Love and Legacy of Baba Ram Dass

Ram Dass was a Harvard psychologist, born Richard Alpert, who went to India in 1967, met his guru and came home a spiritual teacher whose book Be Here Now reached millions. His legacy is a simple idea that's surprisingly hard to live: love people, serve them, and show up for the moment you're actually in.

Most of us don't live there, though. We replay yesterday's conversation and rehearse tomorrow's worries, and somewhere in between, today slips past without us.

That's exactly why his work still lands. He didn't talk down to anyone. He talked to the part of us that already suspects there's more to life than getting through the to-do list. So let's spend some time with his life, and with the ideas he left behind, and see what we can carry into our own days.

Who Was Ram Dass?

Ram Dass was born Richard Alpert in Boston in 1931 and became a psychology professor at Harvard. In the early 1960s he worked with Timothy Leary on research into psychedelics, work that was controversial enough to end in his dismissal from Harvard in 1963. You can read the fuller story in his Wikipedia biography.

In 1967 he travelled to India and met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, who gave him the name Ram Dass. It means "servant of Ram", usually rendered as "servant of God". Four years later, Be Here Now came out and, as the Ram Dass Love Serve Remember Foundation puts it, became a counterculture classic that introduced meditation and yoga to a whole generation.

He went on to write more books, including Still Here and Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita, and co-founded charitable organisations such as the Seva Foundation and the Hanuman Foundation. In 1997 a stroke left him partly paralysed and struggling for words. He came to see even that as a kind of grace, learned to speak again and kept teaching until he died in Maui in 2019.

If you're curious where to begin, start with Be Here Now. Read a few pages at a time. It isn't a book you rush.

Be Here Now

Three words. They capture his work better than anything else. So much of our pain lives in the past, in what went wrong, and in the future, in what might. Right now, in this breath, most of us are actually okay.

You can still plan and remember. The practice is to stop the past and the future from stealing the only time we really have. We will not get this exact moment again.

Try this today: set three reminders on your phone. When one goes off, stop for one minute. Notice five things you can see, the feeling of your feet on the floor and three slow breaths. That's it. That's being here.

Remember You're Here to Make a Difference

Service sat at the centre of Ram Dass's life, from the charities he helped start to one of his best-known books, How Can I Help? Your world starts to change when you realise you're here to make a difference in someone else's life, not just to get through your own.

And it doesn't have to be grand. A call to a friend you haven't heard from. Real attention for the person serving your coffee. Being there for someone without trying to fix them.

This week, pick one small act of service and do it without telling anyone. If you'd like ideas, here are some simple ways to contribute to society.

Listen to the Songs of Your Soul

We spend so much of our lives listening to everyone else: parents, partners, bosses, feeds. It's not just about hearing what others say. It's about hearing the softer voice underneath, the one that knows what matters to you.

That voice doesn't shout. It needs a little silence before it'll speak up.

So give it some. Sit somewhere alone for ten minutes, no phone, and ask yourself one question: "What do I actually want more of in my life?" Write down whatever comes, even if it surprises you.

Know That You're Already Worthy

Worthiness isn't earned, and it isn't handed out to a select few. You're worthy. You're deserving. You don't have to become someone else first.

Let that sink in, because most of us live as if the opposite were true. We wait to feel enough until after the promotion, the weight loss, the relationship. The world wants you as you are, unpolished.

When the old voice says you're not enough, answer it out loud if you can: "I'm allowed to be here as I am." Say it like you'd say it to a friend.

See How Much We Share

We're more alike than we are different. Under the politics, the accents and the arguments, we all want to be safe, to be loved and to matter to someone. We're stronger together, and we need to remember that now more than ever.

It's easy to play the blame game in the name of our differences. It's harder, and far more healing, to look for what we have in common.

Next time you catch yourself judging someone, pause and name three things you probably share with them. Maybe they're tired. Maybe they love someone. Maybe they're scared too.

Get Comfortable Becoming Nobody

Ram Dass often talked about the self and identity, and the 2019 documentary about his life is even called Becoming Nobody. If this idea calls to you, Michael A. Singer explores it further in The Untethered Soul. Underneath it all, we're pure consciousness having a human experience.

Here's the twist. The moment you're comfortable being nobody at all, you're free to become anybody. When you're clinging to being somebody, there's no room to become anything else. Cryptic, but true. Read that one more time.

Try noticing the labels you lean on: the successful one, the reliable one, the one who never needs help. Pick one and ask, "Who would I be if I put this down for a day?" If that question unsettles you, our piece on not knowing who you are might help.

Let Go of What You've Been Holding

The Bhagavad Gita, which Ram Dass explored in Paths to God, teaches us to do our work without clinging to the results. It's a lesson that reaches far beyond the page.

There's no glory, bravery or wisdom in hanging on to things that don't serve you. There's no prize for the one who suffers the longest. Just let it go.

Write down one thing you've been carrying: a grudge, a regret, an old story about yourself. Read it once, then tear it up or delete it. It's a small ritual, but your body notices. For more on this, read about the law of detachment.

Carry His Legacy Forward

Ram Dass touched millions of lives, and his words still speak to the soul. But a legacy like his doesn't live in books. It lives in what we do with it: a little more presence, a little more service, a little less clinging.

So let's learn together and grow together. Let's make the most of the time we have now. You don't have to get it all right. You only have to keep coming back to here.

Which of his ideas feels closest to you? Tell us in the comments.