademark to others.

A separate but related case was brought in Oregon state court by the ministers of the religious trust, Unto Infinity, against Golden Temple. This month, a Portland, Ore., judge ruled that Golden Temple's CEO, Kartar Singh Khalsa, unjustly enriched himself and other company executives at the expense of Unto Infinity. Monetary damages have yet to be determined, but Unto Infinity is seeking $50 million. Several other trademarks used by Golden Temple, in addition to Yogi Tea, remain in contention.

Soni, Puri's attorney, said these rulings prove that not all the assets of the estate were identified — partly because the trustees for the assistants did not thoroughly investigate. "We demonstrated there are trademarks that the trustees did not appreciate, recognize, pursue, claim — that we, at great personal expense, have been able to secure," he said.

The litigation over Yogi Tea has been covered closely by the Sikh News Network (sikhnn.com). A November article there pointed out that the assistants are "Caucasians" who converted to Sikhism and assumed their Sikh surnames, posting photographs of the former assistants who were not wearing the turbans or dress worn by traditional Sikhs.

"Peraim Kaur, one of his personal staff members, in her testimony for another lawsuit in Oregon, described how she worked long hours for little pay," says the article. "She told the court she had no vacations and was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also is common knowledge that his personal staff was discouraged from having outside relationships."

The Sikh News Network's correspondent on those stories, Kamalia Kaur, described herself as a "survivor of the YB [Yogi Bhajan] cult." Kaur, now 58 and living in Bellingham, Wash., said she joined Yogi Bhajan's Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization, or 3HO, 40 years ago after taking a kundalini yoga class with her husband at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Years later, while living in the Bay Area of California, she began questioning the "organization's dysfunctional side," she wrote in an email. "Soon I was shunned — and former students started calling me and telling me their horrible stories. Then I got a threatening phone call."

Kaur eventually divorced her husband, who remained with Yogi Bhajan's organization. She gave up custody of her three children, turned over her money to her ex-husband, "and hit the streets. But I couldn't stop studying the story of my life," she wrote. "When you lose the years 18-37, your prime, to ... serving a sociopath, you might as well dedicate a few years to warning and educating others about authoritarian groups."

She now moderates an online forum called "The Wacko World of Yogi Bhajan" on which both Kaur and others have referred repeatedly to Yogi Bhajan's assistants as his harem. But that may the least of the charges on the website, where Yogi Bhajan is accused of a variety of illegal activities, including fraudulent marketing schemes, drug dealing and corruption.

Recently, Kaur has pointed out that one of Yogi Bhajan's former assistants was an aide to former Gov. Bill Richardson. "Siri Trang Kaur is one of the younger women listed among the fifteen 'personal assistants' in Bhajan's trust," she wrote. "She's cut in for six percent of the distribution in the trust that's part of Bibiji's continuing legal dispute with the harem."

Siri Trang Kaur, who sometimes uses the last name Khalsa, is listed as an associate of Albuquerque political and public relations specialist Doug Turner in a firm called Policy and Positions. The company's website says she was the director of marketing for the firm that first brought Yogi Tea and other Golden Temple products to the market, worked as a foreign policy adviser in Richardson's 2008 presidential campaign, and that she is now "on assignment with the U.S. State Department in Afghanistan." She did not return an email seeking comment on this story.

Soni dismissed Kamalia Kaur's allegations: "We have resisted getting involved in that kind of silly debate. If she's got an ax to grind, she's got an ax to grind. If her experience is less than optimal, that's fine. ...

"What exactly is a cult? Every born-again community, whether it's Baptist, Anglican, Buddhist, every one of them is a cult. Cult, unfortunately, has a negative suggestion and implication."

Kaur is hardly the only former Yogi Bhajan disciple to break with 3HO. Guru Sant Singh Khalsa, who in 1982 unsuccessfully challenged the U.S. Department of Defense's rule banning servicemembers from wearing traditional Sikh garb, said he became disillusioned after visiting India and realizing that real Sikh culture was different than Yogi Bhajan had led him to believe.

Now living in Yuba City, Calif., Gura Sant said Yogi Bhajan's devotion to tantric yoga, astrology and other "new age" practices would be forbidden by traditional Sikhs, who also would abhor the "cult of personality" that sprung up around him. He recalled that Yogi Bhajan collected art that traditional Sikhs would consider pornographic and regularly slept in his room with one of his "secretaries" while his wife slept in another room.

As early as 1977, Time magazine took notice of rumors about Yogi Bhajan's assistants. "Bhajan has repeatedly been accused of being a womanizer," it said in a story about 3HO. "Colleen Hoskins, who worked seven months at his New Mexico residence, reports that men are scarcely seen there. He is served, she says, by a coterie of as many as 14 women, some of whom attend his baths, give him group massages, and take turns spending the night in his room while his wife sleeps elsewhere."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.

