Gurmukh (yoga teacher)

Last updated
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
Born
Mary May Gibson

1943 (age 77–78)
Downers Grove, Illinois
NationalityAmerican
EducationSan Francisco State University
OccupationCo-founder and Director of Golden Bridge Yoga, Los Angeles, and New York
Known forKundalini Yoga teacher, pre-natal caregiver
Spouse(s)Gurushabd Singh Khalsa
ChildrenWahe Guru Kaur

Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa (born in 1943 as Mary May Gibson in Downers Grove, Illinois) is a teacher of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan and a pioneer in the field of pre-natal yoga. [1] She is the co-founder and director of the Golden Bridge Yoga Center in Los Angeles, the author of two books and three DVDs. [2] [3] [4] She has become a yoga guru for Hollywood film stars. [5]

Contents

Early years

Mary May Gibson was born in a small Illinois town, to middle-class, Methodist parents. [4] At age nineteen, she left her home to attend college at San Francisco State University in California. There, she married a Ph.D. student and in 1964, gave birth to an infant boy with a congenital heart defect. [1] The child, named "Shannon Danuele" died seven months later. After grieving the loss of the child, the marriage ended in an amicable divorce. From living in Haight Ashbury, she travelled Big Sur, then to Mexico, where she lived among tribal peoples. [1] After that, she lived in Maui. [4] Gurmukh then moved to a Zen Buddhist zendo where she practiced silent meditation seven hours a day for a year. [6] :2–7

Introduction to Kundalini Yoga

In 1970, she and a colleague went to the 3HO ashram in Tucson, Arizona. She stayed in Arizona for two years, where she worked at the ashram, and taught yoga at the University of Arizona, as well as at the Arizona State Correctional Facility. [1] It was in 1970 at the ashram that she met Yogi Bhajan, [3] master of Kundalini Yoga. [7] [8] [9] On their first meeting, he gave Mary a new name, “Gurmukh,” meaning “the one whose face is towards the Guru (meaning they have dedicated their lives to their Guru).” He also told her she would help deliver babies. [10] She then worked in the field of home births with a Santa Fe obstetrician/gynecologist, after which teaching yoga became her full-time occupation. [6] :7–9

Teaching pregnant mothers yoga

In 1977, Gurmukh went on a pilgrimage to India and on her return moved to Los Angeles, where she met Gurushabd Singh Khalsa, whom she married in 1982. In February 1982, Gurmukh at the age of forty-three, gave birth to their daughter, Wahe Guru Kaur, at home with the help of a midwife. [11] Thereafter, Gurmukh used her knowledge of Kundalini Yoga [12] as taught by Yogi Bhajan and her own pregnancy experiences to give classes for expectant mothers. [9] This eventually led to a childbirth education program she was to call “The Khalsa Way”, and her own pre- and post- natal videos. [13] She also began a sixty-hour Khalsa Way Teachers Training certification course for women from around the world to take to their communities. In 2003, Gurmukh published the book, Bountiful, Beautiful, Blissful: Exploring the Natural Power of Pregnancy and Birth with Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, with St. Martin's Press publishers. [6] :8–11

Kundalini Yoga

In her life as a Kundalini Yoga teacher based in Los Angeles, Gurmukh developed a celebrity clientele. [14] [15] [16] She gave private instructions to Madonna, Courtney Love, Gwyneth Paltrow, David Duchovny, Annette Bening and Rosanna Arquette. [1] [17] Eventually, with the guidance of her teacher, Gurmukh Kaur gave up the private classes with stars. [1] In 2000, she published the popular guide Eight Human Talents: The Yoga Way to Restore the Balance and Serenity Within You with HarperCollins publishers in New York. In 2002, Gurmukh co-founded with Gurutej Kaur, the Golden Bridge Yoga Center in Los Angeles. [18] [12] Gurmukh and her husband teach classes, and offer workshops and teacher trainings around the world. [19] [20] In 2007, Vanity Fair described her as the "glamour girl of Kundalini". [21]

Publications

DVDs

Articles

Related Research Articles

Kundalini Form of divine energy believed to be located at the base of the spine

In Hinduism, Kundalini is a form of divine feminine energy believed to be located at the base of the spine, in the muladhara. It is an important concept in Śhaiva Tantra, where it is believed to be a force or power associated with the divine feminine or the formless aspect of the Goddess. This energy in the body, when cultivated and awakened through tantric practice, is believed to lead to spiritual liberation. Kuṇḍalinī is associated with Parvati or Adi Parashakti, the supreme being in Shaktism; and with the goddesses Bhairavi and Kubjika. The term, along with practices associated with it, was adopted into Hatha yoga in the 9th century. It has since then been adopted into other forms of Hinduism as well as modern spirituality and New age thought.

