In 2019, in celebration of their 50th Anniversary, 3HO released a 9 – volume album of iconic music from our community from all five decades.
Find out more about and purchase this album here.
Here are the stories of the songs on the 2nd volume:
In the Lap of Guru Ram Das ~ Wahe Guru Kaur, 1996
Guru Ram Das is considered the miracle worker in the Sikh tradition. A common passage for Sikh devotees to recite is “Dhan Dhan Ram Das Gur, Jin Siriya Tinai Savarya” which means “Blessings come from Guru Ram Das, just as you have been created. Perfect is your miracle…” I wanted to write a song that would convey what it might feel like to be a child held by the mother, basically to be in the lap of that perfection, to be held by that perfection that Guru Ram Das embodied.
I would later meet Amma, who embraces people and transmits the energy of miracles and meditative consciousness with her embrace, which is the feeling of this song. I believe all teachers of Light are connected and all beings are all connected in a network of love and Light. We receive those blessings when we align with purity of consciousness and open our hearts.
-Wah!
About the Artist:
Wah! began her journey in yoga in 1979 when she attended morning sadhana for a week while spending spring break with her college dance professor and her husband. The breath work, energy, music and mantra were illuminating and changed her life course. She immersed herself in yogic practices and continues to this day, teaching yoga and self-healing classes, workshops, leadership trainings and concerts. She did several albums with the Cherdi Kala label, who created music for the western Sikh population. Wah! has become a legend in the yoga world, creating upbeat mantra music for yoga and meditation practice. www.wahmusic.com
On This Day ~ Hari Bhajan Kaur, 1997
The song “On this Day” is a birthday blessing that has become a 3HO classic. Hari Bhajan’s cover of Livtar Singh’s original song is a gorgeous testament to her powerful voice.
About the Artist:
Hari Bhajan Kaur, meaning God’s Song, was an inspiring and heart-centered singer, songwriter, musician, teacher and healer. Her spiritual journey led her to recording a series of spiritual recordings, with a healing and uplifting effect. Hari Bhajan’s musical arrangements and voice are joyful, powerful and harmonically beautiful. Her music has touched thousands of hearts and lives.
Hari Bhajan’s music has been greatly inspired by eastern spiritual practices, lifestyle and profound personal experiences. Her songs have been embraced around the world by people of all faiths, for meditation, healing, celebration and prayer.
Her music is filled with courage, faith, beauty & joy, compassion, prayer and spiritual strength. These qualities combined with her angelic and healing voice, will touch your heart and lift your spirit.
A beloved recording artist, Hari Bhajan passed away in 2015.
Ang Sang Wahe Guru ~ Nirinjan Kaur & Guru Prem Singh, 1998
About the Artists:
Nirinjan K. Khalsa: Nirinjan was instructed to start recording music by Yogi Bhajan many years ago – he was intimately involved in the style, cadence, and melodies of her music and felt that this music fulfilled an important need in the meditations of his students.
Guru Prem Singh: Guru Prem Singh Khalsa is a Yoga Teacher and has been teaching Kundalini Yoga for over 25 years. He is certified by the Kundalini Research Institute as a Trainer of Teachers of Kundalini Yoga. Guru Prem travels throughout the world teaching the principles of Divine Alignment to students of all types of Yoga. He has had a Yoga therapy/therapeutic massage practice for 25 years at the Khalsa Medical Clinic in Beverly Hills, CA.
Guru Prem began his physical study when he was just seven by enrolling himself in a gymnastics class! He continued to study gymnastics thru high school and then went to USC on a gymnastics scholarship. After college, Guru Prem taught gymnastics for many years and also started his study of Yoga. He has studied and taught many forms of yoga and continues a dedicated practice of Kundalini and Ashtanga Yoga. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son and his daughter attends school in India.
Tantric Har ~ Simran Kaur & Guru Prem Singh, 1998
A meditation and White Tantric Yoga classic. Used in many kriyas.