Most traditional Sikhs find Yogi Bhajan’s use of the Golden Temple for commercial profit abhorrent, as exemplified by this comment from a traditional Sikh: “The Golden Temple is the English name for Darbar Sahib located in Amritsar India. The Golden Temple is a central Gurdwara (house of worship) for Sikhs everywhere. Yogi Bhajan was dead wrong to use the Golden Temple to sell breakfast cereal and tea, to feed his wallet and ego. Sikhism teaches to never mix faith with commerce. Sikh teachings are offered freely. No one should profit when sharing the Sikh religion. And no one should trivialize other's religious traditions, much less profit from cheapening us.”

http://www.causes.com/causes/509680-stop-hearthside-foods-use-of-the-golden-temple-brand/about

I also want to point out that I have changed my name to Gursant Singh from the sacrilegious form of Guru Sant which Yogi Bhajan gave me using astrology and numerology which are against the Sikh code of conduct . Dr. Iqbal Singh who has written five books on Sikh history explains best why this change in the form of my name was necessary. …” Gursant that meaning is Saint of Guru…. In the Sikh History word Gur has been used by the Sikhs. The Guru word is used before the name of the ten Guru Ji and Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and not before the name of any human being.” Yogi Bhajan regularly gave these sacrilegious forms of Sikh names in order to corrupt and destroy the relationship of American followers of Sikhism against the traditional Sikh community.
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=380

Now that Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization has won their big lawsuit against Yogi Bhajan's Unto Infinity Board, will SDW continue their anti Sikh agenda?

Judge Issues Ruling

It's clear from the Judge's ruling that Yogi Bhajan had total control of western Sikhs and Bhajan's Sikh Dharma in promoting anti- Sikh tantric yoga and occult astrology. Yogi Bhajan acted like a mini-pope! Judge Roberts says, "During his lifetime, Yogi Bhajan maintained exclusive central authority over the organizations he created to advance the world view and practices he taught. He(Yogi Bhajan) maintained all the reins of ultimate power and direction in his own hands until his final incapacity and death" Dr. Trilochan Singh says in a book critical of Yogi Bhajan, "Yogi Bhajan was absolutely frank in what he said and I believe every word of it. I asked him Is Sikhism the core of his teachings of Tantric Yoga? Which of these two contradictory disciplines is his basic philosophy? To this question he perhaps honestly replied that Tantra (White as he calls it) is his basic faith while Sikhism is only an off-shoot of his Tantric system."

'Findings and Conclusions'
Here is what Judge Roberts says:

The dispute involves a Russian nesting doll of nonprofit and for-profit entities, organized by and through Yogi Bhajan beginning in the mid-1970’s. Certain organizations were devoted to education; to maintenance of spiritual records; to promotion of religious functions, such as the ordination and instruction of Sikh Dharma ministers, and other nonprofit objectives. Other profit-making organizations were formed by individual adherents, who contributed the ownership of the businesses to provide a source of support, prestige, and employment for the Sikh Dharma community. Yogi Bhajan, the founder of the Western movement of Sikh Dharma that is involved in this controversy, and a teacher of the related practices of Kundalini yoga, came to the United States from India. A charismatic leader and teacher, Yogi Bhajan attracted a body of adherents to some or all of the practices and precepts of Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere. This body of adherents is sometimes referred to, here, as the Sikh Dharma community and its institutions as the Yogi Bhajan inspired organizations. Yogi Bhajan taught Kundalini yoga and, in that role, introduced many students to his spiritual beliefs as well.

Most of the individuals involved in the present controversy initially became interested in Sikh Dharma through seeking to learn the practice of yoga, on or near college campuses, as young men and women during the 1970’s and 1980’s.

During his lifetime, Yogi Bhajan maintained exclusive central authority over the organizations he created to advance the world view and practices he taught. An early corporate holder of the assets developed in this process was a California entity, Siri Sikh Sahib of Sikh Dharma, (SSS of SD) a California corporation sole. Such an organization is uniquely and by legal definition religious, as an entity that exists to serve as the repository of assets held by a religious officer solely in his or her role as prelate in the religious organization, and not in a private or personal capacity.

Later, the seat of the corporate network shifted to Oregon and New Mexico entities, including nonprofit and for-profit entities held by the nonprofits. (SSS of SD, the California corporation sole, was designed to terminate at Yogi Bhajan’s death, and its assets to be transferred to an Oregon religious corporation.) In the design and conduct of many or most of these later-founded organizations, Yogi Bhajan was assisted by Roy Lambert, a Portland lawyer with the firm of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. After Yogi Bhajan’s death, Lambert continued to serve as legal counsel for many of the Yogi Bhajan inspired entities, including Unto Infinity, LLC, and KIIT, defendants here.

Yogi Bhajan also designated an inner circle of trusted lieutenants to occupy positions in the control and administration of his interlocking organizations, but he maintained all the reins of ultimate power and direction in his own hands until his final incapacity and death.3

The Yogi Bhajan affiliated organizations included for-profit enterprises including, most importantly, a private security company, Akal Security, Inc., and a manufacturer and distributor of tea and cereal products, Golden Temple, Inc. The for-profit enterprises were formed by Sikh Dharma adherents and contributed to Yogi Bhajan inspired non-profit entities (initially, Akal was contributed to Sikh Dharma-NM, and Golden Temple, Inc., to Sikh Dharma, Inc.). Their profits provided substantial support to the non-profit activities of the Sikh Dharma affiliated organizations.

