The view presented by Inderpal Singh Chawla indicates that yogi wanted to formally declare his place as Takhat and establish his credibility as Sri Singh Sahib of the Sikhs in the West. However, Prof. Balkar Singh,a top member of the team has denied this view to be the purpose of the visit. Rather, Prof. Balkar Singh’s statement that Yogi had apologized for his poem “Anand”, appears as an attempt to plead for Yogi to be a sincere good Sikh. Hence, the need for Sikh masses to be aware of the truth.
- Yogi did have the words Takhar Khalsa, written in steel letter on the wall of the Ashram. These words were covered to conceal them from the view of the visiting team. Later good sense prevailed and these steel letters were broken probably to remove the proof of cheating the team by the Yogi.
However, the true nature of Yogi’s mind is still reflected through names given to other Ashrams Sarkar Khalsa, Darbar Khalsa, Further, Yogi popularizes himself as Master, a name given to the prophet in the West and to the Sikh Gurus in English writings (The Ten Masters by Puran Singh).
Yogi preaches himself as Guru and claims, his Panth’ to be different and superior from the Sikh Panth, for this he has designed his color flag Which flutters on his Ashram visited by the team. (Of course the statues inside the Ashram were broken and removed before the Visit of the team). His rectangular flag, diagonally divided into upper white triangle (representing Yoga) sitting over the yellow color triangle (representing Sikh color) below, claims superiority of ‘Yoga over Gurmat philosophy, How could this be missed by the team is a mystery ? May be they noted it and privately told Yogi to replace it with Sikh flag, But this is not mentioned by Prof. Balkar Singh. To break from the Sikh tradition Yogi’s followers great each other with ‘Sat Nam” and not with ‘”Waheguru jika Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh”.
2, Prof. Balkar Singh refers to the apology by the Yogi for his poem “Anand”. Yogi wrote that those who. recite 6 pauris of Anand Sahib (as the whole Panth does daily) are cursed and suffer from all ills. In his letter, Yogi has regretted the use of ‘poetical words’ if anybody was hurt by them. It means, Yogi believes there is nothing wrong in the message. May be that is why his followers continue to sing only five (not six as directed in themaryada) pauris. The Yogi’s book containing the poem ‘Anand’ is sold as usual from his shop. The apology, therefore, is meaningless, unless the yogi withdraws the book, and orders is followers to sing 6paurisot and a Sahib, the letter of apology is mere acting to mislead the Jathedar of the ‘Akal Takhat.
3, Yogi’s name is included in the Sikh prayer designed for his followers, It states, “Grant to our guide— who is Thy humble servant, the power toothaches the truth and lead us to Thy were”. The guide, of course, is known. to be Yogi Bhajan. For obvious reasons his followers don’t use the word “Guru”, but what they beg for him is what Gunu alone is entitled to do, “power to teach the truth and lead to ‘Thy power~. 4. Yogi believes in Yoga and preaches Kundalni Yoga, (He runs a Kundalni center to teach and preach Yoga); Anyone who believes in Yoga ‘of another faith cannot be a Sikh. With these facts known to everyone, if Yogiis still permitted to speak from a Sikh platform, during the Sikh Samelan in Sept 1995, it will reflect the under-hand agenda of the leaders and Yogi the Sikhs will protest openly against it unless Yogi withdraws his book and replaces his flag with Sikh flag. Dr. Gurbakhash Singh Gill, Toronto, Canada.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 25, 1995
