Yogi Bhajan Teaches his First Public Yoga Class

Yogi Bhajan taught his first class in the United States on January 5, 1969, entitled “The Art and Science of Liberation” at the Alhambra YMCA in Southern California. Even though no students came to the class, the man who drove Yogi Bhajan had a tape recorder and recorded the class. The lecture was transcribed, printed, and eventually distributed to students. Source: The Library of Teachings

From humble beginnings, teaching first at the East West Cultural Center and then in a student’s furniture store in West Hollywood, “The Yogi” was like a magnet. Students flocked to his classes. Soon he was teaching at colleges and universities, including Claremont and UCLA, and accepting invitations to teach in other cities.

The first Guru Ram Das Ashram in America, located in back of Jules Buccieri’s Antique Shop. Yogi Bhajan taught Kundalini Yoga classes there twice a day seven days a week.

Here’s a picture from “the early days” at Jules Buccieri’s Antique Shop, which later became Morton’s:

Yogi Bhajan (later to become the Siri Singh Sahib) teaching a yoga class inside the shop. Students would come early to move the furniture out of the room to make space for the class and stay late to move it all back again, 1969. (Later students converted the garage in back into the classroom.)

Yogi Bhajan with Jules Buccieri, left, who opened his heart and his furniture shop for Kundalini Yoga classes, and Johnny Rivers, right, a popular musician who sponsored Yogi Bhajan for United States residency.