In addition to appointing lieutenants to roles in the supervision of his organizations, Yogi Bhajan maintained personal attendants, a group of women upon whom he became dependent for day-to-day and hour-to-hour support and companionship in his home as his health declined toward death from complications of diabetes and kidney failure. In the fall of 2004, this personal staff lived with him in a New Mexico residential compound called the Ranch. They served rotating shifts so that one of them was with him at all times of the day and night.

During Yogi Bhajan’s life, his personal retainers and administrative staff served at very modest compensation; however, it was widely understood that he had assured these personal assistants life-long compensation. This promise was known as the Yogi Bhajan Assurances. In his will, Yogi Bhajan planned to fulfill the promise by creating a trust called the Staff Endowment, to which he gave a half interest in royalties earned by the license of his name and likeness for use on the products of Golden Temple, Inc. The beneficiaries of the Staff Endowment were the former personal retainers and staff, and the income derived by that trust was intended to fund their promised life-time income.

However, after the death of Yogi Bhajan in 2004, the widow of Yogi Bhajan (referred to as Bibiji) challenged the gift of intellectual property rights. As a result, the funding stream for Staff Endowment was cast into doubt. It became questionable whether the funds ever would be paid, because of the claims by Bibiji, still unresolved as of the time of the trial of this matter in 2011.

In 2003, anticipating the need to organize the affiliated entities to function after his death, Yogi Bhajan created Unto Infinity, LLC, an Oregon nonprofit LLC, to act as the administrative center of the organizations comprising his nonprofit and for-profit network of entities. The Organizational Agreement of Unto Infinity provides that the sole original member of Unto Infinity was Yogi Bhajan. Its board of managers was made up of Yogi Bhajan and four of his trusted lieutenants. In a “Proclamation” signed by Yogi Bhajan in June 2004 (when he understood that he was dying, and had discontinued any but palliative care) he stated:

“Whereas the Siri Singh Sahib [the title held by Yogi Bhajan] has the responsibility of promulgating and stating the rules and procedures of the Sikh Dharma,

And

“Whereas there is a need for the orderly and just administration of the Dharma,
“Therefore, I hereby proclaim that Unto Infinity, LLC, is the entity authorized by me to continue to exercise the administrative authority of the office of the Siri Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma once I no longer occupy that office, in all those cases where authorization by the Siri Singh Sahib [i.e., Yogi Bhajan] is required in the articles, bylaws, or any contractual commitment of a Sikh Dharma affiliated organization.
“This Proclamation is hereby adopted under the authority granted to me as the Siri Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma, I set my hand and seal this 30 day of June, 2004,

[signed] “Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib
“Harbhajian Singh Khalsa Yogiji”

This proclamation stated that the purpose of Unto Infinity was to serve as the “administrative authority” of the chief office of the religious movement, and consequently to be integral to the religious organizations (although it does not have the effect of altering the corporate documents of the various affected corporations and companies).

An undated Amended and Restated Operating Agreement (Ex. 66) reflects that Yogi Bhajan was replaced as the sole member of Unto Infinity by the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation (SSSC). SSSC is an Oregon nonprofit religious corporation that had been formed to serve as the sole member of Sikh Dharma, Inc., after Yogi Bhajan's death or incapacity. Subsequently, it apparently was given the same role in Unto Infinity. SSSC itself has no members.

Pursuant to the 1997 Articles of SSSC, after the death or incapacity of Yogi Bhajan, the directors of SSSC were to be those persons he had previously designated in a written directive given in confidence to Lambert, as corporate attorney, and to the Siri Sikdar Sahib (or Sahiba) of Sikh Dharma (designated to that post by Yogi Bhajan as his spiritual successor), who would also become a permanent member of that board.

However, after the death of Yogi Bhajan, a succession of Restated Articles for SSSC were filed, each certified by Sopurkh Kaur Khalsa (also a member of the board of Unto Infinity) as president of SSSC as having been adopted by Yogi Bhajan on October 1, 2, and 3 respectively -- the three days leading up to his death.

Lambert denied that Yogi Bhajan had left any designation of a successor board that was sufficiently formal to satisfy the terms of the SSSC articles, and accordingly, in lieu of such a designation, the four-member Unto Infinity board assumed complete control of SSSC after Yogi Bhajan’s death. Because SSSC was the sole (but powerless) member of Unto Infinity, the board of Unto Infinity obtained comprehensive and unchecked control (directly or indirectly) of all other Yogi Bhajan inspired nonprofit and for-profit companies and corporations. The restated Articles designate the remaining managers of Unto Infinity LLC to serve as the board of SSSC, to succeed Yogi Bhajan in that role if no other designation is made. Exs. 104, 105, 106. Parties in this litigation have not asked the court to determine the validity of those changes, and the court therefore does not pass on their validity.

SSSC, the sole member of Unto Infinity, has no operations or property. Its existence, as a member, is a legal requirement for Unto Infinity's existence as a limited liability company.

In this somewhat convoluted manner, the sole successors of Yogi Bhajan, as the ultimate and unlimited managers of the entire network of nonprofit and for-profit affiliated entities, became the members of the Unto Infinity board.

