Neem Karoli Baba

Neem Karoli Baba
Born Lakshmi Narayan Sharma
(date of birth unknown)
Akbarpur, British India
Died September 11, 1973
Vrindavan, India
Nationality Indian
Guru Hanuman
Philosophy Bhakti

Neem Karoli Baba (Hindi: नीम करोली बाबा) or Neeb Karori Baba (Hindi: नीब करौरी बाबा) (died September 11, 1973), also known to followers as Maharaj-ji, was a Hindu guru and devotee of the Hindu deity Hanuman. He is known outside India for being the guru of a number of Americans who travelled to India in the 1960s and 1970s, the most well-known being the spiritual teachers Ram Dass and Bhagavan Das, and the musicians Krishna Das and Jai Uttal. His ashrams are in Kainchi,[1] Vrindavan, Rishikesh, Shimla, Bhumiadhar, Hanuman Gadi, Lucknow, Delhi in India and in Taos, New Mexico, USA.

Sadhu and guru

Neem Karoli Baba left his home around the time when his youngest child (daughter) was eleven (1958) and wandered extensively throughout northern India as a sadhu. During this time he was known under many names including Lakshman Das, Handi Wallah Baba, and Tikonia Walla Baba. When he did tapasya and sadhana at Bavania in Gujarat, he was known as Tallaiya Baba. In Vrindavan, local inhabitants addressed him by the name of Chamatkari Baba (miracle baba).[2]

He was a lifelong adept of bhakti yoga, and encouraged service to others (seva) as the highest form of unconditional devotion to God. In the book Miracle of Love, compiled by Ram Dass, a devotee named Anjani shares the following account:

There can be no biography of him. Facts are few, stories many. He seems to have been known by different names in many parts of India, appearing and disappearing through the years. His non-Indian devotees of recent years knew him as Neem Karoli Baba, but mostly as “Maharajji” – a nickname so commonplace in India that one can often hear a tea vendor addressed thus. Just as he said, he was "nobody". He gave no discourses; the briefest, simplest stories were his teachings. Usually he sat or lay on a wooden bench wrapped in a plaid blanket while a few devotees sat around him. Visitors came and went; they were given food, a few words, a nod, a pat on the head or back, and they were sent away. There was gossip and laughter for he loved to joke. Orders for running the ashram were given, usually in a piercing yell across the compound. Sometimes he sat in silence, absorbed in another world to which we could not follow, but bliss and peace poured down on us. Who he was no more than the experience of him, the nectar of his presence, the totality of his absence...[2]

Death

Neem Karoli Baba, samadhi mandir, Vrindavan ashram.

Neem Karoli Baba died at approximately 1.15 a.m. in the early morning hours of September 11, 1973 in a hospital at Vrindavan, India after slipping into a diabetic coma. He had been returning by night train to Kainchi near Nainital, from Agra where he had visited a heart specialist due to experiencing pains in his chest. He and his travelling companions had disembarked at Mathura railway station where he began convulsing and requested being taken to Vrindavan.

They took him to the emergency room at the hospital. In the hospital the doctor gave him injections and placed an oxygen mask over his face. The hospital staff said that he was in a diabetic coma but that his pulse was fine. Maharajji roused and pulled the oxygen mask off his face and the blood pressure measuring band from his arm, saying, “Bekar (useless).” Maharajji asked for Ganga water. As there was none, they brought him regular water. He then repeated several times, “Jaya Jagadish Hare” (Hail to the Lord of the Universe),” each time in a lower pitch. His face became very peaceful, all signs of pain disappeared. He was dead.[2]

Notable disciples

Among the most well known of Neem Karoli Baba's disciples were, spiritual teacher Ma Jaya, Ram Dass, the author of Be Here Now, teacher/performer Bhagavan Das, Lama Surya Das and the musicians Jai Uttal and Krishna Das. Other notable devotees include humanitarian Larry Brilliant and his wife Girija, Dada Mukerjee (former professor at Allahabad University, Uttar Pradesh, India), scholar and writer Yvette Rosser, and Daniel Goleman author of Emotional Intelligence.[3]Baba Hari Dass (Haridas) was not a disciple,[4] however, he supervised several buildings and maintained the ashrams[5] in Nainital area (1954-1968) before heading to the USA to become a spiritual teacher in California in the beginning of 1971. Steve Jobs, along with his friend Dan Kottke, traveled to India in 1973 to meet Neem Karoli Baba, but arrived after the guru died in September of that year.[6] Hollywood actress Julia Roberts was also influenced by Neem Karoli Baba. A picture of him drew Roberts to Hinduism.[7]

Foundations

After returning to the United States, Ram Dass and Larry Brilliant founded the Seva Foundation, an international health organization based in Berkeley California that is committed to applying the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba toward ending world poverty. One of Seva's greatest accomplishments is to have helped return eyesight to over 3.5 million blind people suffering from cataract blindness in countries like Tibet, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and throughout Central and South America and Africa. The organization also has a Native American Community Health Program that works to fight an epidemic of diabetes in Native communities throughout the United States.

In the late 2000s another Foundation evolved, the 'Love Serve Remember Foundation', whose purpose is to preserve and continue the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass.

References

  1. ↑ 29°25′19″N 79°30′45″E / 29.4220°N 79.5125°E Kainchi Dham
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ram Dass (1995). Miracle of Love: Stories about Neem Karoli Baba. Hanuman Foundation. ISBN 1-887474-00-5
  3. ↑ http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/krishna_das/
  4. ↑ Jones, Constance A.; D. Ryan, James (2007). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. New York: Infobase Publishing. pp. Baba Hari Dass. ISBN 978-0-8160-5458-9.
  5. ↑ Mukerjee, Sudhir Dada (2012) [1996]. The Near and The Dear. Santa Fe, NM: Hanuman Foundation. pp. 221–2. ISBN 1-887474-02-1.
  6. ↑ "Sought 'enlightenment' in India- The Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2011-10-06. Retrieved 2012-04-05.
  7. ↑ "Julia Roberts' Journey in 'Eat Pray Love'". ABC News. August 9, 2010. Retrieved October 6, 2010.

Further reading

External links