She paid $10,000 for spiritual guidance. Unenlightened, she took her guru to the Disputes Tribunal

Sunday, 28 June 2026

She paid $10,000 expecting a decade of spiritual guidance.

When that didn’t materialise, Jane Gruebner took her spiritual guru to the Disputes Tribunal to claw back her money - and won.

“I want him to know that he could be accountable, that there could be another Jane coming out of the woodwork any time,” the Auckland woman told the Sunday Star-Times.

The beginnings of a rift

Gruebner met Harpal Singh, who calls himself Yogi Aikam Aikoham Nath Ji or “Guruji”, in 2019.

In 2021, Singh bought a $940,000 home near Tapawera, south of Nelson, for his ashram Sri Shiv Shakti. He began positioning himself as a spiritual leader, holding meditation sessions at his new base and around the country.

Gruebner says she began attending his retreats, which included meditation, and talks. Along with some friends, she became part of Singh’s admin team, using her corporate knowledge to help him form his plans.

One of the ways the group hit upon to raise capital for the ashram was to offer memberships, a tiered offering from “bronze” to “lifetime”.

Gruebner paid $10,000 for a lifetime membership. Despite its name, the membership promised 10 years of spiritual wisdom, meet-ups and discounted courses. According to tribunal documents, at least three others bought “gold” memberships, the tier below lifetime.

Brushed aside

Later, Singh would register his venture as a charity. But when Gruebner signed up, according to tribunal documents, the ashram was in its infancy and Singh told her to pay the money to his personal bank account.

There was no formal contract, but he told Gruebner to sign a “gift certificate document”, according to the tribunal ruling.

The Sunday Star-Times has seen another signed gift certificate for a “gold” member.

According to the tribunal, Gruebner was sent an email, signed by the 'Sri Shiv Shakti Foundation Team' in early January 2022 telling her: “… we would ask that your Lifetime Membership payment be made as a gift. As such this provides greater financial assistance.”

An email a few days later, according to tribunal documents, told Gruebner the “energy exchange” she’d paid for included “weekly spiritual wisdom”, access to a private video library and a private Facebook group, and monthly meetings. There would also be discussion groups, group sessions and one-to-one sessions with the Guru, according to the tribunal.

But after four months, Gruebner told the tribunal she had only had four hour-long Zoom sessions.

When she asked what was happening, her questions were “brushed aside”, she told the Star-Times. Eventually, her emails weren’t responded to, and she was blocked on social media, she said.

By then, the scales had well and truly fallen from Gruebner’s eyes.

“The rot had set in,” she said.

By 2023 a rift had developed in Singh’s community, and some of his former followers spoke out, including Nelson man Geoff Love, who had spent $4500 on a meditation retreat where he was instructed to complete manual labour.

Singh’s response by email, which the Star-Times has previously seen, was: “An opportunity was missed by you to embrace the project as a chance to serve with gratitude and excitement.”

Determined to hold “Guruji” accountable Gruebner and other disgruntled former associates began reporting Singh to authorities including the Commerce Commission, and Charities Services.

With no success on those fronts, Gruebner turned to the Disputes Tribunal.

A question of gifting

During two teleconference hearings, tribunal referee Justin Kleinbaum heard from Singh, Gruebner and other witnesses.

Singh maintained there was no contract, as Gruebner had gifted the money.

But Kleinbaum decided otherwise: when Gruebner had joined up, membership was presented as a subscription model, and the gifting certificate was only requested later, according to the tribunal ruling.

Witnesses for each side all had slightly differing accounts, but the referee found one thing was clear: a lack of clarity over what a membership looked like.

“[For example], the one-on-one sessions with Mr Singh were to be at a time suitable to Mr Singh, but there was no clarity about what would happen if no mutually suitable time was available,” Kleinbaum noted.

Some witnesses told the tribunal they also signed up for membership, including “gold” members, and like Gruebner said they saw little for their money.

Witnesses who appeared in support of Singh said the “guru” had delivered on their memberships. However, these were “bronze” and “silver” subscriptions, which offered significantly fewer benefits, Kleinbaum said in the tribunal ruling.

'My finding… is that the foundation failed to provide all of the services to Mrs Gruebner as contracted,“ he said.

Gruebner was awarded half of what she asked for. Kleinbaum said she’d had some benefits from the initial stages, including discounts for events. She also remained involved with the foundation until mid 2023.

A ‘Himalayan yogi master’

Singh once worked in the corporate world, but left in 2016 for a new life as a self-styled “Himlalayan yogi master.”

According to his website, he had “meditated in the forests of West India, Rishikesh for a number of years and is the embodiment of many Masters and deities”.

He runs his venture as a charitable trust. According to its last public report, the trust’s primary purpose “is the advancement of spiritual education, through the teachings of Yogi Aikam Aikoham Nath Ji.'

In the year ended March 2025, the trust reported receiving $24,343 from donations.

While Singh still owns his ashram property back in Nelson, it appears he has returned to Rishikesh, running yoga and meditation workshops.

The Star-Times emailed him questions about his memberships, his ashram, and his future plans.

A reply came from an email signed “Admin team”.

“Guruji is currently overseas, so we are unable to respond to your inquiries.”

We tried again: Singh was posting videos on Instagram, content covering self-realisation, heaven and hell, sexuality and desire. Was there a reason he couldn’t respond?

There was no reply.

When Singh spoke to Stuff in 2023, he said he was no longer offering the membership programme.

“It was elective for those persons who wanted to receive discounts on workshops and resources over a long term – those few who did choose this option continue to receive the benefits,” he said at the time.

Broken trust

Gruebner said the award, which Singh has paid, felt vindicating.

“It was about the lack of integrity and lack of honouring. Everything about it was wrong.”

While for Gruebner it wasn’t about the money, $10,000 was a significant amount, and she knew of others who had got into financial difficulty as a result of their “gifts”. The Star-Times has previously spoken to one of those people.

“That's a big amount of money for somebody to ask off another individual, and have actually done it under the guise that they were committed to deliver.”

It had taken Gruebner time to come to terms with what had happened: she had trusted Singh, and felt burned. And she felt for her friends, who had also been taken in.

“They’re the nicest people, innocent, with big hearts, hard-working honest people who trusted that he would deliver.”