Kundalini Yoga Arrives in the West

In September of 1968, Yogi Bhajan left India for Canada to teach yoga at Toronto University, carrying a letter of recommendation from Sir James George, Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi, who had been his student.

When he arrived to Canada, his luggage had been lost and he discovered that the university professor who had hired him to come had, tragically, just died. So in September of 1968, he had arrived to a strange country with no job, only $35, and the clothes on his back.

While there in just two to three months, he made a huge impact. He established Kundalini Yoga classes at several YMCAs, co-founded a yoga center, was interviewed for Canadian national press and television, and helped bring about the creation of eastern Canada’s first Sikh temple, in perfect time to celebrate for Guru Nanak’s five hundredth birthday the following year.

In December, Yogi Bhajan received a personal invitation from a man he had known in India, to spend a weekend visiting Los Angeles. Although he had only intended to visit LA for one weekend, he changed his mind. When he saw the huge numbers of young people looking for spiritual guidance – young hippies, the spiritual seekers of that era, the generation whose destiny it was to usher in the new era of the Aquarian Age, he immediately recognized that the experience of higher consciousness they were attempting to find through drugs could be achieved by practicing Kundalini Yoga, while simultaneously rebuilding their nervous systems. He knew instantly that he had to stay and teach them. So, he relocated to Los Angeles where he began what is now 3HO’s history.