 Chilean Events  |
Chilean Events
Hari Nam K Khalsa
My first question to Yogiji when he told me to come to Chile 21 years ago was, “Where is it?” He said, “It’s a long, skinny country at the end of the world...” So on the 31st of December of 1979, Pritam Pal Singh and I arrived in Chile. After 11 years in the country we divorced. Pritam Pal moved to Mexico, and I stayed. At that time when things looked very down and darkest, I heard that Yogiji had said, “It’s all right; she’ll establish the biggest ashram in South America.” And my only thought was, “How?” The answer came in different ways.
By God’s Grace, a few students asked me to teach a teacher training course. And in 1994, after the first teacher-training course, things began to change. These teachers and those that followed began taking Kundalini Yoga to the different cities all over Chile. And with that, Sikh Dharma began to spread. In a country as conservative as Chile where Catholicism is the official religion, it isn’t easy finding work wearing bana. All of the Sikhs who do wear bana either teach yoga, do healing, or are self-employed. In order to be successful and keep growing, it became necessary for all of us to learn to be more professional and creative. In time we discovered that it was also better to share expenses, work and time by working together.
In Santiago, Amrit Kaur has worked with me since 1993. Her talent for organizing and coordinating helped me finally get the Guru Ram Das Ashram established. This year she organized the Level II Communication Course, making it possible for Hari Kaur from Millis to come and teach here. She also coordinates all Sat Nam Rasayan courses, including this year’s annual course with Guru Dev Singh.
There are three main Yoga Centers in Chile: Guru Ram Das Ashram, Centro Narayan and Centro Shakti.
Every year, in the month of February, Amrit K and Amrit Singh organize a Yoga Festival on a beautiful piece of land owned by Amrit Singh in the south of Chile. This year 80-90 persons attended. During the year they work together running the Yoga Center.
The Centro Shakti is in the South and run by an incredible teacher named Hari Kaur. She teaches ten classes a week, from yoga in the prisons to regular group classes, to coordinating courses for visiting teachers. No one else has been able to move the energy in the way she has.
One third of the students who enter the Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training Courses travel between 10 to 15 hours from the South of Chile, to attend the annual teacher training program, so it’s important to highlight the pioneering spirit and tremendous work that has been done by the teachers in the provinces to make this a reality: These wonderful women are: Dharma Kaur from Puerto Montt, Clara Sierra in Temuco; Sampuran Kaur in Pucon; Satya Kaur in Angol; Hari Ray Kaur in Los Angeles, and Hari Nam Kaur in La Serena.
We now have many teachers doing excellent work in Chile. In the last six years Kundalini Yoga has found its way into prisons, kindergartens, universities, AA groups, government institutions and the list goes on. There is a thesis required of each student to complete the teacher-training course and frequently students choose a specific social or professional group to work with which helps Kundalini Yoga be more widely known.
In the year 2001 Chile will have it’s first White Tantric Yoga Course. And at the beginning of the year the ashram will have a Dharmic Retreat in which the students will come for one week to learn about Sikh Dharma. Teachers from the United States will come and teach it.
A few months ago someone asked me, “How does everyone in your community in Chile get along so well together?” I told her, “Sometimes we do have our difficulties, but when you live in a long, skinny country, at the end of the world, you have no choice but to live and work together.”