Dear Ones . . . Sat Nam,

This message is to wholeheartedly wish you, your family and all whom you love—all that you hold special and even those you don't know you love—the healthiest, happiest, holiest new year and all the years to come.

We wish this to the leaders of this Earth. We wish this to the suffering on this Earth. We wish this to the animals, the plants, and the minerals of this Earth. We wish this to the elementals, the angels and the future of this Earth.

I remember—as if it were today—the Siri Singh Sahib arriving as Yogi Bhajan in Los Angeles - early January of 1969. Those of us, fortunate to be around at that moment, received an unlikely candidate into the escalating 1969 world of what was then referred to as - the Indian spiritual-master "mania." Swamis, yogis and spiritual masters were descending on the West.

Yogi Bhajan was a bit different however . . . the difference was in his 'matter of fact-ness'—the 'you are just like me-ness' and his "don't love me love my teachings" attitude. This would become a great strength and a magnetic attractor as the time moved on.

"I want you to forget about love, forget about GOD, I want you to go out and get a job!" I heard his voice booming through the room at me in February of that year.

"I'm a musician," I turned and responded proudly, but not quite as loudly, "music IS my job."

"But not everyone is a musician," he roared back, "if you want to be a great teacher, you will have to teach everyone . . . not just the musicians. Get to know what the rest of your world is going through."
 
I could not believe what I was hearing, but he was sticking to it. The rest of the conversation was to take up the next forty years of my life (thirty-five years in his person and the rest in spirit). Our relationship has had that same familial flavor the entire time . . . a divine sort of father-master-guide mixture. He referred to me as a "first-born."

We (his eager students) all buckled down to work during those early years. We learned from his enthusiasm to launch dream businesses on a dime. Our dedication and huge amounts of sweat-equity built everything in the growing community. We started the brass bed craze of the 1970's and 80's with Sunshine Brass Beds—born in a garage in Los Angeles. Yogi Tea was started in a large wooden barrel at our Golden Temple Health Food Store, again in Los Angeles. The Peace Cereal company and Wahe Guru Chew candy bar company were both born out of a small kitchen oven in Eugene, Oregon.

Yogi Bhajan—the man also known as Siri Singh Sahib—taught us to project our conscious commitment, our character and our caliber through these businesses right along side the classes we taught in Kundalini Yoga and yogic lifestyle. Today, we are known as much for healthy tea and cereal as we are for spiritual teachings.

Yogi Bhajan did exactly what he dreamed . . . he inspired conscious communities around the globe to support themselves and the world around them with deeply committed and creative wellness businesses, nutritional consciousness, Humanology and Kundalini Yoga. It is up to each one of us to fill in a dream for ourselves using our own styles and through our own visions.

May this new year of 2009 and all the years to come, guide you on your personal journey toward this beauty and grace, this unity and power, this oneness and liberation.

Always with Sacred Love, Blessings, Prayer and Gratitude . . . Guru Singh and Guruperkarma Kaur and our entire Family and Staff.