Harbhajan Singh Yogi - Inter-faith Work

Inter-faith Work

In the summer of 1970, Singh participated in an informal "Holy Man Jam" at the University of Colorado at Boulder with Swami Satchidananda, Stephen Gaskin of The Farm in Tennessee, Zen Buddhist Bill Quan-roshi, and other local luminaries. A few weeks later, he carried that inspiration forward and organized a gathering of spiritual teachers to engage and inspire the 200,000 attendees of the Atlanta Pop Festival on the stage between the performance of the bands.

These seminal events served to awaken interest in inter-faith discussion such as had not been seen since the 1920s. In 1972, Singh participated in religious panels at Harvard University, Cornell University, Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That same year, he visited Pope Paul VI and advised him to convene a gathering of friendship and understanding for representatives of all religions. He reminded Paul VI that catholic meant "universal" and suggested that, as head of the world's largest religious organization, he would be the most suitable leader to host such a meeting.

Singh maintained his relationship with the Catholic Church under Pope John Paul II. In 1983 and again in 1984, they met. When the Golden Temple came under assault from the Indian Army defending the temple from sikh terrorists, with the loss of life of many hundreds of pilgrims, the pontiff offered his official condolences.

During the United Nations Year of Peace 1986, Singh instituted a yearly Peace Prayer Day for people of all denominations at the Summer Solstice near Santa Fe.

In that same year, Pope John Paul II convened a gathering of religious representatives of the world such as Singh had proposed fourteen years earlier. Singh participated in a ceremony held the same day in Los Angeles.

All through the 1970s and 80s, Singh actively engaged in and chaired numerous inter-religious councils and forums, including the Inter-Religious Council of Southern California, the World Conference for the Unity of Man, and the World Parliament of Religions. In 1999, he gave a presentation at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Cape Town, South Africa.