ARISING OF COMPASSION

For the Vedantist, compassion arises when he realizes that everyone and everything is Brahman, and in this way is himself.

For the Buddhist, compassion arises when he sees that everyone and everything suffers, and in this way is himself.

AWAKENING IS FINAL

Once born into the world, a baby cannot become unborn.  Once awakened into Brahman, the Atman cannot become unawakened.

TIMELESS NOW

There are beginnings and endings within "now," but "now" itself does not begin or end.  It is just "now."

TRANSCENDENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Everyday consciousness may be thought of as the outer rim of a wheel.  The hub of the wheel is transcendental consciousness, where the Atman awakens into Brahman, fulfilling its destiny.

BRAHMAN

In his introduction to Vedanta for Modern Man, writer Christopher Isherwood states, "Vedanta teaches that Brahman (the ultimate Reality behind the phenomenal universe) is 'one without a second.' [There is nothing that is not Brahman.]  Brahman is beyond all attributes.  Brahman is not conscious; Brahman IS consciousness.  Brahman does not exist; Brahman IS existence.  Brahman is the Atman (the Eternal Nature) of every living being, creature, and object.  Vedanta teaches us that Life has no other purpose than this:  that we shall learn to know ourselves for what we really are; that we shall reject the superficial ego-personality which claims that 'I am Mr. Smith; I am other than Mr. Brown,' and know, instead, that 'I am the Atman; Mr. Brown is the Atman; the Atman is Brahman; there is nothing anywhere but Brahman; all else is appearance, transience, and unreality.'"

ATMAN IN RELATION TO BRAHMAN

It is not one drop in the ocean, but the ocean in one drop.

AVIDYA

In Vedanta, avidya is defined as ignorance.  This ignorance is the ego covering over the individual soul (Atman) with every kind of irrelevance, denying the Atman its destiny, which is its identification with its source, Brahman.  This is to say, the Atman is in its nature drawn to Brahman like the needle of a compass to a magnet.  The ego, however, piles layer after layer of itself over the needle so that the Atman does not feel the attraction of the magnet that is Brahman.  But wash away these layers, by spiritual practice, and the needle feels at once the draw of the magnet and is able to connect with it.

Avidya in Buddhism is different.  Here the emphasis is on the psychological rather than the spiritual and concerns pain and suffering.  There are two types of avidya or ignorance in Buddhism.  The first is the innocent ignorance of not knowing any better.  A baby will put its hand in the fire not knowing it will get burned.  The second type of ignorance, though, is what is termed ignore-ance.  It's ignoring what, from our experience, we know will cause us pain.  We know that by putting our hand in the fire it will get burned, but we do it anyway.  We ignore the lesson of our pain.  Life is full of pain, especially psychological and emotional pain, but rather than pay attention to when, where, and how this pain comes about, we ignore it. 

NEEM KAROLI BABA

Shri Neem Karoli Baba, or Shri Neeb Karori Baba  (died September 11, 1973, in Vrindavan, India), was also known to followers as Maharaj-ji. He was a Hindu guru and devotee of the Hindu deity Hanuman.  He is known outside India as the guru of a number of Americans who travelled to India in the 1960s and 1970s, the most well-known of whom were the spiritual teachers Ram Dass and Bhagavan Das, and the musicians Krishna Das and Jai Uttal.

The exact details of Neem's birth and early years are not known. His family was an affluent Brahmin family.  His father was Pundit Durga Prasad 'Vedacharya' who gave him the name Pundit Lakshmi Narayan Sharma.  This was at Akbarpur, Firozabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. At the age of eleven, Neem was married to Rambeti (daughter of Pundit Rewati Ram).  In the years ahead they had three children: Aneg Singh Sharma, Dharma Narayan Sharma and Girija Bhatele (née Sharma).

Neem had two havelis (palatial homes) in Akbarpur, the older of which has been converted to a temple while the newer one is being preserved as his birthplace shrine. Another home in Agra in Gokulpura he visited multiple times after he left his married life. He has nine grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren.

Neem left his home around the time his youngest child (daughter) was eleven (1958).  He went on to wander extensively throughout northern India as a sadhu, that is, as a Hindu ascetic. Among the many names he had during this time was Lakshman Das, Handi Wallah Baba, and Tikonia Walla Baba. When he did tapasya and sadhana (spiritual practice) at Bavania in Gujarat, he was known as Tallaiya Baba. In Vrindavan, the locals addressed him by the name of Chamatkari (miracle) Baba.  Many considered him a saint.  Neem was a life-long adept of bhakti or devotional yoga, and encouraged service to others (seva) as the highest form of unconditional devotion to God.

Among the most notable of Maharaj-ji's disciples were, again, Ram Dass, the author of Be Here Now, teacher/performer Bhagavan Das, and the musicians Krishna Das and Jai Uttal. Other noteworthy devotees included American-born Tibetan Buddhist Lama Surya Das, humanitarian Larry Brilliant and his wife Girija, as well as Dada Mukerjee (former professor at Allahabad University, Uttar Pradesh, India). Baba Hari Dass, a classically-trained Ashtanga yogi, was also a disciple; he maintained one of Neem's ashrams before heading to the USA to become a spiritual teacher. Steve Jobs, future CEO of Apple Computers, along with his college friend Dan Kottke, traveled to India in 1973 in search of spiritual enlightment.  They hoped to meet Maharaj-ji, but did not arrive before the guru died in September of that year.

Ram Dass and Larry Brilliant, back now in the United States, founded the Seva Foundation, an international health organization based in Berkeley, California.  The foundation is committed to applying the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba toward ending world poverty. Among Seva's greatest accomplishments is their help in returning eyesight to nearly three million blind people suffering from cataract blindness in countries such as Tibet, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and throughout 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 recent years another foundation evolved, the 'Love Serve Remember Foundation', meant to preserve and continue the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass.