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 into the deep end. He got a beautiful pendant that came with his personal “mul mantra” for this lifetime, “Don’t give distance to your destiny.” He loved that core teaching and it reinforced his desire to serve and lead in a way that hadn’t really emerged before.
He hosted our business group at his Century City penthouse, raised money for gifts and projects, and hosted an entourage of Staff and devotees and hangers-on at the El Dorado Hotel Presidential Suite on trips to Santa Fe. He paid all those bills generously, grateful to be in the middle of something so exciting that had such profound meaning for him.
Then came his biggest surprise, blessing, and opportunity to commit all of himself. It was when he married Ravi Kaur in a joyous Los Angeles wedding ceremony.
Their age separation was a full generation. But when they woke the next morning at 3:30 a.m., laughing, to fulfill their pledge to their teacher with a very sleepy sadhana to bless the day and their marriage, they knew that there would never be a separation of their souls. And they knew they’d nurture a gift that was precious for all of their shared life together.
The future brought a move to Espanola (New Mexico) where Ravi Kaur had spent time as a child. Avtar Hari Singh jumped into the vibrant community there, working in our for-profit and non-profit businesses, creating a beautiful home with Ravi Kaur and then another bigger hacienda for them on the Rio Grande. He embraced the charms and spirit of New Mexico without losing that big-city LA style.
2007 brought the biggest community challenge of fighting an effort to sell off all the business assets built over 30 years. Avtar Hari Singh stepped up to lead the legal battle, working with our attorneys to organize the thousands of details in the court case and raising the money to pay the bills.
After four years of that struggle, the court found for the Sikh Dharma community. Avtar Hari Singh led the settlement effort that secured the organizational assets for the future. He did it to contribute and to serve so that other seekers could find a spiritual home in the same way that he did.
In 2015, Avtar Hari Singh and Ravi Kaur moved to Portland and soon after to Yucatán in Mexico where they settled as ex-pats on the Caribbean and then in the city of Merida.
He passed from this life on July 15, 2021, in their elegant Merida home. Good friends visited in order to say goodbye and to honor him. His humor and laughter, his friendship, and his leadership will be missed as we remember and honor his contribution to this Dharma and the love he shared with us all.