About the Artists:
Guru Prem Singh: Guru Prem Singh Khalsa is a Yoga Teacher and has been teaching Kundalini Yoga for over 25 years. He is certified by the Kundalini Research Institute as a Trainer of Teachers of Kundalini Yoga. Guru Prem travels throughout the world teaching the principles of Divine Alignment to students of all types of Yoga. He has had a Yoga therapy/therapeutic massage practice for 25 years at the Khalsa Medical Clinic in Beverly Hills, CA.
Guru Prem began his physical study when he was just seven by enrolling himself in a gymnastics class! He continued to study gymnastics thru high school and then went to USC on a gymnastics scholarship. After college, Guru Prem taught gymnastics for many years and also started his study of Yoga. He has studied and taught many forms of yoga and continues a dedicated practice of Kundalini and Ashtanga Yoga. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son and his daughter attends school in India.
Simran Kaur Khalsa: In Brooklyn, New York, 1972, Simran Kaur Khalsa was one of the first ‘Western’ Sikh’s born. She grew up in the Brooklyn Ashram, surrounded by chanting, Banis, Gurbani and music of all kinds! She heard the Khalsa String Band, who made regular visits to New York City and she heard Wah! making music and performing all the time. In 1980 she went to India and began to learn voice and harmonium, and on returning to the U.S. she began studying Western voice. For the last 21 years in Los Angeles, her husband GuruPrem Singh and she have been playing music and singing whenever they are given the opportunity. They play every week at Guru Ram Das Ashram.
At the Feet of the Teacher ~ Peace Family, 2000
In Livtar’s words:
I first met Snatam Kaur (in this incarnation) in Los Angeles when she was 10 years old. When she got into her teens, she and I would interact musically whenever we could. We played the background music during the reception at one of Yogi Bhajan’s birthday parties. We just sat together in the middle of a party tent, with people milling about, and played Guru Ram Das shabads, songs, and chants for about one and a half hours. We didn’t prepare enough material, so we played the same set of songs over and over.
When Snatam was living at home but still in college, I was in town for some reason and visited them in their home. I suggested that we write a song together. She was pretty excited about that. I was also really interested to see what we could come up with.
We wrote “At the Feet of the Teacher,” which is on the first Peace Family album, ‘Reunion.’
Fast forward to our Winter Solstice event in Florida later that year. GuruGanesha, Snatam, and I, were sitting around jamming. We played our new song, “At the Feet of the Teacher” for GuruGanesha. He joined right in, jammin’ away. After we finished, he said, “We sound great together. Why don’t we record an album?” Snatam and I both thought it was a great idea.
Right there in the dirt, right on the spot, Peace Family Band was formed. GuruGanesha and I both had been in bands and loved it. To me it can be blissful to sit in the middle of the music as it’s created. It’s like you step into a river of light, sound, and peace. You float down the stream, swirling in the encompassing sound current.
About the Artists:
Founded by Snatam Kaur, Livtar Singh and GuruGanesha Singh, Peace Family went into the studio in January 2000 to create their first CD. When they started playing, they had so much music to share that they ended up with three CDs, ‘Carry Us Home,’ ‘To Heaven and Beyond‘ and ‘Reunion.‘
A Master’s Request ~ Dev Suroop Kaur, 2001
Yogi Bhajan requested that “A Master’s Request” be written to celebrate his life, not mourn his death. When the new song was played for him in 1999, his words were, “It’s perfect, don’t change a thing.” It is with humility and immense gratitude to the life and legacy of Yogi Bhajan that we present this song.
About the artist:
As a musician, recording artist and Kundalini Yoga Teacher Trainer, Dev Suroop Kaur strives to break it down, keep it real, and support all to experience their own empowered authenticity. From the deeply contemplative albums Sahej and Narayan, to the hip, edgy beats of her chant-rap album Kundalini Beat, Dev Suroop Kaur offers a wide range of styles to invoke the experience of the Divine Spirit.
