Yogi Miracle Workers, An Interview With Tej Kaur Khalsa by Nelly Coneway
“The more humble we become, the more the flow of God can happen through us. This is the best miracle we can create through us.”—Tej Kaur Khalsa
Three years ago I was in a terrible car accident and I couldn’t walk for a long time. The doctors gave me grave diagnoses and I underwent three surgeries and painful physical therapy. What kept me going was the loving support of my Teacher, Tej Kaur Khalsa. She gave me hope when there was none and taught me about prayer’s power to heal and create miracles.
In Sanskrit, “Tej” means radiance, and she embodies it. Her presence bestows love, grace, security, calmness, and inspiration for the future. I am grateful for the blessing to have studied with Tej for the last seven years and for her exclusive interview for Vision Magazine.Vision Magazine: What is the most miraculous event in your life?
Tej Kaur Khalsa: While at college, I kept seeing signs posted all around campus: “Yoga as a Form of Therapy.” I was studying Psychology so I became interested, and when I read further, it said a professor was running an experiment for his PhD thesis. I decided to sign up as a volunteer, and was given a three-month yoga course, to which I was to go to a local ashram to take on the following Wednesday night. Never having taken any yoga training before, I was intrigued.
I had to find someone to drive me as I didn’t have a car, and a friendly student dropped me off at the location and drove off. I walked to the address, and much to my shock, everyone was dressed in funny white clothes with turbans and I, a timid young girl from the Mid-West, wanted to run away, but my driver had already left. Having no other choice, I became brave and walked in, and was greeted by a person registering everyone. I asked if I could speak to the teacher to ask for a ride home that night. She pointed to a man standing at the far end of the room. He was praying in front of an altar.
I walked to him and waited patiently, the whole time my mind screaming anxiously, “I want to go home.” I was very nervous. The man turned around to face me, and standing about five feet from him, trying to keep my distance, I started to speak. All of a sudden, from nowhere, something came at me and hit me very hard across my face. I was quite stunned and looked around, but there was no one near me, nothing was near me; there was nothing, nothing, nothing whatsoever around me.
My mouth was wide open in shock. I was so amazed at all this that I was absolutely speechless. I kept staring at the man thinking perhaps he was the cause of all this, but he was too far away to even be able to touch me. I stared at him. He stared at me. We just looked intently at one another. He was very peaceful and calm and finally said in a very gentle voice, “Yes?”
I asked for a ride home finally after choking on my words for a few moments. He calmly replied, “We’ll ask after class. People will be more receptive then.”
I sat down and decided to stay. As the class went on, I started to realize that the incident was a way of something greater than me telling me to, “Shut up and listen.” After that incident, I decided to listen very carefully to whatever this yoga had to ‘tell’ me, and it definitely has altered, uplifted, and changed my life in a very major way.
VM: What miracle changed your life in the most amazing way?
TK: I feel the miracle of meeting my Teacher Yogi Bhajan and being allowed to study with him on this path was the most important for me. It was a miracle that he gave me many tests along the way and I was able to try and ‘keep up,’ often stumbling along the way, but that he never left me in the rut of my own negativity and somehow kept encouraging me to keep going, is one of the greatest miracles that ever happened to me throughout all my lifetimes. It is one of the most loving miracles.
VM: What miracle saved your life?
TK: Again at college, I was riding my bike along the campus gardens after a yoga class I had been taking at the campus YMCA. In my mind I had a beautiful mantra and song going, and I felt very happy and peaceful.
I came to a cross walk and the light indicated ‘walk,’ so I kept riding my bike from the street across the crosswalk, without a care in the world. Suddenly from nowhere a car rounded the corner and came straight at me, at what seemed to me to be 35 miles an hour. It was a young college student in a convertible, and as it flew at me, I thought, “Wow.” Within a split second, however, the car, without a noise, without an effort on anyone’s part, just stopped. Dead stopped in the middle of the street.
I felt the fender of the car gently press against my calf as I whizzed past it, and when I reached the sidewalk I stopped. I turned around the looked at the driver. His mouth was wide open in shock. I had the realization that I had been ‘saved.’ Later I learned that the yogic teachings say at least four times in your life you confront death. The fifth time, you usually go.
VM: Mantras create different states of mind. Which mantras would you recommend for miracles?
TK: We in the western hemisphere have been trained to dedicate our yoga centers to the spirit of Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru. His energy is one of healing, serving, and helping others in a very regal and royal way. We stand tall and graceful and carry our service with his grace running through us.
There are two mantras which help to bring his miracles onto the earth. One is [called] “Dhan Dhan Ram Das Gur,” known as the Mantra of Miracles.
And the second, which I love, as it is very devotional and calls upon Guru Ramdas as well as his teacher, Guru Amar Das, is called “Ardas Bhayee.” It clears the person’s psyche so no negativity can exist. The word ‘Ardas’ means prayer; it offers your prayers to these two divine saints which reside on the level of the highest Blue Ethers.
VM: Practicing Kundalini yoga improves health and vitality, opens all your senses, increases intuition and awareness. For the “ordinary” person, these are all miracles, but for you this is a daily experience. Tell us more about the miraculous powers of Kundalini Yoga.
TK: During the Piscean [astrological] Age, many of us were trained not to see our souls manifesting in our personalities. We were taught a more limited version of ourselves, and inherited a lot of fears and doubts. Kundalini yoga and meditation opens the inherent spiritual force which exists in every person. It opens your Kundalini in you. This spiritual force, which is gently and subtly allowed to expand its reach through a person’s body, mind, and awareness, can erase the karmic imprint from a person’s body, right down to the cellular level. It helps lift old memories and emotions that were previously stored as tension. As a person is ‘freed’ from the previous shadows within, they have more energy and intuitive knowing. It’s almost like a light switch goes off in many people. It’s truly amazing how people grow and how much better they feel. But you have to practice, and you have to continue to practice.
VM: The human being is the Creator of his or her own destiny—would you agree? If so, then we not only believe in miracles, but also create them?
TK: The best way is to become a Humble Flow. Everything is God’s Grace. Everything is a Flow of the Divine. The more humble we can become, the more the flow of God can happen through us. This is the best miracle we can create through us. Then God’s magic can happen around us.
VM: Yogi Bhajan created miracle workers like you, Teachers of Kundalini yoga, who have helped and changed the lives of millions. What is your favorite Yogi Bhajan saying?
TK: “If You Can’t See God in All, You Can’t See God At All.” I really believe we train ourselves to see the Divine play in all that happens around us. That includes the good, the bad, the miserable, and the joyful. Everything has to be seen as God’s play, otherwise you don’t see God’s play at all.
VM: You have studied and served your teacher Yogi Bhajan, a living Master, for over 30 years, and probably witnessed many miraculous events around him. Please share with us some stories.
TK: One night, a driver brought Yogi Bhajan back home from teaching a class. She was so happy to see a parking space right in front of her apartment. As she started to pull into it, he said calmly yet firmly, “Don’t park there.” As we are all aware, parking in the Los Angeles area is often very difficult, especially late at night when everyone is home for the night. She was so disappointed and just looked at him, very upset. He calmly repeated himself, “Don’t park there.” She swallowed her emotions, drove him to the ashram where he lived and dropped him off, and then drove around for quite a while before she could find another space very far away. Walking home in the dark, she was grumbling the whole time.
The next morning she rose, did her sadhana [prayer] in her apartment, and when she finally went outside and started to walk down the street, she came to the parked car that was in that space she was going to park in the night before, but was told not to. In that space was a totally smashed up car. Apparently someone had been racing around the corner, lost control, hit the car in that space, and totally smashed it up. If she had not listened to her Teacher, that smashed up car would have been hers! That really taught her to listen to her Teacher!
VM: Let’s talk about the Indigo and Crystal children, these special souls who came to Earth to heal and create miracles. How can we support them?
TK: We don’t always recognize in children around us the evolution of their souls because we are trained to see children as those less than us whom we have to train and ‘control.’ I do agree that we need to gently guide children and give them values. However, I feel strongly that if we respectfully ‘listen’ to our intuitive messages about what each person we are working with needs, if we consider ourselves a humble channel and flow as a teacher to help uplift all those we are here to assist, we will be given the exact right information on how to support and help bring out in others around us their highest selves. The main problem in the past has been that sensitive people have often not been given the respect that their soul’s journey deserves.Tej Kaur Khalsa is the Custodian of the Archives of the Teachings of Yogi Bhajan and a recognized authority on the teachings. She has been involved in numerous Yogi Bhajan publications as transcriber, editor, and compiler, including the Woman’s Camp Series, “72 Stories of God, Good and Goods,” and “The Master¹s Touch.” Tej holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling and for many years, worked on Yogi Bhajan’s correspondence during which she received extensive training from him on yogic counseling. Her classes are occasions to enjoy deep meditative experiences and to learn vast amounts of yogic knowledge.