Editing 3HO (section)

=== Scholars' views on 3HO and Yogi Bhajan ===

Scholars including Verne A. Dusenbery and [[Pashaura Singh]] have concurred that Harbhajan Singh's introduction of Sikh teachings into the West helped identify Sikhism as a world religion while at the same time creating a compelling counter-narrative to that which identified Sikhs solely as a race with a shared history in India.<ref>Verne A. Dusenbery (1999). "'Nation' or 'World Religion'?: Master Narratives of Sikh Identity" in Sikh Identity: Continuity and Change. Pashaura Singh and N. Gerald Barrier, editors. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers. pp. 127-139; Pashaura Singh (2013). "Re-imagining Sikhi ('Sikhness') in the Twenty-first Century: Toward a Paradigm Shift in Sikh Studies" in Re-imagining South Asian Religions. Pashaura Singh and Michael Hawley, editors. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill NV. p. 43; Opinderjit Kaur Takhar (2005). Sikh Identity: An Exploration of Groups Among Sikhs. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 172-77.</ref>

Sikh historian Trilochan Singh offered a contrasting perspective in his critical work entitled "Sikhism and Tantric Yoga." "I am extremely worried about the manner in which Yogi Bhajan teaches Sikhism to American young men and women whose sincerity, nobility of purpose, and rare passion for oriental wisdom and genuine mystical experiences is unquestionably unique. I do not care what fantastic interpretations of Kundalini Yoga he gives, the like of which I have never read in any Tantra text, nor known from any living Tantric scholar. I am not prepared to take seriously his newly invented Guru Yoga in which his pious and uncritical followers must concentrate on a particular picture of Yogi Bhajan, which practice is called mental beaming."<ref>{{cite web |title=Sikhism and Tantric Yoga |url=http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?mode=page&id=1 |access-date=May 26, 2020 |publisher=The Gurumukh Yoga Forum}}</ref>

Philip Deslippe, a historian of American religion, wrote a 2012 article, "From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric: The Construction of Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga", using 3HO source archive material and news articles to reveal how Harbhajan Singh recreated his own story after his first trip back to India:<ref name="Deslippe 2021">{{cite journal |last=Deslippe |first=Philip |title=From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric: The Construction of Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga |date=2012 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271568190 |journal=Sikh Formations |access-date=March 2, 2021 |doi=10.1080/17448727.2012.745303|s2cid=144988035 }}</ref>
{{blockquote|I set out to answer the question "where did Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan (KYATBYB) come from?" and not much else. I tried to support my findings with as much evidence as possible, and for that evidence to be as clear, specific, verifiable, and close to the source, such as interviews with first hand witnesses (Pamela being one of them), quotes from Yogi Bhajan, contemporary newspaper accounts, and exercises taken from manuals. I concluded that in the early years of 3HO, Yogi Bhajan was using the physical yoga of Swami [[Dhirendra Brahmachari]] and the persona and mantra of Baba Virsa Singh, and that the figure of Sant Hazara Singh only became prominent after the first trip to India in 1970-1971 when Yogi Bhajan had a falling out with Virsa Singh.|source=Philip Deslippe.<ref name="Deslippe 2021"/>}}