Cult News

Now deceased “Yogi Bhajan” (a.k.a. Harbhajan Singh Puri), a notorious guru and purported “cult leader,” was honored by having a highway named after him posthumously that runs through New Mexico, where the guru’s followers still maintain their largest community compound.

The New Mexico State Transportation Commission has renamed state highway 106 “Yogi Bhajan Memorial Highway” reports The Indian Express. 

Bhajan died  October 6, 2004, but his diehard disciples keep arranging honors for their guru through their still functioning political connections in New Mexico.

CultNews previously reported how the guru’s followers managed to pump a joint resolution honoring Yogi Bhajan through Congress. And before that came no less than a “presidential proclamation,” seemingly engineered by Bhajan’s old political crony New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson.

During his lifetime Bhajan was apparently quite generous to Richardson, regularly contributing to his political campaigns and turning out his followers to vote at election time.

Richardson reportedly remarked how Bhajan “kept a hand in politics” and noted that “many of the elected officials” attending the recent highway naming ceremony “sought his counsel…many times.”

“Counsel” must be a politically correct euphemism for cash campaign contributions. And it seems the guru is still getting his payback even after his death. 

However, Yogi Bhajan’s life can be seen as a series of scandals.

Prominent sociologist and Stanford University professor Richard Offshe stated in an affidavit that Bhajan’s organization known  as “3HO exhibits characteristics common to cult organizations.”

The guru’s former followers had less than glowing things to say about him. Many claimed that “3HO” exploited them and hurt their families. 

Some female followers complained that Bhajan’s attentions were at times also less than spiritual. A former personal secretary sued him for sexual harassment and gross misconduct.

One lawsuit stated, “The method by which Bhajan induced others to follow him was to pose as a Yoga master and teacher, and then covertly subject yoga students to a process of mental and emotional conditioning in which their personalities are disrupted and ultimately destroyed.”

Lawsuits against Bhajan and/or his businesses were often quietly settled and the guru lived a life of luxury, until his death at 75.

Bhajan immigrated to the US in the 1970s and built his following amongst largely white, middle-class Americans. He began  as a yoga teacher, but soon declared himself a religious leader. The idiosyncratic brand of religion Bhajan concocted was a blend of yoga, meditation and his quirky personal philosophy, which was frequently denounced and/or criticized by more mainstream and traditional Sikhs.

Over the years Bhajan and his followers succeeded in putting together a multi-million dollar financial empire that included AKAL Security, one of the largest private security companies in North America. AKAL relied heavily upon government contracts, helped along no doubt by Bhajan’s political connections.

Through his various enterprises the guru also marketed teas, herbs and assorted health food.

It seems illegal “herbs” also found their way through New Mexico with the help of Bhajan’s right hand man “Gurujot Singh Khalsa” (a.k.a. Robert Alvin Taylor). In the 1980s Taylor was criminally indicted for conspiring to import more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana into the US. He was subsequently sentenced to a term in federal prison.

CultNews also has reported that in 1985 then Congressman Bill Richardson “hand-delivered” a letter from the Chancellor of the “Sikh Dharma.”

The letter said in part; “We have been informed that the above [3HO phone] numbers are and have been the subject of electronic surveillance by the United States government during the past several months¦Would you please make an inquiry with the Justice Department, the CIA, the National Security Commission and any other government agency that may be involved in this surveillance and inform me of the results of your inquiry.”

Bill did exactly what was asked. He sent a letter days later to the FBI.

Richardson wrote, “I have received the attached letter from one of my constituents¦Any information you can provide my office to help us respond¦will be most helpful.”

The congressman also assigned one of his staff “to handle [the] matter.”

In December the FBI responded, “A check was made of our records here at FBI Headquarters and in our offices in Albuquerque and Los Angeles, and no information was located to indicate that the [3HO] is now or has been the subject of electronic surveillance by the FBI.”

But what Richardson didn’t know is that he had contacted the wrong federal law-enforcement agency.

Apparently it was the DEA that likely had the “cult” under surveillance, as the eventual arrest of Guru Jot Singh in 1987 for drug-trafficking would seem to indicate.

“It is…with great pleasure that I declare New Mexico State Highway 106 as Yogi Bhajan Memorial Highway,’’ gushed the Governor of New Mexico at a recent dedication ceremony. 

Bhajan may be dead, but the 3HO multi-million dollar financial empire still exists, as do old and loyal political cronies like Richardson.

Perhaps the highway has a few crooked miles, which would make it a fitting memorial for the deceased “cult leader.”