The Unto Infinity board members upon Yogi Bhajan’s death were Siri Ram Kaur Khalsa and defendants Peraim Kaur Khalsa, Siri Karm Kaur Khalsa, and Sopurkh Kaur Khalsa. (Siri Ram Kaur Khalsa resigned from the board after the 2007 transaction that is the center of this controversy but before the complaints were filed in this case. She is not a defendant.)

In 2005, the Unto Infinity board members exercised their power to place defendant Kartar Singh Khalsa on the board as a full voting member. (He had previously served as an ex-officio member.) Kartar Singh Khalsa was also the chief executive officer of Golden Temple, Inc.

The 2007 Operating Agreement of Golden Temple of Oregon LLC.5:

“All of KIIT’s outstanding stock is owned by Unto Infinity, LLC, an Oregon limited liability company. Unto Infinity, LLC is a disregarded entity for income tax purposes and is a division of Siri Singh Sahib Corporation, an Oregon nonprofit corporation …” ,

Although SSSC is the sole member of Unto Infinity, it can neither appoint nor dismiss board members of Unto Infinity (Unto Infinity’s board appoints and dismisses its own members), alter the operating agreement of Unto Infinity, or in any other respect control Unto Infinity. To the contrary, SSSC is limited to act subject to the approval of the Unto Infinity board. For all intents and purposes, Unto Infinity (and its subsidiary KIIT, which has the same board for the transactions relevant here, and which acted jointly with Unto Infinity, by simultaneous decisions of their synonymous boards) is self-governed by a board which is self-perpetuating and self-directed. It is the ultimate authority over Golden Temple and KIIT.

The board members are compensated by self-determined amounts drawn from the for-profit organizations. Primarily because of the success of Akal Security and Golden Temple, the funds available to Unto Infinity have increased sharply since the death of Yogi Bhajan. The compensation of the Unto Infinity managers has also increased (since 2005) to a level at all times in six figures, and as high as $185,000 per year. The board members of Unto Infinity/KIIT meet a handful of times a year, usually by telephone, but, on occasion, in person.

To summarize the identities of the organizations chiefly involved:

a) Khalsa International Industries and Trades Company, Inc. (KIIT), is a holding company organized under Nevada law, having no operations and created in order to receive and hold the shares in Golden Temple of Oregon, Inc., an operating company in the manufacture and distribution of foods in Eugene, Oregon; and Akal Security, Inc., a New Mexico security company which contracts with governmental agencies. KIIT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Unto Infinity.

b. Unto Infinity, LLC (Unto Infinity) is a nonprofit Oregon limited liability company organized to act as the administrative authority of the office of the religious leader of the movement established by Yogi Bhajan. Unto Infinity owns all shares of KITT and has the power and authority to appoint the boards of the religious corporations and nonprofits established by Yogi Bhajan.

c. Siri Sikh Sahib of Sikh Dharma (SSS of SD), is a California corporation sole, a religious corporation holding title to property held in the official capacity of the leader of a church or other religious body. With the death of Yogi Bhajan, SSS of SD was designed to dissolve and to transfer its assets to SSSC. (It has not done so, as a strategic move related to ongoing litigation with Bibiji regarding her claims as heir and widow of Yogi Bhajan)

c. Siri Singh Sahib Corporation (SSSC) is an Oregon religious corporation, organized to act as the successor legal organization to the SSS of SD, the California corporation sole, after the death of Yogi Bahjan and for religious, charitable and educational activities, and to act as “guardian of those assets of the SSS of SD which are conveyed to it, and Unto Infinity, LLC.” Restated Articles of Incorporation, Pl. Ex. 25. SSSC is the sole member of Unto Infinity, but with no authority over it.

SSSC has never had a board of directors and is governed by the Unto Infinity board as an “executive board.”

d. Sikh Dharma, Inc. (SDI) is a nonprofit religious corporation under the California Nonprofit Religious Corporation Law, of which the sole member is Unto Infinity, organized to advance the religion of Sikh Dharma and as an association of religious organizations teaching principles of Sikh Dharma, including by ordination of ministers of divinity and operation of places of worship. It has been active in the promotion of the religion, and its then-directors initiated the private plaintiff’s lawsuit before Unto Infinity exercised its authority to discharge all of them and replace them with directors who withrew SDI’s support of the lawsuit. It was then named as a nominal defendant because the private plaintiffs seek relief including payment of damages to it.

e. Golden Temple, Inc., is a for-profit, Oregon corporation in the food products industry with operations in Eugene, Oregon, and sales nationally. At relevant times, it has manufactured and distributed herbal teas and cereal products. All of the shares of Golden Temple, Inc., were passed (through intermediate steps explained below) through various religious institutions and by 2007 held by Unto Infinity's holding company, KIIT.

f. Akal Security, Inc. (Akal), is a for-profit New Mexico corporation in the business of providing security services to governmental entities. Akal was founded by a member of the Sikh Dharma community, one of the private plaintiffs, Gurutej Singh Khalsa, and he donated it to Sikh Dharma of New Mexico, Inc., (an affiliate of Sikh Dharma, Inc.) on Yogi Bhajan's assurances that Akal would be held to further Sikh Dharma. All Akal shares were transferred (as explained below) ultimately to KIIT.

