More recently, on October 6, 2004, Kundalini yoga master Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji, known to hundreds of thousands of people around the world as Yogi Bhajan, left his physical body. He was the first to teach Kundalini Yoga publicly when he came to the West in 1968. At the same time, he announced that he had arrived “to create teachers, not to gather students.” Harbhajan Singh Puri was born on August 26, 1929 in the village of Kot Harkarn, in that part of India that was ceded to Pakistan in 1948. His father was a doctor and farmer. The boy turned out to be a gifted child, and his parents gave him the opportunity to study with several leading teachers of yoga, meditation and theology. He attended Catholic school and spent his summers in the mountains of Uttar Pradesh. When he was 8 years old, he began his yoga practice with the enlightened teacher Sant Hazar Singh, who proclaimed him a master of Kundalini Yoga when he was 16 and a half years old. He then began to study White Tantra Yoga, which involves men and women meditating together under the guidance of a Master to purify their subconscious mind. During the 1947 Partition unrest, when he was 18, he led a settlement of 7,000 people near Lahore (now in Pakistan). He led his village 325 miles on foot to the safety of New Delhi, India; all he had with him was the clothes he was wearing. Relocated Indians were given homes in India, and he was soon able to continue his education at the University of the Punjab, where he excelled in debating and became a sports star, playing hockey and football, and earned the nickname "Wall of China" from his opponents. He graduated from the university with a degree in economics and took up an official post in the Government of India. Maintaining his inner discipline as a yogi, he lived the life of a householder, marrying and raising three children. Harbhajan Singh Puri was well known in India as a yogi and healer; he was often approached by people who could not find help in other places. The son of a physician, he combined the arts of ancient healing—diet and herbal therapy, massage and manual work—with a working knowledge of modern medical science. At the age of 39, with the blessing and patronage of his subtle teacher Guru Ram Das (the fourth guru of the Sikhs, who lived in the mid-16th century AD), he left India for America, where he was the first to publicly teach Kundalini Yoga, Yoga White Tantra and the doctrine of conscious life. He taught his first class at Los Angeles High School on January 5, 1969. Despite the fact that not a single person was present at this lesson, he continued to teach to an empty hall. It was a very difficult time. “It happened that I was standing shirtless, wearing only my underpants, in the station yard, thinking about how someone would prepare something for me to eat. What kind of food was this? It was dried peas, very hard. And do you know where I soaked it? In hot water, which I took from the boiler of the locomotive. And I still had a young family on my shoulders.” Changing the centuries-old tradition of secrecy surrounding the powerful practice of Kundalini Yoga, he began to teach openly. Starting teaching at the Eastern Cultural Center and then teaching students at a furniture store in West Hollywood, he soon became a magnet. Students flocked to his classes. He soon began teaching at colleges and universities, including Claremont and UKLA, and accepting invitations to teach in other cities. In the complex, drug-fuelled atmosphere of the 60s, he was, in fact, the first who was able to find contact with young people. He saw that behind the interest in drugs there was a deep desire to comprehend the experience of a holistic, free, conscious life. Many quickly realized that they could have this kind of experience in his classes. In the USA, Yogi Bhajan used Kundalini Yoga techniques to cure the most common diseases in this part of the world, developing his own approach to freedom from drug addiction, nicotine addiction, alcoholism, stress, burnout and evencalled smog fatigue. He initiated and inspired the creation of a network of holistic healing clinics throughout North America, which combined ancient and modern medical techniques that gave lasting positive healing effects. His teachings on healthy eating also gave rise to the formation of the Golden Temple chain of restaurants and health food stores in 1974. Based on its formulas, a large number of different natural products for health and beauty have been created. With a degree in economics, he encouraged his students to start their own businesses. One of the first to be founded was the Yogi Tea company, which began producing teas according to his recipes and which is now one of the leading healthy food companies in the USA and Europe. In July 1969, Yogi Bhajan founded Healthy, Happy, Blessed (HEB), a non-profit organization in California that offers classes in yoga, meditation and a vegetarian diet. ZNO serves humanity through Kundalini Yoga, meditation and the science of humanology, which improves a person’s physical condition and deepens spiritual consciousness. Under his leadership, as director of spiritual education, ZNO began to develop throughout the world and grew to 300 centers in 35 countries. In 1994, ZNO became a member of the UN as a non-governmental organization with advisory status in the economic and social departments, representing women's rights, protecting human rights and providing education in the field of alternative systems in medicine. True to Yogi Bhajan's motto, “I have come to create teachers, not to train students,” the Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association he created continues to train Kundalini Yoga teachers around the world. Yogi Bhajan said: “There are many different types of yoga. What Kundalini Yoga refers to is the yoga of awareness. A person learns to know his full potential. Everything known has unknown potential, and it is your right to learn to know it. Why don't you know this? Because you don't have a method. This method was left to us by great teachers, and is at our disposal. Kundalini is the energy that awakens and connects the glandular system and nervous system so that the entire brain begins to receive and process information; energy that completely clarifies the relationship of cause and effect. That's why we call it mindfulness yoga. This is the creative potential in a person. All rivers eventually flow into the ocean, so any yoga leads to the raising of Kundalini. What's the difference? It takes about 22 years to achieve this goal through Hatha Yoga (12 years of Hatha Yoga plus 6 years of Raja Yoga plus 3 years of Mantra Yoga plus 1 year of Laya Yoga) even with perfect practice. These are not my words... these are from the scriptures. This is a long method. Therefore, the differences here are only in time, the goal is the same. But teaching Kundalini Yoga is very difficult. If you don't glow with energy and inner light, you won't succeed, this is one of the main points. This is a matter of level of consciousness. You must constantly be at some level of consciousness in order to help others reach that level. And it's really difficult. You can come to me and I can give you many exercises. You will do them and feel good. But when you talk to me about life, about human nature, about all of existence, you should feel this magnetism emanating from me. If this is not the case, I have nothing to help you rise to a higher level of consciousness. This is the main difference." Yogi Bhajan's main message was: "Being healthy, happy and blessed is your birthright." Inspired and motivated by his words and practice, students created music, art, and poetry that reflected the universal wisdom he shared. More than two hundred books have been written based on his teachings. He himself has written more than thirty books, including The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, Furman Khalsa, The Touch of the Master, The Mind: His.