Karoli tried to inculcate in others the path of love
and service.
Upon returning to the United States, Ram Dass
wrote his most famous book, Be Here Now (1971),
which suggested that one can live only in the
present moment. The past has vanished into his-
tory and the future is not yet here. In order to be
fully present in one’s life, Ram Dass advocated the
simple proposition of residing in and being aware
of the present moment and position in the world.
Ram Dass believes that all people are on a spiritual
path to enlightenment. Each has individual needs,
including GURUS (teachers) of different kinds;
some gurus may not be in the physical body,
but meditation allows one access to the invisible
world and communication with those gurus who
no longer have a physical body. His book offered
an alternative to psychedelics in his emphasis on
gurus and spiritual pathways to guide one out of
immersion in the drug culture. Be Here Now pro-
pelled Ram Dass into a role as a major teacher of
the New Age counterculture and remains in print
to the present time.
In the 1970s, Ram Dass took on a vigorous
schedule of speaking, teaching, and traveling
from his base in New Hampshire. Various orga-
nizations emerged around his many interests. For
example, he and Bo Lozoff developed the Prison
Ashram Library, which distributed literature to
prison populations. It particularly taught lessons
in meditation for inmates who wanted to live a
life of service while incarcerated. This service
has grown to include halfway houses and mental
health programs.
In the mid-1970s, Ram Dass had become
involved with several female gurus—Hilda Charl-
ton (d. 1988) and Joya Santana (now known as
Ma JAYA SAT I BHAGAVATI of the Kashi Ashram). His
interaction with them led to a spiritual crisis that
he discussed in a famous Yoga Journal article, “Egg
on My Beard.” He assumed a low profile for a
brief period but soon reemerged as a major writer
and speaker. Before the decade was out, he had
produced three important books: The Only Dance
There Is (1976), Grist for the Mill (1977), and Jour-
ney of Awakening (1978).
Ram Dass instituted the Hanuman Temple
in Taos, New Mexico, to implement worship of
HANUMAN, the god of service, and to honor his
guru, Neem Karoli Baba.
In pursuit of the goals of KARMA YOGA, Ram
Dass initiated several organizations devoted to
service and community development. In 1974,
he organized the HANUMAN FOUNDATION inspired
by the devoted servant of the Hindu god RAM in
the RAMAYANA, which is the organizing vehicle for
Ram Dass’s lectures and workshops and admin-
isters many social projects, including the Prison
Ashram Project, designed to help inmates grow
spiritually during incarceration, and the Liv-
ing Dying Project, designed to foster conscious
dying.
He is cofounder, with Larry Brilliant (b. 1946),
and board member of the Seva Foundation, an
international organization dedicated to relieving
suffering in the world (seva means “service” in
SANSKRIT). Seva sponsors diverse activities, includ-
ing programs in India and Nepal to erase curable
blindness, Guatemalan programs to restore the
agricultural life of impoverished villagers, and
programs in the United States to call attention
to the issues of homelessness and environmental
degradation.
On February 19, 1997, Ram Dass suffered a
massive cerebral hemorrhagic stroke in his left
brain. The stroke left him with extensive right
side paralysis, expressive aphasia, and a number
of recurring and threatening health problems.
Since this event he has returned to a limited
schedule of appearances and talks. He lives in San
Anselmo, California, and Hawaii.
Mickey Lemle’s documentary Ram Dass: Fierce
Grace documents the biography of Ram Dass
through friends’ and family members’ reminis-
cences and archival footage of his days of commu-
nal living. It shows the physical and psychological
effects of the stroke and the spiritual lessons he
has learned from his disability.K 358 Ram Dass