The valuable assets controlled by Unto Infinity include other assets, such as real property. The complaint as originally framed by private plaintiffs attacked dealings by defendants as to all these assets; however, the controversy developed at trial focused on actions taken with respect to Golden Temple, Inc., and Golden Temple’s European affiliate, KIT-BV, a Netherlands corporation (KIT-BV). Continued at Link

I just received this e-mail from SDW with this spin on the judge's decision:

[image]
December 13, 2011
Dear Members of the Sadh Sangat,

Sat Nam and blessings to all. Today is a joyous day of victory for the Dharma! The Judge issued her Findings and Conclusions (the equivalent of a verdict in a jury trial), and ruled in our favor on all of our claims which were: Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Aiding and Abetting Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Unjust Enrichment. Her ruling is posted in its entirety on the SDW website in the Legal Documents Archive at: Judge's Findings and Conclusion.

Some notable conclusions from the Judge:

"I find established by clear and convincing evidence that a charitable trust existed and that the assets held by Unto Infinity and its subsidiary holding company, including Golden Temple, Inc. were assets held in trust. The trust was dedicated to support and advance the religious tenets and practices espoused by Yogi Bhajan in Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere. Unto Infinity this controlled assets (whether through KIIT, as Unto Infinity's subsidiary and agent, or directly) impressed with a charitable trust."
"The court finds the express designation of SSSC and its subsidiary Unto Infinity as "guardian" of assets from SSS of SD expresses an intent that Unto Infinity hold the assets subject to a fiduciary duty to use the assets for the religious purposes of SSS of SD."
"Repeatedly, and at the instruction of (Roy) Lambert, members of the boards made statements crafted by Lambert to deny that any change in ownership had occurred and to conceal the true nature of the transaction."....."Not only were the public statements prepared by Lambert false, but they were intended by the board members who made the statements to mislead the Sikh Dharma community because the transaction - if fully disclosed- would inspire protest and likely litigation as a violation of trust obligations. All parties understood that the transaction could well constitute such a violation of the entrustment exclusively for religious and charitable purposes and this was the reason for the deception."
"The thorough-going violation by KIIT and Unto Infinity of fiduciary duties to the charitable trust through engaging in the disposition of Golden Temple, Inc, as they did, was proven beyond any doubt."
"Finally, strong, clear and convincing evidence establishes that Golden Temple, LLC, and all proceeds of its business, income, substitutes and assets, including those of KIT-BV, is the property that is impressed with the charitable trust private plaintiffs and the Attorney General seek to vindicate. These findings conclude the liability for unjust enrichment as against GTM and Kartar Singh Khalsa."
"To the extent that individual member managers received funds as a distribution of the proceeds of Golden Temple, therefore, they were unjustly enriched."
The court has requested the parties in the case to submit any additional briefing regarding remedies in light of the findings and conclusions within three weeks of the date of this opinion at which time she will have a hearing on remedies.

Blessings and deep gratitude to the Sangat for their prayers and continued support through this lengthy and challenging legal process. This is a wonderful victory for our Dharma. May we continue forward in unity and purity of consciousness to serve the mission of Sikh Dharma and the legacy of the Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan).

Blessings to all,

SS Gurujot Kaur Khalsa

Secretary General

Sikh Dharma Worldwide

Now that Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization has won their big lawsuit against Yogi Bhajan's Unto Infinity Board, will SDW continue their anti Sikh agenda?

Why does Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization auction tantric necklaces, astrology and numerology readings to raise funds? It is forbidden in the Sikh Reht Maryada for Sikhs to practice: “Influence of stars, Magic spells, incantations, omens, auspicious times, days & occasions, , horoscopic dispositions,” Chapter X Article XVI.

The answer is that Yogi Bhajan approved of and used tantric necklaces and astrology. New Age'rs want to believe in Magic & an easy way to salvation. So these gimmicks make lots of money for Yogi Bhajan's cult.

I just read a letter from Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa to Yogi Bhajan's "3HO family". Hari Jiwan(Sat Bachan Kaur who donated the tantric necklace above is his wife) was considered by Yogi Bhajan as his "right Hand man" and spent literally everyday of his life from 1978 until Yogi Bhajan's death in 2004 with his "Tantric Master". This letter from Hari Jiwan proves that Yogi Bhajan himself approved and promoted these anti Sikh tantric necklaces. "Guru Hans was the impetus behind the “Tantric Necklace.” He’s an architect by training and while looking through old architectural books, came across the ancient geometrical pattern used in this necklace since ancient times. The Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan), who is the ‘Mahan Tantric’ (the Master of Tantric Yoga of which there is only one on the planet at a time), was so excited when this rediscovery was brought to him that he personally blessed each one, refined the process, and blessed Guru Hans Singh for his service."

Sikh Dharma Worldwide says, "View all Auction items here All proceeds go to SDW Dasvandh so please bid generously. Learn what the stars have in store for you, and chart your path by the numbers with these great astrology and numerological readings."

