KRI 2015 Honorees

Pritam Hari Kaur

“God is our help, prayer our only power, and the worth of life just the graceful moments we live. If you remember these words, you will always find me around you.” © The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, August 18, 1977
Pritam Hari Kaur is a Global Woman whose energy “fills the whole room” as Yogi Bhajan told her. She encountered Kundalini Yoga in 1981 in Hamburg, Germany, and spent eight years living in the coziness of the ashram community, which truly was a homecoming to her after a somewhat itinerant childhood spent in Indonesia and Spain due to her father’s international work for a German company.

Tarn Taran Singh and Kaur were her beloved first teachers and she cherishes memories of Yogi Bhajan’s frequent visits to the Hamburg ashram, which served as the regional center. “Yogi Bhajan always saw so much goodness in us,” recalls Pritam Hari. She served as regional secretary and translated Yogi Bhajan’s teachings into German. In turn, Pritam Hari made several trips during those first precious years to New Mexico, where she spent summers doing seva at Yogi Bhajan’s home.

In 1987, Yogi Bhajan engaged Pritam Hari to Har Bhajan Singh from South Africa and so sent her to a faraway ‘frontier’. They started a whole foods grocery store, Fruits & Roots, that Yogi Bhajan fondly called ”’the cleanest, prettiest little place” he had ever seen. The couple ran the store for 25 years and were honored to serve, through their store, some of the most vibrant and conscious people in the midst of the complex, multi-layered and hurting atmosphere of South Africa, back in the days. All the while leading on-going yoga classes, sadhanas, cooking classes, events and workshops. They sold the store in 2009, it lives on as a legend—an oasis offering nourishment and wholesomeness. Their son Hari Bhajan, who graduated from Miri Piri Academy in 2006, continues the store’s legacy as a manufacturing wholefoods company that makes tofu (www.earthproducts.co.za).

In 1999, after consulting with Yogi Bhajan, Pritam Hari began training teachers in South Africa. She asked Yogi Bhajan, “’Sir, should I start Teacher Training?” to which Yogi Bhajan enthusiastically replied, “Of course, you are the teacher of us all!” Along with her husband and Atma O’Meara, a team emerged, and they have held on-going trainings in South Africa for more than a decade. She is the Lead Trainer for South Africa with the Aquarian Trainer Academy.

The couple now develops an eco-sustainable lifestyle in a community farm in the Western Cape (www.longvalleyfarm.co.za), owned as a trust, and is currently holding an inaugural training there. She was the lead trainer for the seva outreach training in Burundi last year. Pritam Hari Kaur is looking forward to a training in Gambia and returning to Ghana and Togo (www.kundaliniyoga.co.za). Pritam Hari created a picture book in yoga, the Kundalini Yoga Fan, available through www.spiritvoyage.com and www.satnam.de. She is an intuitive numerologist and EFT Tapping practitioner. She looks forward to having more time on the farm to translate the Siri Guru Granth Sahib into German, a project Yogi Bhajan blessed her with.

The words Yogi Bhajan left her with that she treasures most: “’Today, I am speaking to you like when my teacher, after twelve years, told me, ‘You are the master.’ I am telling you, ‘You are a yogi by nature and constitution. You have learned to move the prana in your system to override any obstacle.’”

Words that Pritam Hari Kaur personally lives by: “I never intentionally drop the ball… Your trust is sacred with me…I shall serve you the way I have seen our teacher serve us… In keeping up, God comes through for you and me.. Let us celebrate goodness and cherish resources.. Yoga is to remain present with what is, no matter how it is.”

KRI honors Pritam Hari Kaur for her outstanding dedication to teach and serve in a dynamic way that positively impacts her surroundings. We are grateful for the many ways she is a beacon of perseverance and serves and uplifts through the path of Kundalini Yoga and the Teachings of Yogi Bhajan.

Viveka Pasquier – Har Dyal Kaur

Har Dyal Kaur is one of the founders of the Stockholm Kundalini Yoga Center and also administrates the Kundalini Yoga Institute in Sweden. She became a Certified Instructor of Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan® in 1998, and has since had wide-ranging experiences teaching yoga and meditation. Currently, Har Dyal administrates and oversees teacher trainings in Stockholm and is a Lead Teacher Trainer with the Aquarian Trainer Academy and member of IKYTA. She has also studied the healing technique Sat Nam Rasayan with The International School of Sat Nam Rasayan.

Har Dyal teaches yoga classes for pregnant women and new mothers, and ‘Rehab Yoga’ groups at the Stockholm Kundalini Yoga Center. Through the years, she has come to specialize in women’s different needs and stages in life, which led to a series of lectures, workshops, and courses on the subject. Since 2006, AstraZeneca, the British multinational pharmaceutical and biologics company, has engaged Har Dyal for special rehab yoga for women.

KRI honors Har Dyal Kaur in 2015 for her dedication to teaching with joy to all who wish to learn.

Maja Tellegård – Harpal Kaur

Harpal Kaur teaches Kundalini Yoga in Umeå, a town in northern Sweden, and is a Lead Trainer with the Aquarian Trainer Academy and a member of IKYTA. She trains teachers in Stockholm and Umeå in Sweden and in Oslo, Norway.

Harpal Kaur brings an extensive 15-year background as an Occupational Therapist to her practice of Kundalini Yoga and her understanding of the teachings of Yogi Bhajan. She has been a Certified Instructor in Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan® for nearly 17 years. Harpal also became a certified Conscious Pregnancy teacher in 2005. Additionally, she has a solid background as Ayurvedic health consultant. At the Norrland Kundalini Yoga Center in Umeå, Harpal holds classes in many different subjects including pregnancy yoga, mom and baby yoga, and ‘Yoga Rehab’ that integrates yoga and Ayurveda with rehabilitation.

The Kundalini Research Institute has chosen to honor Harpal Kaur for her dedication to her own professional development as a Trainer in Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan® and the development of new teachers in Sweden and Norway.