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.