True Tales

It was the spring of ’72.  I had just come from a yoga class in the park in Tucson, Arizona. Maha Deva Ashram always had a 5pm class in the park and after work it was so wonderful to just zone out and work out the day’s stress with a good yoga class.

I had just found out that I could be starting my own ashram, but I needed to be married in order to “balance the male and the female polarities.” I didn’t know much about polarities, but I did know I needed to marry someone!

So I asked an old friend of mine from high school, Rebecca (who had also become a Sikh). It was a difficult time for her, I remember, as for most of us; we were all going through our own types of “changes.” She turned me down… so I kept up and asked a few more women… turns out no one was interested!

Then Summer Solstice ’72 was here, and we all journeyed to northern California to Mendocino County. What a solstice that was… fire walkers, Sufis, Buddhists, yogis… you name it we had them here!

All of a sudden Jhot Niranjan Kaur gets my attention and I find out she would like to marry me! So we approach the tent with Yogiji within it… they let us in. I stumble with the question I wanted answered about getting married…and then suddenly Jhot and I were all smiles…Yogiji said something like “get married, you’re both glowing… go, go!” and we got out of there as soon as we could. A few days later we were married with about 25 other couples; the journey had just begun!

Back at the Ashram we were the only couple in the ashram so we got the tent. It was the only way we could maintain our privacy as a couple. But soon after moving into the tent… Sat Nam Singh told us that we were going to Nebraska!

I had to look on the map to find Nebraska – not knowing much about the Midwest with my being born and raised in Southern California.

By the end of the year I had located someone to move in with and basically they became our toe hold in Nebraska. So we moved at the end of a Tucson 120 degree summer to a Nebraskan 10 below winter. Were we in for a treat!

There have been a lot of adventures in Nebraska. One which stands out was the winter our ashram burnt down and we temporarily moved to Kansas City, Missouri. A few other noteworthy times were the births of our two daughters, Guru Mandir Kaur and Daya Estelle Kaur, the opening of the Golden Temple Restaurant 1 & 2, the visit of the Khalsa String Band (I missed because I was on lunch break at work….don’t ask), Children’s Yoga, Yoga in Mental Health Facilities, and Yoga as a college course… A lot happened to us as the journey continued….but I will wait to tell of those other times! Sat Nam Wahe Guru!