Kundalini Yoga After Yogi Bhajan — What the Practice Looks Like Now
Yogi Bhajan brought a structured form of Kundalini yoga to the West in the late 1960s. In 2020, a comprehensive independent investigation documented credible allegations of sexual abuse, financial misconduct, and psychological manipulation spanning decades. The report was thorough, the findings were serious, and the impact on the Kundalini yoga community in the West was significant.
For people considering Kundalini yoga for the first time, the question is a reasonable one: what does the practice look like now, after this?
The honest answer is that the practice and the person who systematized it for Western audiences are separable. Kundalini yoga as a set of techniques — kriyas, breathwork, mantra, meditation, mudra — has roots that predate Yogi Bhajan by centuries. The techniques work independently of his authority.
What the Investigation Found
The 2020 investigation was conducted by an independent firm commissioned by the Kundalini Research Institute, the organization Bhajan founded. It documented credible allegations from dozens of individuals, including sexual assault, financial exploitation, and the deliberate cultivation of psychological dependency in students and staff.
The findings were not rumors or isolated complaints. They represented a pattern of behavior sustained over decades within an organizational culture that enabled and concealed it.
The response within the Kundalini yoga community was varied. Some organizations and teachers chose to distance themselves from Bhajan's legacy while continuing to teach the practices. Others defended him or minimized the findings. The split revealed how much of what had been called Kundalini yoga was actually the practice and how much was the personality cult surrounding its Western systematizer.
What Has Changed Since 2020
The most significant shift since 2020 has been the deliberate separation of the practices from the figure who brought them to the West. This separation is not erasure — it is honesty.
Removing guru-centered language and ritual. The specific ceremonial forms Bhajan established — particular salutations, forms of address, organizational hierarchy — are not features of Kundalini yoga as a tradition. They are features of his particular systematization. Teachers who have made this separation teach the practices without the deference to him as a spiritual authority.
Teaching history accurately. Pretending the Bhajan legacy does not exist is not integrity. Teaching students what happened, why it matters, and how the school has responded is part of responsible transmission of this practice.
Returning to primary sources. Kundalini yoga practices can be traced to pre-Bhajan texts, teachers, and traditions. Engaging with those sources directly rather than through his interpretive framework gives the practice a more authentic grounding.
Centering student sovereignty. The culture around Bhajan's lineage emphasized surrender to the teacher and the organization. Post-lineage Kundalini teaching explicitly inverts this — the teacher holds space, the student retains authority over their own experience at every point.
Is Kundalini Yoga Still Worth Practicing?
Yes. The practices themselves — the kriyas, the breathwork, the mantra, the meditation sequences — have documented effects on the nervous system, stress hormones, and psychological wellbeing that are independent of Yogi Bhajan's authority or character.
The appropriate response to what happened is not to abandon a practice with genuine roots and genuine benefit. It is to practice and teach it with greater honesty, better safeguards, and a clearer separation between the tradition and the individual who brought one particular version of it to the West.
Teachers who have made this transition are, in many cases, teaching Kundalini yoga with more integrity than was present in the lineage before 2020. The reckoning, painful as it was, created an opening for more honest and grounded transmission of these practices.
What Post-Lineage Kundalini Yoga Looks Like in Practice
Post-lineage Kundalini yoga teaching is characterized by several concrete features.
Explicit acknowledgment of the Bhajan situation rather than avoidance of it. Teachers and schools who address this directly with students are operating with more integrity than those who pretend it did not happen.
Trauma-informed methodology as a foundational framework. The power dynamics that enabled abuse in Bhajan's organization were the opposite of trauma-informed. Post-lineage teaching deliberately builds the opposite structure — consent, choice, and student sovereignty at every level.
Diverse and representative teaching communities. Bhajan's organization was built around a specific culture and demographic. Post-lineage schools actively work to build more diverse, accessible communities that reflect the breadth of people these practices can serve.
Transparent organizational structures. No single charismatic leader at the center. Distributed authority, clear accountability, and organizational structures that cannot be captured by one person's ego or agenda.
How Yoga Farm Ithaca Approaches This
At Yoga Farm Ithaca, we have taught Kundalini yoga in a post-lineage framework since our founding. Our lead educator trained within the KRI tradition and made a deliberate departure from its methodology — not from the practices but from the framework of dogma, hierarchy, and guru worship that surrounded them.
This means several concrete things in our programs:
We address the Bhajan situation directly with students in our curriculum. It is part of the history of Kundalini yoga in the West and students deserve to know it.
We teach the decolonizing yoga module explicitly. This examines how Kundalini yoga arrived in the West, what was changed in that transmission, and what honest engagement with the tradition looks like.
We build our programs on trauma-informed methodology specifically because the power dynamics that enabled abuse in Bhajan's organization are the opposite of what we stand for.
We operate as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which means our organizational structure has accountability built in — no single person can control or exploit the school for personal gain.
For those navigating whether Kundalini yoga is something they can engage with after learning about Bhajan, our full breakdown of Kundalini yoga myths and the safety question addresses this directly. Our complete guide to what Kundalini yoga actually is covers the history, including the Bhajan legacy, with the same honesty.
For those ready to train, our 200-hour Kundalini Warrior certification is built on this post-lineage foundation. It is trauma-informed, nonprofit-priced, and taught by educators who have done the work of separating the practices from the personality cult that once surrounded them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it ethical to still practice Kundalini yoga after what happened with Yogi Bhajan?
Yes. Practicing Kundalini yoga is not an endorsement of Yogi Bhajan. The practices have genuine roots and genuine benefits that are independent of him. What is required is honesty about the history and a commitment to practicing and teaching without the guru culture that enabled the abuse.
What is the Kundalini Research Institute doing now?
The KRI has undergone significant internal changes since 2020. Some teachers and organizations have continued working within its framework; others have separated from it. The landscape is varied. What matters most is the specific school or teacher you are working with and what their actual practices and values are.
How do I find a Kundalini yoga teacher who has genuinely made this transition?
Ask directly. A teacher or school that has genuinely processed this will be able to speak to it clearly — what they have changed, why, and what their current approach looks like. Evasion or defensiveness in response to this question is a signal.
Does post-lineage Kundalini yoga still use the same practices?
The core practices — kriyas, breathwork, mantra, meditation, mudra — are largely the same. What changes is the cultural and organizational framework around them. Post-lineage teaching removes the guru-centered ritual, the hierarchical organizational structure, and the requirement of deference to Bhajan's authority as the source of the practice's legitimacy.
Can I get Yoga Alliance registration from a post-lineage Kundalini yoga program?
Yes. Yoga Alliance registration is based on curriculum content and hours, not lineage affiliation. Post-lineage schools like Yoga Farm Ithaca are fully Yoga Alliance registered, and graduates receive the standard RYT-200 credential.
Ready to Start?
Kundalini yoga after Yogi Bhajan is not a diminished practice. In many ways it is a more honest one — taught without the distortions of personality cult, guru worship, and organizational concealment that surrounded its Western transmission.
Yoga Farm Ithaca offers 200-hour Kundalini yoga teacher training built on this foundation. If you have questions about our approach to the Bhajan legacy or how we handle this in our curriculum, reach out to our team directly. We are glad to talk through it.
A full overview of our teacher training programs is available if you are ready to explore your options.