Ajai Alai ~ Guru Shabad Singh, 2001
Nirinjan Kaur, Yogi Bhajan’s secretary approached me when I first moved to Española, New Mexico and asked if I would be interested in putting some music together for some mantras. Of course I said yes. “OK, I’ll ask him what mantra he’d like us to start with,” I said immediately. Yogi Ji’s response was Ajai Alai. I was already very familiar with it from reading my daily banis for the last 25 years. Fortunately, I had recently written a melody for Chatra Chakra Varatee and it fit really well with the Ajai Alai chandh (literally translated as “moon” but in this case it refers to a particular section of Jaap Sahib). So with his blessing, we recorded it. He wanted Nirinjan Kaur’s voice to ‘penetrate’ in the mantra. Not sure how well I accomplished that in the studio, but whatever his reasons, he used it extensively for many courses and classes.
In one of my very last encounters with him, knowing he would be dying soon – he had told me a couple of years before, “Gurshabad, I have two years left,” – so I knew his time on earth was coming to its end), he played Ajai Ajai at class and kept instructing Siri Ved Singh “Play it louder! Louder! Louder!” Soon everyone was singing at the top of their lungs. I think he was sending me a final “goodbye for now my son, thank you for the music” message. The louder it got, the more I cried. Crying so much I had to stand up and move out of the class. I wanted to cry in private. As I stood up to walk out, I looked up at him, and he looked back at me and was crying too.
-Guru Shabad Singh
Rise Up ~ Guru Singh, 2001
Now the morning wake up song at Summer and Winter Solstice, and the European Yoga Festival, ‘Rise Up’ was written by Guru Singh.
About the artist:
Electric, vital, and vibrant, Guru Singh is a celebrated third-generation yogi, master spiritual teacher, author, and musician who gracefully brings ancient spiritual practices and philosophies into the now with ease, humanity, humility and a healthy dose of humor. He fuses Eastern mysticism into Western pragmatism in an accessible and transformative way.
He is a student of the masters Paramahansa Yogananda and Yogi Bhajan, and shares their dedication to an enriched and enlightened life. Rooted in the principles of Humanology, Kundalini yoga, meditation, and sacred sound, he teaches conscious living through classes, workshops, trainings and conversations that inspire the minds, hearts and souls of his globe-spanning students.
Walking Up the Mountain ~ Guru Dass Singh & Krishna Kaur, 2002
From an article by Guru Dass:
“Another song that I wrote in those years [after 1984 and the attack on the Akal Takhat] was ‘Walking Up the Mountain.’ It is an adaptation to a poem written by Gurudain Singh, which Yogiji asked me to put to music for one of his classes. It tells the tale of the spiritual journey of the student and the Teacher.”
Flowers in the Rain ~ Guru Dass Singh, 2002
Guru Dass Singh left his body in 2017, a prolific and beloved songwriter of 3HO. ‘Flowers in the Rain’ tells a powerful tale of the love of Guru Gobind Singh.
About the artist:
Guru Dass, a direct disciple of Yogi Bhajan (Kundalini Yoga) and Ramesh Balsekar (Advaita) began his spiritual quest as a teen, having his first Kundalini Yoga experience at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. By the time he was 18 he was living in an ashram and teaching Kundalini Yoga. At 20 he had traveled to India and studied with different masters. In the 70’s he pioneered Kundalini Yoga in Spain and Europe. For years Guru Dass accompanied Yogi Bhajan as his personal musician, in the U.S., Europe and India. He often played during his classes, bringing the gift of his music to Yogiji’s meditations. Since 2001 Guru Dass traveled, taught, and shared his music all over the world. He trained hundreds of Kundalini Yoga teachers in courses he lead in different countries. He was recognized by Yogi Bhajan himself as a Level I and Level II Kundalini Yoga teacher trainer and sat as a founding member of TTEC (Kundalini Research Institute’s Educational Council). Guru Dass Singh passed away in 2017.
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