Kriti Mehrotra
Yogi Bhajan was a yoga guru, spiritual leader, and entrepreneur who meant a lot to many people. However, as explored in HBO’s ‘Breath of Fire,’ it wasn’t until long after he passed away in 2004 that his practices and the way he established an empire throughout his career came into the limelight. We say empire because this British India-born US citizen essentially took over the world with his teachings of Kundalini Yoga blended with Sikhism by the time the late 1970s rolled around.
How Did Yogi Bhajan Earn His Money?
Born to a loving mother and a successful doctor father in Punjab in British-ruled India back in 1929, Harbhajan Singh Khalsa was just a young boy when he understood the importance of hard work and money. The fact his education was interrupted in 1947 with the violent partition of India was also an aspect that affected his upbringing. It interrupted his schooling before forcing him to attend Camp College alongside other refugees. Nevertheless, he soon managed to expand his wings by becoming an active member of the Sikh Students Federation in Delhi before earning a proper Master’s degree in Economics.
That’s how Harbhajan ended up working for the government of India in the 1960s, first in the Revenue Department and then as a Customs official at the Delhi airport. However, by the time 1968 rolled around, he had decided to move forward in his life by emigrating to Toronto, Canada, which is where he first realized there was a massive market for yoga in the West. After all, with the socio-political unrest at the time, people were desperately looking for a safe space, which he claimed Kundalini Yoga could guarantee without the use of any drugs, alcohol, or any other substance.
Harbhajan hence moved to California, established classes at several YMCAs, co-founded a yoga center, and eventually earned the moniker Yogi Bhajan upon introducing his own brand of Kundalini yoga. Less than a year later, in 1969, he launched the 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization) Foundation in Los Angeles, California, to further his missionary work. The fact he later registered his work as a religious movement also enabled him to get several tax benefits, all the while preaching equality, some Sikh practices, holistic visions, and optimistic views on destiny.
In fact, by the time 1994 rolled around, 3HO was also working with the United Nations to speak on women’s issues, human rights, and a need for education about alternative systems of medicine. By this point, Yogi had also established the Sikh Dharma International School, Kundalini Research Institute, and Siri Singh Sahib Corporation, under which he operated many other businesses. He actually had 300 centers in 35 countries, owned-operated his own tea brand called Yogi Tea, had restaurants, and was given ownership of many of his followers’ businesses, too.
As if that’s not enough, apart from many legal brands and companies spanning across all sectors of the lifestyle industry, he was allegedly involved in some illegal dealings too. According to the aforementioned documentary series, Yogi Bhajan/his organization was reportedly behind many telemarketing schemes, gemstone schemes, fine art scams, print toner scams, and drug smuggling operations from Thailand to the US over the years. Yogi was never arrested, charged, or tried for the same, but some of his followers, most prominently Harijiwan Khalsa, did end up going to prison for a few years over such illegal activities.
Yogi Bhajan’s Net Worth
The truth is that Yogi Bhajan had a line of secretaries directly under him, all of whom he reportedly gave high-ranking positions to in the businesses under his/his organization’s name. That’s how he was able to keep everything running while also consistently traveling across the globe to spread his teachings, meaning he openly delegated and encouraged others to do so too. But alas, little did anybody know that this yoga guru was allegedly taking advantage of all his followers by not just having them do free labor (in the name of the Sikh practice of “seva”) but also sexually assaulting them. As mentioned on the show, he reportedly groomed many of his female followers to become his secretaries before forcing himself on them.
The fact Yogi promised his actions would only help them reach a higher plane of spirituality enabled him to continue with his reported abuse for years, right alongside the fact the initial claims against him were never believed. Per the show, while a woman did file a lawsuit against him for sexual assault, harassment, and sodomy, he settled it out of court and proceeded to tell his other followers that she had simply lied. However, none of this came to light until the early 2020s, long after the 75-year-old had passed away from complications of heart failure at his home in Española, New Mexico, on October 6, 2004. He was essentially at his peak around this time with limited controversies, various businesses, and millions in assets, so it’s highly likely his net worth at the time was close to at least $50 million.
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