Kundalini yoga School of yoga

Kundalini yoga derives from kundalini, defined in Vedantic culture as energy that lies dormant at the base of the spine until it is activated and channeled upward through the chakras in the process of spiritual perfection. Kundalini is believed by adherents to be power associated with the divine feminine. Kundalini yoga as a school of yoga is influenced by Shaktism and Tantra schools of Hinduism. It derives its name through a focus on awakening kundalini energy through regular practice of mantra, tantra, yantra, yoga, or meditation.

Muktananda, born Krishna Rai, was the founder of Siddha Yoga. He was a disciple of Bhagavan Nityananda. He wrote a number of books on the subjects of Kundalini Shakti, Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism, including a spiritual autobiography entitled The Play of Consciousness. In honorific style, he is often referred to as Swami Muktananda, or Baba Muktananda, or in a familiar way just Baba.

Siddha Yoga Type of yoga

Siddha Yoga is a spiritual path founded by Muktananda (1908–1982). The organization states in its literature that the Siddha Yoga tradition is "based mainly on eastern philosophies". It also states that it "draws many of its teachings from the Indian yogic texts of Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism, the Bhagavad Gita and the poet-saints." The present head of Siddha Yoga is Gurumayi Chidvilasananda.

3HO , also known as Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere or Sikh Dharma International, is an American organization that started in about 1970. It was founded in the West by Harbhajan Singh Khalsa, also called "Yogi Bhajan". Its followers are primarily Americans. Its adherents are popularly referred to as the Sikh Dharma Brotherhood. While referred to as the 3HO movement, "3HO" is strictly speaking the name only of the movement's educational branch.

Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Indian-American Sikh Yogi


Harbhajan Singh Khalsa, also known as Yogi Bhajan and Siri Singh Sahib to his followers, was an Indian-born American entrepreneur, yoga teacher, snd spiritual teacher. He introduced his version of Kundalini Yoga to the United States. He was the spiritual director of the 3HO Foundation, with over 300 centers in 35 countries.

Amrit Desai

Amrit Desai is a pioneer of yoga in the West, and one of the few remaining living yoga masters who originally brought over the authentic teachings of yoga in the early 1960s. He is the creator of two brands of yoga, Kripalu Yoga and I AM Yoga, and is the founder of five yoga and health centers in the US. His yoga training programs have reached more than 40 countries worldwide and over 8,000 teachers have been certified.

Vishnudevananda Saraswati Founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams

Vishnudevananda Saraswati was a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati, and founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. He established the Sivananda Yoga Teachers' Training Course, one of the first yoga teacher training programs in the West. His books The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga (1960) and Meditation and Mantras (1978) established him as an authority on Hatha and Raja yoga. Vishnudevananda was a peace activist who rode in several "peace flights" over places of conflict, including the Berlin Wall prior to German reunification.

Dhirendra Brahmachari

Dhirendra Brahmachari, born Dhirendra Choudhary in village Basaith Chanpura, Madhubani, Bihar, was the yoga guru of Yogi Bhajan who taught Kundalini Yoga in the West and founded 3HO. Dhirendra Brahmachari was also yoga mentor of Indira Gandhi – a former Prime Minister of India He ran ashrams in Bhondsi, Jammu, Katra and Mantalai and wrote books on yoga.

Snatam Kaur Musical artist

Snatam Kaur Khalsa, is an American singer, songwriter and author. Kaur performs new age Indian devotional music, kirtan, and tours the world as a peace activist. The surname "Kaur", meaning "princess", is shared by all female Sikhs.

Laura Drew, a.k.a. Singh Kaur or Lorellei (1955–1998) was a new-age music composer, vocalist and instrumentalist, who had a prolific career that lasted from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, releasing 23 albums. With her angelic voice and haunting melodies, Singh Kaur was a pioneer in the growing genre of Western interpretations of Indian chanting music.

Satkirin Kaur Khalsa is a Sikh preacher and prolific Sikh Kirtan singer. She hosts a Kundalini Yoga show on the JUS Punjabi television channel.

Sivananda Radha Saraswati

Sivananda Radha Saraswati, born Sylvia Demitz, was a German yogini who emigrated to Canada and founded Yasodhara Ashram in British Columbia. She established a Western-based lineage in the Sivananda tradition and published books on several branches of Yoga, including Kundalini Yoga for the West and Mantras; Words of Power. She was a member of the California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and developed transpersonal psychology workshops to help students prepare for intense spiritual practice. Teachers trained at Yasodhara Ashram can now be found across North America and in Europe, the Caribbean, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa

Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa is a prominent American Sikh. He is Chief of Protocol for the American Sikh group called Sikh Dharma.

