ARTICLES

RAMDASS: KEEPING THE FAITH
By David Wagner and Vidura Barrios

Ram Dass, Harvard psychiatrist turned LSD researcher turned yogi remains a voice of clarity and wisdom decades after introducing the practices of yoga to a generation.

If you are a westerner studying yoga, Baba Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert 1945) has probably influenced your life whether you realize it or not. He was instrumental in bringing the practices of yoga to west and introducing eastern spirituality to the hippy generation of the 1960s.

Ram Dass first won public attention when he was working with fellow Harvard Psychologist Timothoy Leary conducting experiments (often on themselves) with psychedelic drugs. In 1963, they were both thrown out of Harvard together for their pioneering work using psilocybin (magic mushrooms). In 1967 he traveled to India where he met his Guru, the mysterious, enigmatic spiritual master Neem Karoli Baba. The temporary experiences he had with chemicals paled in comparison to the mystical experiences he had In the presence of his guru. Neem Karoli Baba gave him the name Ram Dass (servant of God) and began to educate Ram Dass as an avid disciple.

Ram Dass dedicated himself to the path of transformation; he learned yoga and studied esoteric Hindu philosophy. He offered service to Neem Karoli Baba and began to share his guru’s teachings with thousands of western students. At that time, many young idealists were looking for the next step in their spiritual evolution and yoga seemed just the ticket.

He wrote the landmark spiritual diary Be Here Now - which coined the phrase and has sold millions of copies . Since, then he has written numerous books including Paths to God, and Still Here and has worked with thousands of students the world over.

Ram Dass is a practitioner of Gurukripa, a very ancient form of bhakti yoga in which the practitioner endeavors to follow their guru’s teachings, the teachings of a fully awakened spiritual master, and cultivate a relationship with what is known as the guru’s kripa or grace. Grace could be defined as a kind of inner mystical support or unconditional, transcendental love. His unflinching devotion to his guru and the way that he embodies grace, is both inspiring and iconoclast.

In 2001, Ram Dass suffered a massive brain hemorrhage which impaired his speech and left him partially paralyzed. For most people, the spiritual is a private affair, but not for Ram Dass; from the very beginning, he has laid his process bare for all to see, taking us along with him through his learning process. Since his stroke, he continues his teaching and model living now sending back reports from the inner front of ageing, disability and dying.

We had the great privilege of meeting Ram Dass in Hawaii where he is currently living. The house, owned by one of his students, was spacious and filled with light. There was a chant playing softly on the stereo and the sweet fragrance of incense in the air. Ram Dass was in his wheelchair welcoming us as we arrived- he looked like an ancient sage. His speech was slow and somewhat aphoristic, but his wit, wisdom and clarity shone through. We sat with Ram Dass and spent the afternoon discussing yoga, divine love, and the spiritual life. The questions and answers here were culled from a long and free flowing joyous conversation, full of laughter and love.

FY: Ram Dass, what is your secret for longevity on the path?
RD: My living relationship with my guru. He’s like a good friend with me during my life. Any other relationship dims compared to the one I have with him because he’s just full of consciousness. He sort of keeps me on the path. He shows me that there is much more than we are settling for.

I think it’s also satsang- connecting with the guru and people who are on the path. I’m not saying people who want to be on the path, but people who are on the path.

FY: How would you describe the difference?
RD: People who ‘want to be on the path’ are mostly in their mind. They visualize the path but are really caught in their minds. People on the path are immersed in Knowing.

FY: Divine Love seems to be one of your central themes. How has your expereince and understanding of love evolved over the years?
RD: There’s a teaching which my guru gave me. On Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays, he would bring me up from the back and say “Ram Dass, Love everybody”. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he’d bring me forward and say “Ram Dass, you are to tell the truth”. And those are the things: tell the truth, love everybody. Finally, he brought them together.

I had a very interesting expereince. At that time, I couldn’t stand most of my guru brothers and guru sisters. One day, I was coming into the temple and one of these persons brought me a plate of food. I was so mad that I took the food and I threw it! My guru on the other side of the courtyard -I didn’t think he saw it- he said, “Ram Dass! Something the matter?”
I said “I hate those people.”
He said, “I thought I told you to love people?”
I said “Yes- but you also told me to tell the truth. The truth is -I hate those people.”
So he came very close- nose to nose- and said “Love everybody AND tell the truth.”