Tantric necklace being auctioned to raise money for Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization [image]
Jewelry from Nine Treasures
Tantric Necklace
Description:
Pink Crystal (Fire-Polished) Tantric Necklace from Nine Treasures; Jivan Jewerly.
Donated By:
Nine Treasures; Jivan Jewelry: satbachan@ninetreasures.com or 505-747-2524

Here comes the hardball sales pitch from Hari Jiwan for the anti Sikh "individually blessed tantric necklaces by Yogi Bhajan" himself. This comes just one day after the soft sell letter I posted yesterday.
Just read the sacrilegious crap in Hari Jiwan's letter to Yogi Bhajan's "3HO family". Hari Jiwan(Sat Bachan Kaur who donated the tantric necklace above is his wife) was considered by Yogi Bhajan as his "right Hand man" and spent literally every day of his life from 1978 until Yogi Bhajan's death in 2004 with his "Mahan Tantric Master". This letter from Hari Jiwan proves that Yogi Bhajan himself approved and promoted these anti Sikh tantric necklaces. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=402

Hari Jiwan says,
Sat Nam Dear Family,

Blessings from snowy New Mexico. It has been one year since I started writing all of you and telling stories of my life as lived and learned at the feet of the Master (Yogi Bhajan). It has been truly an honor to share these memories with you and I have greatly appreciated all of your feedback. It’s been a further honor for me in reminding myself of how I’ve been blessed and the feeling of gratitude which follows.

As some of you know, I am a great believer in supporting all facets of our Dharma, our organization, which was created by the Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan). Sikh Dharma Worldwide (SDW) is an entity that is near and dear to my heart and works tirelessly to maintain the essence of Yogi Bhajan's Teachings.
This winter SDW is holding an online Auction with unique, spiritual, one-of-a-kind items donated by our global Sangat. Items include custom artwork, jewelry, and passes to events such as Summer Solstice, Children’s Camp and Women’s Camp etc. etc. http://www.32auctions.com/organizations/2410/auctions/2772

If you are on the lookout for unique, conscious gifts for your friends and family, check out the many wonderful options that they have and help support SDW as well. If you have items you'd like to donate to the auction, please let them know.

I was happy to donate a Tantric Necklace to the auction and was trying to think of additional ways to help support SDW. I am therefore excited to extend this special offer to you, my friends and family. Please visit my website, www.jivanjewelry.com where you can choose from a many beautiful and powerful Tantric Necklaces. The Master has personally blessed all these necklaces individually. If you see something you like, enter code HARI2011 and receive 15% off your order. In addition, 15% of your purchase will also be donated to SDW.

We can all help the Siri Singh Sahib’s (Yogi Bhajan) legacy in believing in and donating for his and our Guru’s glory. And, here’s the best part, we begin to receive blessings right away in the form of a beautiful and powerful Tantric Necklace.

In Humility of Gratitude and Service,
MSS Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa
Nine Treasures | 718 McCurdy Rd. | Espanola, NM 87532

"Mahan tantric", Yogi Bhajan and his wife Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Puri who promote a whole slew of anti-Sikh activities received Panth Rattan. Now Sikh scholars want to frame rules for the award after once again it shows to be politically driven

Panth Rattan has become a politically driven award particularly considering that previous recipients before the corrupt Prakash Singh Badal were the "Mahan tantric", Yogi Bhajan and his wife Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Puri who promote a whole slew of anti-Sikh activities.

Here's the link to the article in the Tribune of India, Punjab news
- you may have to scroll down. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111207/punjab.htm#12

After viewing these pictures of Bibiji performing Hindu pujas you'll see why she is clearly not a Gursikh & her positions of leadership in the Sikh community should be revoked! You'll notice the same Swami is leading the puja as the one at 11-11-11 shiv/shakti yoga event.
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S.S. Gurubachan Singh at top left above Yogi Bhajan with orange turban. From left to right, Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Khalsa (Yogi Bhajan's wife), Bhai Sahib Satpal Singh Khalsa(Yogi Bhajan's son in law) and Kamaljit Kaur Khalsa (Yogi Bhajan's daughter) all wearing white turbans and donning the red mark of Shiva on their foreheads.

Why does Bhai Sahib Sat Pal Singh Khalsa, the Ambassador to Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma, have this pic of his family with Yogi Bhajan and his wife doing Hindu puja with a swami on his website? http://bhaisahib.org/?attachment_id=440

Sikhs do not perform these Hindu rituals which are strictly forbidden by the Sikh Reht Maryada. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=344

Let's make clear that Yogi Bhajan and Bibiji are not just lighting some candles and that this is in fact a Hindu puja in the pic above. This is the way a puja works. The devotee of shiva or whatever deity you are worshiping makes an offering to the god or goddess in return for a wish being granted. In this case it appears the offering was flower petals. Usually some kind of fire is involved to burn away or cleanse karmas from the devotee making the offering, in this case a candle is being used. Then the Hindu pundit or swami blesses the devotee with a red mark of paint on the forehead (the third eye in yogic tradition) which is commonly called the eye of Shiva. You can see in the photos that all these elements are being met for a Hindu puja.
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Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Khalsa, PhD, holds the distinguished position of Bhai Sahiba or Chief Religious Minister of Sikh Dharma, and she was the wife of Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji for 52 years. To Sikhs around the globe, she is a revered "mother" and honored as an ambassador of good will and a harbinger of interfaith dialogue among religious leaders. In 2006 she was named the New Mexico Ambassador of Peace by Senator Shannon Robinson. Governor Bill Richardson appointed Bibiji as his Representative to India in 2007.

In 2005, Bibiji received the honorific "Panth Rattan," from Singh Sahib Iqbal Singh of Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. In Sikhism, we honor those people with title of Panth Rattan meaning "The Jewel of the Nation," for outstanding service given to the Sikh panth. It is a title seldom granted, and then only after serious consideration. In November of 2004, Bibiji was recognized by the Akal Takat as the Bhai Sahiba of Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere, a position she has held in the West since 1975.
[image]
This is no way for a Sikh leader to act!

For Bibiji & Yogi Bhajan and now their students to indulge in Hindu practices, such as having a Homa (fire puja) ceremony in front of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, to visit astrologers – as he did on a regular basis, to give people Sikh names through numerology rather than consult SGGS – I could go on and on – is totally hypocritical. Their disciples are now following in their footsteps.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=169369606419559&aid=42382
The 3HO people may do whatever Hindu practices they like; there is no law against it but they should not claim to be Khalsa or use Khalsa names, Singh and Kaur. For them to use the name Khalsa, when the overwhelming majority of them neither recites panj bani nor wear panj kaka, is hypocritical in the extreme. Of course this is really Yogi Bhajan’s fault for a really stupid decision to name all his students Singh/Kaur Khalsa, no matter what their level of commitment was to Sikhi. I believe this has deeply wounded the image of The Khalsa Panth in America.

Here is the condemnation of Idol Worship by Guru Gobind Singh Ji (extracts from various passages):

ਕਾਹੂ ਲੈ ਪਾਹਨ ਪੂਜ ਧਰਯੋ ਸਿਰ ਕਾਹੂ ਲੈ ਲਿੰਗ ਗਰੇ ਲਟਕਾਇਓ ॥
Someone worships stone and places it on his head. Someone hangs the phallus (lingam) from his neck. .(pg.42)

ਕੋਉ ਬੁਤਾਨ ਕੋ ਪੂਜਤ ਹੈ ਪਸੁ ਕੋਉ ਮ੍ਰਿਤਾਨ ਕੋ ਪੂਜਨ ਧਾਇਓ ॥
Some fools worship idols and some go to worship the dead. (pg.42)

ਪਾਇ ਪਰੋ ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਕੇ ਜੜ ਪਾਹਨ ਮੈਂ ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਨਾਹੀ ॥੯੯॥
O fool! Fall at the feet of Lord-God, The Lord is not within the stone-idols.99.(pg.111)

ਤੇ ਭੀ ਬਸਿ ਮਮਤਾ ਹੁਇ ਗਏ ॥ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਪਾਹਨ ਠਹਿਰਏ ॥੧੩॥
THEY were also overpowered by ‘mineness’ and exhibited the Lord in statues. 13. .(pg.134)

ਪਾਹਨ ਪੁਜੈ ਹੈ ਏਕ ਨ ਧਿਐ ਹੈ ਮਤ ਕੇ ਅਧਕ ਅਧੇਰਾ ॥ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਕਹੁ ਤਜਿ ਹੈ ਬਿਖ ਕਹੁ ਭਜਿ ਹੈ ਸਾਝਹਿ ਕਹਹਿ ਸਵੈਰਾ ॥
Worshiping stones, they will not meditate on the One Lord; there will be the prevalence of darkness of many sects; leaving the ambrosia they will desire for poison, and they will name the evening time as early-morning; .(pg.1142) (eg hindus and christians)

ਤਾਸ ਕਿਉ ਨ ਪਛਾਨਹੀ ਜੋ ਹੋਹਿ ਹੈ ਅਬ ਹੈ ॥ਨਿਹਫਲ ਕਾਹੇ ਭਜਤ ਪਾਹਨ ਤੋਹਿ ਕਛੁ ਫਲਿ ਦੈ ॥
Why do you not pray to him, who will be there in the future and who is here in the present? You are worshipping stones uselessly; what will you gain by this worship? (pg. 1289)
ਅੱਛਤ ਧੂਪ ਦੀਪ ਅਰਪਤ ਹੈ ਪਾਹਨ ਕਛੂ ਨ ਖੈ ਹੈ ॥

Yogi Bhajan and now his 3HO sect are clearly against Sikhism. It is not as simple as saying “So what we do some yoga…” Guess what? These Hindu pujas, kundalini and tantric yoga practices are anti- Gurmat! Always were and always will be. It is not their fault that Yogi Bhajan led them astray just look at the pics above where Yogi Bhajan is clearly performing Hindu puja and allowing his family to also induldge in this ceremony. Dr. Trilochan Singh’s book which is critical of Yogi Bhajan in the light of Sikhism has even more relevance today than it did 35 years ago when it was written.
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?mode=page&id=1

View these new videos by Yogi Bhajan chela Gurmukh Kaur for more evidence that 3HOers are openly promoting Un Sikh like practices of Hindu fire puja, idol worship and occult astrology! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWm53xo-xnY&feature=related

EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
"Jab lag Khalsa rahe niara. tab lag tej dio mai sara.
jab eh gahe bipran ki reet. mai na karo in ki parteet".
"So long as Khalsa retains his distinct identity, I will give him my entire radiance and strength. But if he should take on a non-Sikh way of life, then I shall have no confidence in him and withdraw my support and protection". Guru Gobind Singh Ji

EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.

