Neem Karoli Baba


Neem Karoli Baba or Neeb Karori Baba - known to his followers as Maharaj-ji - was a Hindu guru, mystic and devotee of the Hindu lord Hanuman. He is known outside India for being the guru of a number of Americans who travelled to India in the 1960s and 70s, 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, Vrindavan, Rishikesh, Shimla, Neem Karoli village near Khimasepur in Farrukhabad, Bhumiadhar, Hanumangarhi, Lucknow, Delhi in India and in Taos, New Mexico, US.

Biography

Early years

He was born around 1900, in village Akbarpur, Firozabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India, in a Brahmin family of Durga Prasad Sharma. He was named Lakshman Das Sharma. After being married by his parents aged 11 he left home to become a wandering sadhu. He later returned home, at his father's request, to live a settled married life. He fathered two sons and a daughter.

As Maharaj-ji

Neem Karoli Baba or Baba Lakshman Das, as he was known then, left his home in 1958. Ram Dass tells a story that Baba Lakshman Das boarded a train without a ticket and the conductor decided to halt the train and force Neem Karoli Baba off of the train at the village of Neeb Karori, Farrukhabad district. After boarding Baba off the train, the conductor found that the train would not start again. After several attempts at starting the train someone suggested to the conductor that they allow the sadhu back on to the train. Neem Karoli agreed to board the train on two conditions that the railway company promise to build a station at the village of Neeb Karori, and the railway company must henceforth treat sadhus better. The officials agreed and Neem Karoli Baba boarded the train, jokingly saying, "What, is it up to me to start trains?" Immediately after his boarding the train, it started, but the train drivers would not proceed unless the sadhu blessed them to move forward. Baba gave his blessings and the train proceeded. Later a train station was built at the village of Neeb Karori. Baba lived in the village of Neeb Karori for a while and was given his name by locals.
Thereafter he wandered extensively throughout Northern India. 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 Vavania Morbi in Gujarat, he was known as Tallaiya Baba. In Vrindavan, local inhabitants addressed him by the name of Chamatkari Baba. During his life two main ashrams were built, first at Vrindavan and later at Kainchi, where he spent the summer months. In time, over 100 temples were constructed in his name.
The Kainchi Dham ashram where he stayed in the last decade of his life, was built in 1964 with a Hanuman temple. It started two years prior with a modest platform built for two local sadhus, Premi Baba and Sombari Maharaj to perform yagnas. Over the years the temple, situated 17 km from Nainital on the Nainital-Almora road, has become an important pilgrimage for locals, especially on 15 June, when then the Kainchi Dham Bhandara takes place to commemorate the inauguration of the temple, when it is visited by over a lakh of devotees.

Death

Neem Karoli Baba died at approximately 1:15 a.m. in the early morning hours of 11 September 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 traveling companions had disembarked at Mathura railway station where he began convulsing and requested being taken to Shri Dham Vrindavan.
Subsequently, his samadhi shrine was built within the complex of Vrindavan ashram, which also has some of his personal belongings.

Philosophy

He was a lifelong adept of bhakti yoga, and encouraged service to others 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:

Notable disciples

Among the most well known of Neem Karoli Baba's disciples were spiritual teacher Ram Dass, teacher/performer Bhagavan Das, Lama Surya Das and the musicians Jai Uttal and Krishna Das and Trevor Hall. Other notable devotees include humanitarian Larry Brilliant and his wife Girija, Dada Mukerjee, scholar and writer Yvette Rosser, John Bush filmmaker, and Daniel Goleman author of The Varieties of the Meditative Experience and Emotional Intelligence''. Baba Hari Dass was not a disciple, but he supervised several buildings and maintained the ashrams in the Nainital area before heading to the USA to become a spiritual teacher in California at the beginning of 1971.
Steve Jobs, along with his friend Dan Kottke, traveled to India in April 1974 to study Hinduism and Indian spirituality; they planned also to meet Neem Karoli Baba, but arrived to find the guru had died the previous September. Hollywood actress Julia Roberts was also influenced by Neem Karoli Baba. A picture of him drew Roberts to Hinduism. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of facebook, influenced by Steve Jobs, visited Neem Karoli Baba's ashram in Kainchi. Larry Brilliant took Google’s Larry Page and Jeffrey Skoll, co-founder of eBay, on the pilgrimage.

Foundations

After returning to the United States, Ram Dass and Larry Brilliant founded the Seva Foundation, an international health organization based in Berkeley, California. Steve Jobs, a friend of Brilliant, also funded the organization. It is committed to applying the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba toward ending world poverty.
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.

Quotes