On my Puja (Altar) table is George Bush- you see? There’s my Guru, there’s Sai Baba, Nityananda, Ramana Maharshi other good people-and George Bush. What I do is I say hello to them; I say hello to my Maharaji and Anandamayi Ma and my heart goes wild- I think of them as soul. Then I look at George Bush and I say (in a formal voice) “Hello George” -and I see that I’m not willing for him to be a soul. That’s something in me- it’s not in him. I say “there is a person who I do not love”. That’s the truth. Maharaji said “Love everybody and tell the truth.” So I have to love the Soul that is called George Bush -the soul that has taken on heavy karma -the heavy Karma of all the shit he’s got to do. I cannot like the karma, but I’ve got to love the soul; that soul has got a road to hoe! I can love George Bush because I love the Soul and I can therefore be true to my commitment to my guru.

FY: In your sadhana, your spiritual path- what has most surpised you?
RD: I think that turning out to be Ram Dass and not Richard Alpert is surprising.
Up to Harvard- all through school years I had an image of myself, and that image never had in it the way it’s turned out. I remember one of the extra courses I taught at Harvard was career counseling. They were Harvard students -how many choices did they have? Lawyer? Doctor? Even about my own life, it was like I had blinders on –doctor, lawyer, that was it. I couldn’t imagine this, this is too aberrant: Ramdass- a person on a spiritual path. Because up until the time that I experienced psychedelics, I didn’t know a spiritual path. It was that flip- after that, I was in a different game than I had thought of before.

FY: Do you feel like you are still in that game today?
RD: The spiritual game? I think so. I convert things in my life to how they can help me as a soul get closer to the One.

FY And that’s the game?
RD Yes. For instance, I could say “This is an interview for a magazine!” I can think “Oh, sugarplums!” Or I can see it as something that could catch me and keep me from being free. I’m reacting to how it plays in “soul land”. (laughs)

At this point we asked Ram Dass about “Be Here, Now” the practice of being in the present moment. At first he struggled to find the right words to talk about being in the moment- then he gave up and lead us in an experience of the living present. He invited us to listen to the airplane overhead, to feel the presence of his guru in the room, to see the light, to feel our bodies. We all went into a state of deep bliss and silence. Then he said,

RD…if you go into the moment, the texture of it, the trivialness of it… the lack of concepts of spirituality, what we’re feeling in our bodies, you expereince that in the moment it is God. Anyplace in the past and future is in your mind. Everything is here, now- and joyful. You’re in contact with Gods manifestation- and you are god’s manifestation.

FY: Most people in the west practice hatha yoga and this is the only contact they have with yoga. It seems there may be some misunderstanding about the true meaning of yoga. What do you think about the yoga movement in the west?
RD: Hatha yoga is one type of yoga… I think that some of the teachers of yoga in the west are heaping karma on themselves. Their students come seeking for something and they direct them into something else. If they see yoga as stretching, then that teacher is leading souls astray. They have made the yoga achievement oriented- “look how well I can do it”. They’ve taken a beautiful method and westernized it. When you give something from another culture and then acculturate it to you own culture- you’re not learning. If your motivation for yoga is to make your body beautiful, you are using the path, the practice to keep yourself stuck in this world. If you use the asanas as communication with the One then you’ve got it.

FY: How do you define yoga?
RD: Yoga is merging with the One. That’s yoga. that’s ‘yug’.

FY: You write and speak a lot about ageing, death, and dying. What happens after death?
RD: If you have an answer to that when you’re dying, it will correspond to where you go. Where you go will be determined by your mind. You might go to an incarnation, or some other light realm. You may meet awareness. You may meet the light or you might blend with light.

FY: What about Neem Karoli Baba? He left his body in 197?. Where is he now? (when we asked this question, Ram Dass closed his eyes for some time. You could see and feel him going deep inside before he answered…)
RD Everywhere. See, before he died, I localized him in India. Now He’s here. Wherever I am he’s here.

FY: What would you say has been your greatest contribution as a leader and as a teacher while you were here?
RD Introducing society to Maharaji- that’ grace- that’s really grace.

FY: what is Ram Dass’ practice these days
RD: Living life. Anything that comes up in life has been given to me as grace from my guru- that’s that. And when there’s anything where I can’t see that, then I’m worried. I’m in Grace. I use contemplation – I sit and look at my neighbor (my neighbor being the ocean) and I just sit with the ocean and let my mind go where it goes but my awareness is the ocean.

Currently, Ram Dass is preparing for two retreats happening later this year. Fit Yoga readers may want to check out ramdasstapelibrary.com. This is site designed to sell Ram Dass’s books and numerous sound recordings of his talks. Recently, a series of lectures Ram Dass delivered at Naropa University on the topic of the Bhagavad Gita were re-mastered onto CD format. These lectures, recorded in 1974, capture many essential Ram Dass teaching moments. Those lectures have also been turned into the book entitled Paths to God. For additional events and information you can also visit www.centerforspiritualstudies.net

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