Neem Karoli Baba: Maharaj-ji, Love and Service
Written and reviewed by The Kriya Yogi · Updated 25 September 2026
Neem Karoli Baba, known to devotees as Maharaj-ji, was a North Indian saint who spent much of his life wrapped in a plaid blanket, feeding visitors and saying very little. He is not part of the Kriya lineage and taught no technique in that sense. His path was bhakti — devotion — centred on Hanuman and Ram. He became famous in the West through Ram Dass, and more recently through the visits of well-known technologists to his ashram at Kainchi.
The short answers
- Born Lakshmi Narayan Sharma around 1900 in Akbarpur, Uttar Pradesh; died 11 September 1973 in Vrindavan.
- Named after the village of Neeb Karori, where he lived for a time.
- Devotee of Hanuman; established Hanuman temples and the Kainchi Dham ashram near Nainital (1964).
- Core teaching as remembered by devotees: "Love everyone, serve everyone, remember God, tell the truth."
- Guru of Ram Dass, Krishna Das, Bhagavan Das and Larry Brilliant, among others.
A saint without a system
Maharaj-ji didn't give discourses, write books or initiate people into a method. Devotees describe him laughing, feeding everyone who came, and sending people away as often as he welcomed them. What he did say was brief: love, serve, remember. "Sab ek" — "all is one." He often told Westerners that serving people was the way to serve God.
Hanuman and bhakti
His devotion was to Hanuman, the monkey god of the Ramayana who embodies selfless service to Ram. Devotees chant the Hanuman Chalisa, a forty-verse hymn by Tulsidas, and many say Maharaj-ji was himself a form of Hanuman. For a practitioner this is the heart of the path: service with no self-interest, sustained by remembrance of the divine name.
Kainchi Dham
Kainchi Dham, in the hills near Nainital in Uttarakhand, was founded in 1964 and is his best-known ashram. The annual festival on 15 June draws very large crowds. Steve Jobs travelled to India in 1974 hoping to meet him, arriving after his death; Mark Zuckerberg visited Kainchi in 2015 on Jobs's suggestion. These visits made the ashram famous far beyond the devotional world.
The Western connection
In 1967 Richard Alpert — soon to be Ram Dass — was brought to Maharaj-ji by a young American sadhu, Bhagavan Das. Ram Dass's account of that meeting, in which Maharaj-ji seemed to know private details of his mother's death, is the famous turning point of Be Here Now. Through him, and through Miracle of Love, a book of devotees' stories, Maharaj-ji became known to millions who never met him.
How to learn from him
There is no technique to master. The practice is the life: kindness to the next person, honest speech, and remembering God through name and song.
Learning from his teaching
Serve someone today
Do one concrete act of service without telling anyone. That was the teaching.
Chant the Hanuman Chalisa
Learn it slowly, a few verses at a time; many devotees recite it daily, often with a mala.
Repeat the name
Silent repetition of 'Ram' through the day is the simplest form of his remembrance.
Read Miracle of Love
The stories are devotional testimony — read them for their spirit.
Cautions worth reading
- Maharaj-ji taught no secret technique; anyone selling 'Neem Karoli Baba initiation' should be treated with caution.
- If you visit Kainchi, check crowd and road conditions, especially around the June festival.
History and devotion
His approximate dates, ashrams and circle of devotees are well documented, and many photographs survive. The miracles devotees describe — knowing thoughts, being in two places, taking large doses of LSD without effect — are testimony, told with great sincerity but not independently verifiable.
Questions people ask
+ Who was Neem Karoli Baba?
+ What did Neem Karoli Baba teach?
+ Is Neem Karoli Baba part of Kriya yoga?
+ Did Steve Jobs meet Neem Karoli Baba?
Sources
- Ram Dass (compiler), *Miracle of Love: Stories About Neem Karoli Baba* (Dutton, 1979).
- Ram Dass, *Be Here Now* (Lama Foundation, 1971).
- Ram Dass & Rameshwar Das, *Being Ram Dass* (Sounds True, 2021).
- Tulsidas, *Hanuman Chalisa* (16th century), in any reliable translation.
Dates and places are drawn from published biographies; stories of miracles are reported as the tradition tells them. Nothing here is medical advice.