Guru Fatha Singh Khalsa is a Thoughtful and Masterful
Teacher Dedicated to the Progress of His Students
At the age of 16, he left home to join the peace movement that was sweeping the country, hopeful also that he might meet someone who could teach him wisdom outside of books. The year was 1970. In Vancouver, Guru Fatha Singh learned the gentle art of meditation from Swami Janardan Paramahansa of the Ajapa Breath Foundation. He also practiced Hatha Yoga with students of Swami Satchidananda and the Integral Yoga Institute.
At 17, Guru Fatha Singh took his first Kundalini Yoga class in Toronto. Six months later, he joined the 3HO community and moved into Guru Ram Das Ashram where he commenced the daily routine of pre-dawn yoga and meditation, and teaching weekly classes. Soon after, Guru Fatha Singh met Yogi Bhajan, master of Kundalini Yoga and spiritual director of the 3HO Foundation, and began his decades-long tutelage under the watchful eyes of the master. It was Yogi Bhajan who named him "Guru Fatha Singh" - the being of the victory of the Guru, who is a lion.
Guru Fatha Singh's adventures as a longhaired Yogi Sikh, a student of a great Sikh master, were many. He went to Washington DC for a grueling teacher training, moved to Ottawa where a marriage was arranged for him, and returned to Toronto to successfully fight two cases as a Sikh asserting his human rights. One was to join the Canadian Armed Forces and another to change the hiring practices of a Toronto taxicab company. Guru Fatha Singh also served as a board member of the Federation of Ontario Yoga Teachers (now Yoga Ontario) and studied eastern philosophies and religions at the University of Toronto, where he earned a BA Hons.
In 1995, Guru Fatha Singh set out for Amritsar, India and six months of teaching and study. The outcome of this was an acclaimed book: Badges of Bondage: The Conquest of the Sikh Mind 1847-1947. The book examines the disempowerment of the Sikh nation and the near-end of their historic role as a dynamic force for social good. Subsequent works have included a Punjabi primer, a detailed study of the role of yoga in Sikh practice and tradition, and a widely acclaimed book (and workshops on) our dawning holistic paradigm. Five Paragons of Peace: Magic and Magnificence in the Guru's Way was self-published in 2007.
Charged with writing Yogi Bhajan's biography in 1983, Guru Fatha Singh began sending out his Master's story from childhood as free monthly installments broadcast to a global audience of 1000s over the internet in April 2006. He is currently involved in publishing early talks of Yogi Bhajan with a view to keeping the teachings of Kundalini Yoga authentic and true.
Guru Fatha Singh has taught widely since the late 1990s. He has given classes and workshops in Canada, the US and Ecuador. He is also a tireless organizer. In 2000, he founded the Toronto Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association. In 2002, Guru Fatha Singh started an annual tradition called Peace Week at the University of Toronto, modeled on Yogi Bhajan's Peace Prayer Day.
"We are living in a time of unprecedented upheaval and disassociation. The ties of family and community are often strained to the limit. We work more than ever, and for many of us, our work has become our community. We are bombarded with new information, some of it untrue, much of it beside the point.
"We need to focus on developing a powerful alternative to the mainstream model of indifference, fear and acquiescence. Going along is not getting us anywhere. We need to wake up and become engaged: personally engaged in cultivating our own spiritual powers, and politically engaged in challenging the apathy and disintegration we see around us."
Charged with writing Yogi Bhajan's biography in 1983, Guru Fatha Singh began sending out his Master's story from childhood as free monthly installments broadcast to a global audience of 1000s over the internet in April 2006. He is currently involved in publishing early talks of Yogi Bhajan with a view to keeping the teachings of Kundalini Yoga authentic and true.
Guru Fatha Singh has taught widely since the late 1990s. He has given classes and workshops in Canada, the US and Ecuador. He is also a tireless organizer. In 2000, he founded the Toronto Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association. In 2002, Guru Fatha Singh started an annual tradition called Peace Week at the University of Toronto, modeled on Yogi Bhajan's Peace Prayer Day.
"We are living in a time of unprecedented upheaval and disassociation. The ties of family and community are often strained to the limit. We work more than ever, and for many of us, our work has become our community. We are bombarded with new information, some of it untrue, much of it beside the point.
"We need to focus on developing a powerful alternative to the mainstream model of indifference, fear and acquiescence. Going along is not getting us anywhere. We need to wake up and become engaged: personally engaged in cultivating our own spiritual powers, and politically engaged in challenging the apathy and disintegration we see around us."
"White by Birth, Sikh by Choice"
This is the title of the bio written by Raheel Raza, published in The Star a couple of years ago. Raheel is a brave woman with a big heart who each day takes on the fanatics and bullies in her faith. She brought with her a talented photographer, Richard Lautens. They stayed for a class. He took a wonderful photo and she wrote this story.