Dayal Kaur Khalsa

Dayal Kaur Khalsa was the American-born author and illustrator of numerous award-winning children's books. She discovered her talent in Canada, where she had moved in 1970. Over the span of four short years before her death at the age of 46, she managed to write and illustrate eight picture books, three of them published posthumously.

Krishna Kaur Khalsa is an American teacher of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Born Thelma Oliver, she pursued a career in films and theater before in 1970 dedicating herself to empowering others through the practice of yoga.

Yoga for women

Modern yoga as exercise has often been taught by women to classes consisting mainly of women. This continued a tradition of gendered physical activity dating back to the early 20th century, with the Harmonic Gymnastics of Genevieve Stebbins in America and Mary Bagot Stack in Britain. One of the pioneers of modern yoga, Indra Devi, a pupil of Krishnamacharya, popularised yoga among American women using her celebrity Hollywood clients as a lever.

Sexual abuse by yoga gurus Allegation of sexual abuse by yoga guru

Sexual abuse by yoga gurus is the exploitation of the position of trust occupied by a master of any branch of yoga for personal sexual pleasure. Allegations of such abuse have been made against gurus in international yoga as exercise such as Bikram Choudhury, Kausthub Desikachar, Amrit Desai, and K. Pattabhi Jois. There have been some criminal convictions and lawsuits for civil damages.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dunn, Samantha (August 28, 2007). "L.A. (Yoga) Story: Kundalini Star Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa". Yoga Journal. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  2. ↑ "Gurmukh - Kundalini Yoga Books and DVDs". Yogatech.com. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Moving From Karma To Dharma - Totally Zen". Totallyzen.com. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 Bolster, Mary (September 4, 2007). "The Gong Show: An Interview with Kundalini's Gurmukh". Yoga Journal . Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  5. ↑ Gilbert, Sophie (19 September 2000). "At last: a guru for the impatient". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 Gurmukh (2003). Bountiful, beautiful, blissful : experience the natural power of pregnancy and birth with Kundalini yoga. London: Michael Joseph. ISBN   9780718146719.
  7. ↑ Martin, Douglas (October 9, 2004). "Yogi Bhajan, 75, 'Boss' of Worlds Spiritual and Capitalistic, Dies". The New York Times . Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  8. ↑ MacRae, James (March 26, 2015). "Introduction to Kundalini: The Yoga of Awareness". Huffington Post. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  9. 1 2 Srinivasan, Madhumitha (March 29, 2014). "Queen of Kundalini". The Hindu . Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  10. ↑ Piccalo, Gina (October 23, 2004). "A Yogi's Requiem". The Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  11. ↑ Dubrovsky, Anna. "Kundalini's Queen: Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa". Yoga International. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  12. 1 2 "Gurmukh Kaur in Vanity Fair Magazine". Mrsikhnet.com. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  13. ↑ "Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa". WorldCat Identities. WorldCat . Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  14. ↑ Lynch, Rene (December 12, 2015). "Exhibition and book "On Yoga: The Architecture of Peace"Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa at her most holy of places, the Golden Temple, in Amritsar, India, on Feb. 23, 2006. (Michael O'Neill / Taschen)". The Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  15. ↑ Chonacas, Kyriaki (January 2, 1916). "Taschen Gallery On Yoga In LA". Huffington Post . Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  16. ↑ Wilson, Jennifer (January 2000). "Yogi Gurmukh is Preparing Madonna et. al. for the New Age". Los Angeles Magazine: 164. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  17. ↑ "How I start my day: Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa". The Times of India. August 4, 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  18. ↑ Billard, Mary (February 18, 2005). "Flow or No, Following the Yogis". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  19. ↑ Chen, "Spiritual Love," Vogue Magazine , April 1999, pp. 252, 256, 258; Dunn, "L.A. (Yoga) Story," Yoga Journal , July–August 1999
  20. ↑ Castagna, Cary (October 17, 2011). "Natural high Yoga master and former flower child breathes in healthy living". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  21. ↑ Collins, Amy Fine (June 2007). "Planet Yoga". Vanity Fair . Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  22. ↑ Collins, Amy Fine (June 15, 2007). "Planet Yoga". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  23. ↑ Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa (2003). Bountiful, Beautiful, Blissful: Experience the Natural Power of Pregnancy and Birth. New York: Saint Martin's Press. p. 256. ISBN   0312310870.
  24. ↑ "Prenatal / with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa". National Library Board of Singapore. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
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