Harbhajan Singh Yogi - Media Coverage

Media Coverage

Singh received significant coverage in the North American media, particularly in the early 1970s when yoga was still a matter of general curiosity.

Singh's message of no drugs, family values and healthy living was widely popular, and many of the media stories were positive, serving not only to educate the public, but also to publicize the work of the 3HO Foundation. Some focused on the lifestyle, others on the inspiration behind the organization. Others focused on Singh's holistic approach to drug addiction. Some writers reported on Singh's officiating at mass marriages where many couples would be betrothed and everyone wore white. Others zeroed in on the issue of Sikhs up against the US Army dress code. While Newsweek, USA Today and Macleans Magazine in Canada published favorable articles about Singh in 1977, James Wilde of Time wrote a critical article that year, titled "Yogi Bhajan's Synthetic Sikhism". The Time article claimed the 3HO leader inspired hostility, quoting former students who alleged sexual improprieties on the part of Yogi Bhajan. Colleen Hoskins, who worked seven months at his New Mexico residence, reports that men are scarcely seen there. He is served, she says, by a coterie of as many as 14 women, some of whom attend his baths, give him group massages, and take turns spending the night in his room while his wife sleeps elsewhere. Wilde also alleged that Gurucharan Singh Tohra, former President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), had stated that Singh is not the Sikh leader of Sikhism in the Western World as he claimed, and that Tohra had denied the gurdwara committee has ever given the title of Siri Singh Sahib to Singh.

The Time article was followed by emphatic rebuttals from Tohra. There was also a demonstration held outside Time's London office and a detailed demand for a retraction published under the title "Time Will Tell" in the 3HO publication Beads of Truth, Issue 36, Fall 1977.

Singh is mentioned in a range of reference works, including the New Age Encyclopedia. Western scholarly appraisal of his work may be found in Hew McLeod's Who is a Sikh? and Sikhism, and in Verne A. Dusenbery's article "Punjabi Sikhs and Gora Sikhs: Conflicting Assertions of Sikh Identity in North America".

BBC interviewed Singh at the 300th anniversary celebration of the Baisakhi holiday at Anandpur Sahib, India in 1999.

Singh is also featured in books discussing the successes of Sikhs who had migrated from India to the West, including Surjit Kaur's Among the Sikhs: Reaching for the Stars and Gurmukh Singh's The Global Indian: The Sikhs.

The 1973 documentary Sunseed stars a number of teachers of eastern wisdom, including Singh. The Sunseed crew accompanied him to India in 1970-71 for the filming.