The Yogi Bhajan Memorial Highway needs to be gone.
Not the highway which is Highway 106 but the name. Bye, bye, Yogi.
A petition is being circulated by a former Bhajan associate calling for the highway name to be removed and replaced by something other than Bhajan’s name.
We agree with him.
You can’t prosecute a dead man, but you can examine a person’s history after their gone and try to set the record straight when the formerly accepted narrative begins to unravel like a poorly braided rope. Bhajan was at one time a popular and charismatic Shik leader here in Northern New Mexico but as the years have passed, he has been widely accused of numerous misdeeds, most notably sexual abuse involving his followers
The complaints are voluminous, and his alleged bad behavior has been chronicled in books, online social media, and a television documentary on Vice. Two more television documents are in the works.
He died in 2004 and State Road 106 was officially renamed after him on April 28, 2006. The highway is in Sombrillo, between U.S. 84/285 and State Road 76. It is three-quarters of mile long.
His accusers and detractors see it as highway of shame.
The New Mexico Transportation Commission would need to rename the highway. Clearly, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham could give the commission a nod to propose renaming the highway.
We urge her to do this immediately.
Bhajan’s name on a sign will not be the first to head to the junkyard. Just recently a mountain in Yellowstone National Park was renamed. What was once Mount Doane became the First People’s Mountain on June 9. The mountain had been named for Gustavus Doane who was a leader in a U.S. Army regiment in January of 1890 that massacred 175 Blackfoot Indians- Indigenous people. The Blackfoots were known to be non-violent but had been suspected in the murder of a fur trader who was white. Doane is reported to have spent the rest of his life bragging about the carnage he and his troops wrought in what was known as Marias Massacre.
The mountain was named for him because of his efforts many months after the massacre in getting Yellowstone named as a National Park.
This just happens to be the most recent example of a name being changed-this time on a mountain- because of misdeeds that under the scope of history brought disgrace to the person who had been honored.
Yogi Bhajan emigrated in 1968 to the U.S. from India. His timing coincided with the growing hippie movement and he became known for his teaching and charisma. Ultimately, he established a non-profit, 3HO, which stands for “Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization.” He also founded several for profit companies such as Yogi Tea , Akal Security, and Sikh Dharma International.
He later settled on a ranch and ashram in Espanola on SR 106.
He’s dead and cannot face his accusers but there appears to be a mountain of evidence that he was not who he seemed to be and that he took advantage of followers, particularly women.
Governor Grisham, down with the sign, and goodbye to the notion that Yogi Bhajan was truly a spiritual leader who deserves veneration.