It is becoming more and more obvious that 3HO (whoever that actually is) has consciously or unconsciously decided to position itself as part Sikh and part Hindu. It seems to me that they just flat out don't understand just how this will wound taditional Sikh sentiments as the Punjabis find out that Yogi Bhajan's 3HO are doing this. Maybe they just don't care.

Snatam Kaur Khalsa openly admits to performing Hindu Arti at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh in a letter published by Spirit Voyage,
"To finish the ceremony Swami ji invited me to sit behind him. I found myself next to Gurmukh. She leaned over and asked with knowing eyes... “Are you ok?” I said to her “Yes.” But as she turned away and I found my eyes falling on the rushing waters of the Ganga, a voice inside screamed... “No, I am not ok! I am in pain!"
Then Snatam Kaur goes on to describe the Ganges river as a goddess when she says, "The teaching tent for the 11.11.11 course is right next to the Ganga River. It is a very deep experience to take in Her(The Ganges river) loving presence while practicing the sacred science of Kundalini yoga, chanting together, and meditating."

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Find the full photo album of Yogi Bhajan chelas anti Sikh Shiv/Shakti "Mother Ganga" event on Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa's facebook page and on this link:
[image]
This is the view of the idol of Shiva and the Ganges river from where Snatam Kaur and Gurmukh Kaur are performing the Hindu Arti and Puja in the first pic above.

The Chardi Kalaa jatha was also performing at this Arti ceremony in Rishikesh as Santam Kaur goes on to say in her letter,"Swami ji arrived and sang so beautifully.The Chardi Kalaa jatha played some of the most inspirational and soul stirring Kirtan I had every heard."

Sikhs do not perform these Hindu rituals which are strictly forbidden by the Sikh Reht Maryada. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=344

View these new videos by Yogi Bhajan chela Gurmukh Kaur for more evidence that 3HOers are openly promoting Un Sikh like practices of Hindu fire puja, idol worship and occult astrology! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWm53xo-xnY&feature=related

EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.

"Jab lag Khalsa rahe niara. tab lag tej dio mai sara.
jab eh gahe bipran ki reet. mai na karo in ki parteet".
"So long as Khalsa retains his distinct identity, I will give him my entire radiance and strength. But if he should take on a non-Sikh way of life, then I shall have no confidence in him and withdraw my support and protection". Guru Gobind Singh Ji

Santam Kaur has also made recordings chanting Hindu mantras like Shiva OM which is also against Sikh Reht Maryada.

In this latest article published by SikhNet, SikhNet blatantly supports and promotes Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa and her anti Sikh activities!http://www.sikhnet.com/news/gurmukh-kaur-coming-edmonton
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SikhNet needs to follow the Sikh Reht & stop promoting Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa who is used as a "Poster Yogi" by Parmarth Niketan Ashram. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=374

Just read this update on Gurmukh Kaur's facebook page. Please note the people who are commenting and her posts. There doesn't appear to be any Sikhs posting or anything about Sikhism but rather Gurmukh gives her chelas false hope in the Vedic "akashic records" and some "magical Aquarian Age" date of 11-11-11. I don't know why Gurmukh doesn't change her name to Shiva Dasi Devi; that would be more in keeping with her practices. http://www.facebook.com/GurmukhKaurKhalsa?sk=wall&filter=1Status

Update
By Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
We are supposed to be in a period where all your thoughts can move all over the place into realms of what you are going towards in your destiny. After November 4, 2011, whatever you have wished for, envisioned for your destiny, what you want to achieve to fulfill your life, will be set in the akashic records for 29 years.
So take the time now to write down what it is you want to achieve, what is important for your happiness and your destiny, and project into the future for 29 years.
You can edit the list until next week on Friday.

Take the list home and put it into a holy book, or on their altar, under their prayer book, etc, to purify the wishes and visions. Rework them as you see fit.

You don't have to know all the details for your visions and wishes. Just the general concept.
Sat Nam

Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Santam Kaur & The Chardi Kalaa jatha are an embarrassment to the Khalsa panth. Gurmukh has been photographed doing Hinduhoma fire pujas and doesn't even wear a Sikh kara. Even in the pic above which SikhNet so blatently publishes shows Gurmukh Kaur doing homage to the sun in Rishikesh on the river Ganga where you can see a Hindu temple in the backgroud of the pic. How can Sikhnet support this anti Sikh woman?
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=307

I pray Gurmukh Kaur will visit the small Gurdwara on the banks of the Ganges at Haridwar, called Gian Gothdri, which marks Guru Nanak's visit there.

When Guru Nanak saw people doing puja to the sun, as is Gurmukh Kaur in this picture, he asked what they were doing. "We are giving water to our thirsty forefathers who live on the sun", they said. So, he also waded into the river and started doing likewise but facing in the opposite direction. Everybody laughed at him and said, "Don't you even know which way the sun is?" He replied, "I've been away from my farm in the Punjab for quite some time and my fields are probably parched, so I thought I should take this opportunity to water them (in the west)". They all laughed some more and said, "Silly fool, Punjab is hundreds of miles away and this water is just falling a foot away right in front of you." Guru Nanak replied, " Oh, but I thought the sun was much furt

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