Neem Karoli Baba: the guru behind Be Here Now
Part 11 of The Masters Who Crossed the Ocean. He never came west, gave no lectures, and left almost no record of his life — yet through the Americans who sat with him, he may have shaped Western spirituality more intimately than any guru in this series.
The Masters Who Crossed the Ocean — Part 11 of 12.
He never came to the West. He gave no public lectures, founded no system, and left almost no record of his own life. Yet Neem Karoli Baba — "Maharaj-ji" to his devotees — may have shaped Western spirituality more intimately than any guru in this series, because of the people who came to sit with him, wrapped in a blanket, in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The unknown saint
What is verifiable about his early life is little. He was born perhaps around 1900 in Uttar Pradesh; the biography is genuinely uncertain, as he discouraged any record of himself. A lifelong devotee of Hanuman, he established dozens of Hanuman temples and ashrams across north India — most famously Kainchi Dham, built near Nainital in 1964. His teaching was disarmingly plain: love everyone, serve everyone, remember God.
Be Here Now
His fame in the West came through a single follower. The Harvard psychologist Richard Alpert met him in the late 1960s, became Ram Dass, and wrote Be Here Now (1971) — a book that introduced a whole generation of Western seekers to Maharaj-ji and to Eastern spirituality. Others followed and carried pieces of him home: Krishna Das and Bhagavan Das (Jeffrey Kagel), whose devotional chanting helped seed the kirtan now heard in Western yoga studios, and Larry Brilliant, who went on to help eradicate smallpox and to found the Seva Foundation.
The Silicon Valley talisman
The legend kept growing after his death. Steve Jobs is said to have journeyed to India hoping to meet him — arriving, by most accounts, after Maharaj-ji had died — and reports place Mark Zuckerberg at Kainchi Dham years later, seeking inspiration. A barefoot saint who shunned publicity became, improbably, a touchstone for the founders of Silicon Valley.
He died on 11 September 1973 in Vrindavan. He crossed no ocean himself — but through his Western devotees, and the book one of them wrote, his presence did.
Next, the series concludes: Ramana Maharshi, the silent sage of Arunachala.
Sources: Wikipedia: Neem Karoli Baba.
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