September 10, 1945 – July 15, 2021 by MSS Daya Singh Khalsa, Espanola NM 2021 (Third Quarter) Many of us 3HOers had known each other for a decade or more before we met Avtar Hari Singh. He’d already grown a business and built a career and bought a luxury apartment and told thousands of corny and a few good jokes before his spiritual quest joined with ours in Los Angeles in 1986. Kundalini yoga brought him to us, and the Siri Singh Sahib grabbed his heart and his spirit and landed him in the Guru’s grace. Avtar Hari dove right
Read More
Archives for 2021 - Third Quarter
In Memoriam – SS Avtar Hari Singh Khalsa
A Time of Transitioning
by SS Dr. Sat Kaur Khalsa, Secretary of Religion 2021 (Third Quarter) It started with a phone call from Satsimran Kaur in early January 2004. She told me that the Siri Singh Sahib’s health was failing and it was time to start preparing for his passing. Tears rolled down my cheeks. Yes, I knew this was inevitable at some point. I just wasn’t quite prepared for it to be real yet. She explained that a small group (called the “transition team”) had started to meet. The group was asking for Ministers to serve the sangat at the time of his
Read More
Ministering to the Ministers
by SS Sarb Nam Kaur Khalsa, Espanola NM 2021 (Third Quarter) In early June 2004, after completing a nine-month Journey into the Heart of Sikh Dharma course, I received a phone call from the Secretary of Religion informing me that the Siri Singh Sahib had approved my application to become a Sikh Dharma Minister. I felt excited and joyful. I believed this was my “spiritual destiny” and that, twenty-four years after my first Kundalini Yoga class and having taken Amrit vows, I was stepping into a new role I felt ready to undertake. Early Beginnings The Guru had swept me
Read More
A Peaceful Day in LA
by SS Har Simran Kaur Khalsa, Los Angeles CA 2021 (Third Quarter) Guru Ram Das Ashram in Los Angeles is located in a diverse, affluent, peaceful neighborhood that, in 2006, was rocked by gang violence. Across the street from the gurdwara, Robertson Recreation Center was all but abandoned by its usual fleet of nannies with babies in strollers, as it had become a staging ground for drug dealing and turf wars. In the summer of 2006, an article in the Aquarian Times called on 3HO Sikhs to celebrate the United Nations’ International Day of Peace by sponsoring peace-related events for
Read More
Honoring Balbir Singh Sodhi
by SS Gurukirn Kaur Khalsa, Phoenix AZ 2021 (Third Quarter) The attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 had left our sangat on edge. Images of Osama Bin Laden, with beard and white turban, played over and over again on the news. That Tuesday night we scheduled a memorial Gurdwara service at Guru Nanak Dwara in Phoenix, but many people were too afraid to come. In the next few days, we sent out press packets explaining who the Sikhs were, and we participated in an interfaith prayer gathering. Then, on Saturday afternoon, September 15th,
Read More
Remembering 9/11
by SS Sat Jivan Singh Khalsa, New York NY 2021 (Third Quarter) SS Sat Jivan Singh was in New York on September 11, 2001. He shared with us his experience of attending an interfaith memorial service on October 11, 2001. He also shared some reminiscences about the events that took place in the days and weeks following September 11, 2001, looking back at his role as a Minister in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States. October 11, 2001 New York, NY The taxi let me out on 7th Avenue just above Chambers Street, about six or
Read More
Minister News & Notes (2021 Third Quarter)
The Office of the Secretary of Religion of Sikh Dharma International offers congratulations to two newly ordained Sikh Dharma International Ministers, who took their Minister vows in August 2021. Wahe Guru ji ka Khalsa! Wahe Guru ji ki Fateh! Singh Sahib Kirpal Singh Khalsa, France SS Kirpal Singh Khalsa took his Sikh Dharma Minister vows on August 15 in a “hybrid” ceremony. He was blessed to be surrounded in person by his students, friends, and his spouse Ishwara Kaur at a cozy gurdwara at his farmhouse/teaching center in a town south of Paris, France. Secretary of Religion SS Dr. Sat
Read More
Secretary of Religion Column (Third Quarter 2021)
As I sat down to write this column a song came into my head—The Times They Are A-Changin’—written by Bob Dylan in 1963. The first stanza says: Come gather ’round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’ Despite the fact that this song was written in 1963, it seems timeless—for things do keep changing. Of course, change is
Read More
#81 – 2021 Newsletter (Third Quarter)
The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Sikh Dharma International Ministry. As we contemplate the future, it is also worthwhile to review our past. Our previous two issues looked back at the decades spanning the 1970s through the 1990s. In this third issue, we explore the past two decades (2000-2019). During this time, our 3HO/Sikh Dharma communities and the world faced many changes and challenges, including the attacks on September 11, 2001, and the passing of the Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji on October 6, 2004. We invited Sikh Dharma Ministers
Read More
