Yogi Tea was host to local officials, visiting guests and board members from around the world, local and non-local Sangat members and company employees and their families on Saturday August 11th for the gala public opening of the new Yogi tea manufacturing plant in Eugene Oregon.

In a family friendly meet and greet that started at 11:00 am with fruit drinks, yogi tea (of course!), live music, and ice cream about 250 guests watched Yogi Tea Company CEO, Giancarlo Marcaccini, and employee’s children cut the ribbon to open the new plant. SS Nirvair Kaur offered a prayer written by the Siri Singh Sahib to bless the occasion.

A world cuisine buffet was served in the new Yogi Tea conference and dining hall while guests continued to mingle. Giancarlo Marcaccini gave the opening speech, emphasizing the values that Yogi Tea was founded on and continues to live by. Parampal Singh, operations manager, talked about the process involved in creating the new building, from vision to art work and plant machinery. He also thanked the many people involved in bringing the new tea factory into being. Lastly, Sat Bir Singh, director of world communications and outreach, directed guests to sign up for tours of the new plant.

The tour was the most impressive part of the activities for me. Although internal pictures of the plant were not allowed, the size of the facility is amazing.  The site is 13.3 acres, which is hard to imagine. It is the largest new commercial build in Eugene in the last 10 years. The building is 190,754 square feet, equal to over 4 football fields. Over 7,500 plants are installed, there are 45 exterior and 97 interior doors in the facility and over 2,400 gallons of paint was used in decoration. Seva Kaur (LA) and Sat Hari Kaur(Eugene) were the principle interior artists. Two of the eye-catching motifs used in the artwork are enlarged Yogi tea bag sayings by the Siri Singh Sahib, which tastefully offer inspiring spiritual and lifestyle affirmations, and large mandalas which adorn many of the larger wall spaces. Each room is named after a spice used in production of the tea. The building is in the process of being gold LEED certified and will be the only tea production facility in the world to be so designated.

Sat Nam,

It has been some time since we reached out to the global Sangat through the vehicle of this newsletter.  As you can see we have a new format for our newsletter and we have launched a public Siri Singh Sahib Corporation website.

With the recent formation of an SSSC Sangat Communications committee, we expect to communicate more regularly with our global Sangat.  

The Siri Singh Sahib created a vast organization of for profit and non-profit corporations whose reach touched people around the globe.  The responsibility to oversee that organization lies with the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation in partnership with the boards and employees of the various organizations the Siri Singh Sahib founded.  The growth of Kundalini Yoga and Sikh Dharma is phenomenal, and we are just at the beginning of this expansion.  It seems, wherever you go in the world, you are likely to have someone come up to you and say Sat Nam.  The energy of the various local, national and international events (yoga festivals, Solstices, Baisakhi Day, Sat Nam Fests) is increasing and we are all privileged to be in the forefront of this change in human consciousness.

​In March of 2016, while meditating at the Golden Temple, I received a phone call from the Prime Minister’s office.  Given that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was recently elected along with 17 Sikh MP’s, there was going to be a large celebration for Vaisakhi on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada.   I was requested to sing Kirtan and do the Ardas for the Diwan.  I was honored and felt very grateful to the Guru that I had been asked to participate in such an important day for Sikhs in Canada. When I contemplated the Shabad that I would sing that day, I realized that the specific tune had come to me unexpectedly one Sunday evening after teaching yoga class several years prior.  Jetlagged and just 2 days after arriving back from India, I found myself on a flight to the Canadian capital.

The following day, I briefly met the tabla player.   We only had enough time to sing 2 lines of the Shabad acapella while he practiced the tabla taal on the MP’s office desk. 
   
​The Akhand Paath had already started on Parliament Hill and the Bhog and celebration of Khalsa Day program was to be on April 11th.  Although Akhand Paaths had been done yearly for Vaisakhi since Sikh MPs had been elected, this year was special given the scope of the celebration of Khalsa Day.  Gurdwara Presidents from across Canada were invited to attend, and the entire program was being broadcast live by the media to India and worldwide.  It was a very special program and I could feel the excitement, and the pressure building.  To me, it seemed like the vision of the Siri Singh Sahib ji of Sikhs being integrated within mainstream Canadian Society was coming to fruition for Canadian Sikhs.

This past January I had the privilege to travel to Santiago, Chile to meet the Chilean Sangat and attend the International Yoga festival in Chile. It was a beautiful and uplifting journey.

First, I flew non-stop from LAX to Santiago Airport. The ten-hour flight was comfortable. I took exactly 1 nap and watched 2 movies. I was met at the airport by SSSC staff member Amrit Vela Kaur, her dad Guru Dev Singh from Mexico (who was there to attend the festival) and Amrit Vela’s (fiancé). We drove to Amrit Vela’s home for a refresher stop which involved a shower, change of clothes, rest and a delicious snack. We then jumped into our Chilean SUV for the trip to the yoga festival in Constitución, Chile. The trip took four hours and was quite scenic and educational.
As we got closer to the site I learned about the fires, earthquake and tsunami which have devastated the area in the past several years. In fact, on the day of our arrival, the festival participants held a beautiful memorial service for those who died suddenly in the 2010 tsunami.

It was a beautiful fall weekend in Espanola, New Mexico and there was a definite buzz of anticipation in the air. It was as if we were gathering once again after ten years to sit at the feet of our beloved teacher, The Man Called Siri Singh Sahib ~ Yogi Bhajan. In essence, that is exactly what we did for four glorious days. We sat in his gardens, played the music he loved, meditated deeply as a family, bowed to the Guru, sang stories of old times and chanted mantras in gratitude for his life and legacy.

​People came from places around the world, drawn to share the moment even though some had never met the Siri Singh Sahib. Others were attending one of our Dharmic events for the first time, for reasons they themselves didn’t totally understand. It was a calling! A calling many of us have heard and answered over the years that brought us together yet once again.

The feeling everywhere was joyous, relaxed and full of reverence and appreciation just to be a part of the celebration. Our opening presentation on Friday the 3rd was a kriya by Ardas Kaur from our Mexico community. Our Bhangra troupe led by Ravi Kaur kicked off the evening with grace and excitement to whoops and hollers from the audience followed by an evening of Oldies but Goodies by our grey bearded youngsters. Livtar Singh, Gurutrang Singh, Guru Singh, Guru Ganesha Singh, Dev Suroop Kaur, Harbhajan Kaur, Guru Sangat Kaur, myself and a host of us “Old Timers” reminisced with song and laughter during that opening night. From the stage we heard that Vietnam was getting our live feed, as was Russia, Australia, New York, India, Canada and more. The weekend was launched just the way Yogi Bhajan would have liked, and there was no looking back.