Image: “Flower of Nelumbo nucifera, bean of India,” by T Voekler, 3 July 2008, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacred_lotus_Nelumbo_nucifera.jpg … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Image: “Flower of Nelumbo nucifera, bean of India,” by T Voekler, 3 July 2008, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacred_lotus_Nelumbo_nucifera.jpg … CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Dear Ones,

Who is Dharm Darshan? Dharm Darshan is me, Alice Clagett! Why is that?

My spiritual name from my 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization) days is ‘Dharm Darshan Kaur Khalsa.’ Sometimes folks, in their thoughts, abbreviate and mispronounce this (either with affection or with distaste) as “Darm Doo” or “Darn Darsh” and so on. I prefer the Indian language pronunciation.

In the ancient Indian language known as Gurmukhi, there is a consonant ‘d’, which is pronounced rather like the English ‘d’. But then in Gurmukhi there is also the consonant ‘dh’.

The way to say it is to begin to speak the letter ‘d’, but with a little outrush or puff of air through the mouth at the same time. Tricky!

The word ‘Dharm’ means ‘dharma’ … the path of righteousness … the ‘right’ path … as opposed to the path of ‘karma’.

The path of karma is to get one’s kudos and rewards, and one’s knocks and kicks from life, as a result of one’s wrong or right actions in the world.

There was a popular TV show once called “Greg and Dharma.” The female star of the show had the same name as the first name in my spiritual name.

However my first name, back then, was not just ‘Dharm’ but ‘Dharm Darshan.’ There is this other word ‘Darshan,’ which means to learn from a spiritual teacher.

So then I translate the Gurmukhi name ‘Dharm Darshan,’ for my personal understanding, as “the one who walks the ‘right’ path and listens to the Divine Teacher within.”

The word ‘Kaur’ means ‘princess’ and used to be the middle name of all the women who asked for spiritual names from Yogi Bhajan, the founder of 3HO.

The word ‘Khalsa’ means ‘society of pure ones’. It is the name Yogi Bhajan gave to all the people, both male and female, who asked him for a spiritual name.

A spiritual name is something one strives to live up to all one’s life long. It expresses the longing of our Soul for expression in human form, and the hope of our Soul to strive to fulfill its Soul mission in this lifetime.

It is true, I am a Christian. Nevertheless, I still treat my spiritual name with respect. Yogi Bhajan and his staff had quite a knack about them, of seeing deeply into the spiritual truth of things. I feel they judged well in giving me my spiritual name. I am grateful to be known, in the heavenly realms, as Dharm Darshan Kaur Khalsa.

And keep you safe,
And be with you
Through all your days!

In love, light and joy,
Alice B. Clagett
I Am of the Stars

Written and published on 19 October 2022
Location: Los Angeles, California

spiritual name, adventures with Alice, stories by Alice,