Yogi Bhajan Lecture: The Legacy of 3HO
In this lecture excerpt, “The Legacy of 3HO,” Yogi Bhajan speaks of the significance of 3HO and how it will endure in the coming age. Included are a few highlights of his teachings. It was given on January 5, 1994, the 25th anniversary of 3HO.
We started a healthy, happy, holy way of life, and that became 3HO. It is a dream come true. It is a very pure path in which every human is worshipped equally. Everybody is a potential teacher. There is no ‘yes’ and ‘no’; rather, there is a set discipline to follow.
If you just pay attention to yourself, you will find God within you. There is no such thing as God outside you. There is nothing outside you. Let me complete it with one sentence: “In the beginning is you, in the middle is you, and in the end is you.” It cannot change.
Every Date Has a Pit
Somebody said, “I am going on a date.” I said, “Be careful of the pit, because every date has a pit, and a pit is so hard in a date, it can break your tooth.” People don’t understand what they walk into. If you just make one knowledgeable personal decision, which is yours, not mine, that you shall not walk into any environment or any action, which does not enhance your grace, you will never be disgraced, no matter what the world does to you. That’s the law of unison.
Kindness, compassion, and caring are the three laws of Sikh Dharma, which I have learned, and this is Dharma. Be kind, be compassionate, and be caring, and don’t do this drama to exploit.
Caliber
Life is a comparative study. If you have caliber and you have intuition, that gives you grit and stamina. Then you can make it anywhere. If you don’t have intuition, you don’t see anything, you are blind. If you have no caliber developed, then you cannot expand, you cannot even recognize what you are dealing with. And then you don’t have the stamina to fulfill it. Then caliber and intuition are useless and you are a duck. All three [caliber, intuition, and stamina] are what human is meant for, and what gives all three is Kundalini Yoga.
What is Holy?
Open up the chakras, take care of the tattvas ,and control the gunas. Call it anyway you like. To be healthy, happy, and holy does not make more work than to be unhealthy, unhappy, and unholy. What is holy? You have nine holes, control them. See what goes in and out. You are holy. You have two eyes, see with the third eye, see between the two eyes, the center point of everything, that’s the third eye. Look where you should be looking, not what you are looking at.
Every moment of life, you should be what you ought to be, ought to be, ought to be, ought to be, there is no other way. If you are swing and sway, you shall be miserable. It shall not make any sense. Majority of the actions you do, many of the things you do, do not do anything. You don’t understand one thing: all you will satisfy is your emotions, that’s all. And all this lifestyle and lifetime that you spend on satisfying your emotions will be enough to kill you. Everybody has to die, folks, but some shall die fulfilled and many without it; that is the tragedy of being human. Die fulfilled. When you die fulfilled, you shall be grateful, being you. So far through all this time and reality, we have not learned one thing, and that’s a very simple thing: I be I, and I can confirm that I am I.
The Teacher
A person has traveled the distance to come and meet the teacher. This is the law of Karma. When soul got the body, God promised, “You shall meet your teacher for a moment.” That’s the promise which God has to fulfill. He never said that you will stick with him or her. He never said that person will continue teaching you; that was not what was said. “You shall meet for a moment your teacher.” So distance is there, destiny is there. You should travel the distance, you meet the teacher, you recognize it or not, that’s your choice.
A Living Legacy
We built a foundation called the 3HO Foundation: a Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization of people. The first song I sang was, “We are the people, the people of love, let us people love today.”
Certain little things started happening in a very unique way with all of you. All of those who have left, all who are with me, who shall be with me, or who shall leave me—all play a very important role in the development of 3HO—a lifestyle of the Age of Aquarius where humans shall be first and foremost purely human, and will do everything graciously.
I came with nothing and I shall leave with nothing. I own everything as though I own nothing. It shall all belong to the generations now and to come. I have just played a role as a custodian and a caretaker. I have taken ownership with a great perfection. My basic idea is very simple: don’t let anybody down, don’t let yourself down, and don’t participate directly or indirectly in any letdown.
That shall be the legacy of 3HO. A group of young people had the will to conquer the times and made a space for themselves in history. Time could not conquer them. And this is not a small thing, in spite of what you may think. This 3HO shall be the most important legacy on this planet for the Age of Aquarius. Sooner or later, people will experience a tremendous amount of emptiness, which always brings a void. A void brings unhappiness. Then people will want to find a place where they can be healthy, happy, and holy. It all fits in.
Who could have dreamed that after twenty-five years we would be what we are today? With all the heaven and hell we have gone through, we have survived with a very unique pride with which we have walked tall in the face of the entire Universe. Today, anywhere you go, you will find that this is a living legacy which is not only for now, not only for the next one hundred years, but for the coming two thousand years of the Age of Aquarius, when mankind will find shelter in the 3HO way of life. And then, you who are here now, who are just considered to be a handful of people, shall be considered as the most Divine. Isn’t it amazing?
This small little thing, which was started to give people a way of life, with love and dedication, shall prevail in the coming change of the Age. All the energy which poured in to build this foundation, to me is a wonderful experience. With that wonder, we shall continue.
Almighty Creator God, all those whom we have touched and who have come and gone in the touch of life as the time and space permitted it, it’s our prayer that all be healthy, happy and holy. Give this kind gift to the entire humanity, and guide them to the path of absolute resurrection, so they can find their true self. This is my prayer and the prayer of all those people here. We don’t have words to thank Thee for giving us twenty-five years to serve, to be healthy, happy, and holy, and to create environments and circumstances in which the knowledge shall flow till Infinity. Sat Nam.
©The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan