The Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization, also known as 3HO, was founded in Los Angeles in 1969 by Harbhajan Singh Puri, who was known to his followers as Yogi Bhajan. Born in 1929 in the Punjab region of present-day Pakistan, Puri was raised in a prosperous Sikh family and attended a Catholic school. His family fled to New Delhi during the 1947 partition of India.
Puri later earned a master’s degree in economics and worked as an Indian customs inspector for about 15 years. During this period, he also studied under local spiritual teachers. He emigrated to Canada in 1968 before moving to Los Angeles shortly afterward.
In Los Angeles, Bhajan began teaching a form of Kundalini yoga to young members of the counterculture. He presented his teachings as a transmission of Sikhism and encouraged followers to replace psychedelic drug use with yoga, meditation and a vegetarian lifestyle.
To organize his missionary activities, Bhajan established 3HO as an educational body and Sikh Dharma as its religious branch. As the movement expanded internationally, he received formal ordination from the Akal Takht in India as a high religious authority for Sikhism in the Western Hemisphere. He subsequently built an international network of hundreds of ashrams and teaching centers.
Alongside its spiritual expansion, 3HO developed a corporate network that relied heavily on the labor of its members. The organization established Golden Temple of Oregon, a natural foods business that created Yogi Tea and Peace Cereal. It also founded Akal Security, a government contracting firm that eventually earned hundreds of millions of dollars annually by providing security at federal facilities, courthouses and military bases.
In 1994, 3HO received consultative status as a non-governmental organization with the United Nations. Bhajan also developed political connections in New Mexico, where he eventually settled. At the same time, he combined traditional Sikh teachings with New Age and astrological concepts, including the claim that Guru Nanak was the spiritual guide for the Aquarian Age.
As 3HO grew, it faced criticism from mainstream Sikh scholars and religious authorities, who rejected aspects of Bhajan’s teachings. They pointed to orthodox Sikh teachings that prohibit yoga, Tantrism, vegetarian requirements and the veneration of human leaders.
Critics also raised concerns about practices within 3HO communities, including strict hierarchy and social controls. One practice, known as “Guru Yoga,” instructed members to direct their devotional focus toward photographs of Bhajan. Former adherents described an environment in which members who questioned the organization’s leadership could face isolation or excommunication.
After Yogi Bhajan died of heart failure in October 2004, the organization entered a period of internal governance disputes. Legal conflicts developed between Bhajan’s surviving family and directors of the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation over control of 3HO’s legal entities and its commercial assets, which were valued in the millions of dollars.
Civil courts in Oregon and federal appellate courts subsequently considered claims involving improper asset transfers and corporate authority. Judges ultimately dismissed key lawsuits brought by members of Bhajan’s family, finding that the corporate entities involved were fundamentally religious in nature.
The organization’s public standing came under further scrutiny in 2020 following the publication of a memoir by Pamela Saharah Dyson, Bhajan’s former personal secretary. Her account described what she characterized as systematic emotional, financial and sexual abuse and prompted dozens of other women to come forward with similar allegations.
In response, 3HO commissioned an independent investigation by the consultancy An Olive Branch. The report, released in August 2020, concluded that it was more likely than not that Bhajan had committed multiple acts of rape, physical assault, nonconsensual touching and psychological manipulation against followers.
The investigation described how Bhajan allegedly maintained control over members of his inner circle through surveillance, threats, compartmentalization and promises of spiritual status. It also challenged longstanding claims about his personal celibacy.
The findings renewed scrutiny of the organization’s leadership structure and allegations of abuse. The history of 3HO and the allegations surrounding Bhajan reached a broader audience in October 2024 with the release of the HBO documentary series “Breath of Fire.”
Key Sources:
Bhalla, G. (2022, July 2). Inside the dubious world of a cult that turned 550-year-old religion into a commodity. India Times.
Cross, M. S. (2020, July 27). How a cult-turned-corporation hijacked Sikhism. The Juggernaut.
Stukin, S. (2020, July 15). Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse. LA Mag.
Time. (1977, September 5). Yogi Bhajan’s Synthetic Sikhism.