This past spring, my wife Kulwant Kaur and I had the privilege of teaching in and around Colombia. We gave workshops on themes ranging from Spiritual Relationships to Being a Spiritual Warrior to Facing One's Mortality. And of course we made ourselves available to anyone who wanted some personal guidance on this path or wanted to discuss community issues.

As with prior journeys I have taken around the globe, my highest ambition was to share my personal experience and knowledge of Sikh Dharma and Khalsa Consciousness in a positive, progressive and inclusive manner to a yogic community that may not have had extensive exposure to this point of view or to this extent of commitment.

On this particular trip, we spent time in Bogota, Cali, Pereira and Medellin. In all these places, we were treated like family by too many people to mention. Specialthanks in Bogota (business and cultural capitolof Colombia) to Laura Alvarez, Jagroop Singh, Clara Munoz, Vicky Santana and Clara Aria. In Cali (salsa capitol of the world), special thanks to Roro Azcarate and her amazing family. In Pereira (coffee capitol of the world), special thanks to Rosario Burgos and her wonderful bed and breakfast hostel. And in Pereira ("city of eternal spring"), special thanks to Clotilde Mejia. And of course, a gigantic hug for Gurukirn Kaur (Claudia Sanchez) who arranged everything and accompanied us for our entire three week sojourn through this amazing country. 

I had the honor of being interviewed on channel called Cosmovision (!) on a show  called La Buena Vida (!) with a woman, Clotilde, who teaches KY in Medellin. The subject of the interview, which was a preview of the workshop I did there was on Finding and Keeping True Love. We received many calls of interest in the immediate aftermath of that interview.

Colombia is as complex and paradoxical a place as I have ever visited. The people are beautiful inside and out; warm, funny, animated, generous and respectful. The landscape is gorgeous and renown for its fertility. Needless to say the produce and regional dishes are out of this world. On the other hand, Colombia has a well-deserved reputation for being a particularly violent, dangerous and politically polarized place with a tremendous disparity between the rich and the poor (which may well be the root of some these deep-seeded societal problems).

My experience with the 3HO/Kundalini Yoga community in Colombia has been quite similar to my experiences elsewhere in the world, particularly in South America. Many, many people are very committed to their sadhana and daily yoga practice. There is also much heartfelt devotion felt for the Siri Singh Sahib, although it is rare to meet a person there who had personally met him. This dedication to the teachings and innocent devotion to the source very much touched my heart.

On the other hand, knowledge of the history, practices and essential teachings of Sikh Dharma (other than Japji) was virtually non-existent, even among teachers and students who have been involved in 3HO for many years. Since I am the type to be very open about my love for the Dharma and what it stands for, I found myself in the position of being the first person to openly deliver this information in some depth to this group of people.

The real motivation for me writing this article is really to communicate to all those who may have doubts about this subject, that the vast majority of those teachers and students I had contact with in Colombia (and for that matter, elsewhere in the world), expressed a great amount of admiration and even love for the essence, ideals and even structure represented by Sikh Dharma. Not only were people not "scared off" by this message, quite a few mentioned that this is exactly the "more" (than merely practicing yoga) they were waiting for In particular, many students expressed an increased appreciation of the Siri Singh Sahib being somebody who was not merely a yogi, but also a Sikh of the Guru; that his identity and mission as a Sikh cannot and should not be ignored or marginalized if one wants an honest understanding who this man was and the essence of his teachings.

The greatest gift I have received by traveling in countries in Latin America like Colombia is being in contact with people of such natural devotion, reverence and faith. From my perspective, they don't have the hang-ups we have in the United States with religion and obedience to a higher power. Given the proper information, personal example, and encouragement, there is every reason to believe that Sikh Dharma will be tremendously embraced in Latin America. Personally, I feel very blessed to be part of that process.