Table Of ContentCopyright © 2011 Love Serve Remember Foundation
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ISBN 978-0-615-54873-9
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This book is dedicated to the devotees of Neem Karoli Baba.
It is said that those who are dear to the one who is dear to you,
become dear to you also. This is true, and we realized this in those
early days when we gathered together as Babaji’s devotees… We
were all included in Babaji’s family and we were entitled to have our
share in everything. He played his game so skillfully that most of us
felt we were his near and dear ones, and he could not do without
us… The great lesson we learned was that happiness would come
only if we learned not to shut anyone out as a stranger, or deny
anyone his share and place in the family.
From The Near and the Dear by Dada Mukerjee
The editors would also like to acknowledge and dedicate the spirit of this
book to Thomas Spiritoso, who, when the Be Here Now social network
was created on RamDass.org, became one of the first people to share
his stories, pictures and letters about his meeting with Ram Dass. Soon
after he posted this content he died suddenly in Philadelphia in 2009.
His contributions inspired other to share their stories and love through
this book.
Remarkable Encounters
with Ram Dass
Compiled by Raghu Markus on behalf of the Love
Serve Remember Foundation
Introduction
1960s
Video: "Now is Then"
Rameshwar Das
Murari (Thomas Spiritoso)
Jai Hanuman
Krishna Das
Raghu Markus
Parvati Markus
Paul Singer
Mirabai Bush
1970s
Video: “Love Power Truth”
David Silver
Jon Seskevich
Judith Sookne
Joe Cicero
Christine Truhe
Hanuman (Ed Fissinger)
Shava Nerad
Dr. E. Stone
Mark Ekwall
Melissa Copeland
Bob Skutelsky
Eric Lang
Video: “No Clinging, No Suffering”
Pat & Dianne DeLapp
Lynda Tanaka
Thomas Hoffman
Joyce Lively
Wendy Moore
Renee Davenport
Jai Ram Ransom
Jessie Senibaldi
Sandy Janaki Gaal
Robyn Tom (Shaw)
1980s/1990s
Video: “Being Human”
Cat Anderson
Antonio
Jo Clarkson
Beverly Morgan (Uma Mayan)
Tony Kadikoff
Elaine Tognazzini
Dana
Carrie Adler
Video: “Conceptual Mind”
David Whittaker (Arjuna)
Siward Mullens
Joseph
Video: “Understanding Coming Together”
Rick
Julianne
2000s
Video: “A Fellow Soul”
Kevin Light
Brent Field
Sharon Roll
Nancy Eckert
Janette Holland
John Miller
Cheryl Lynn Krunkoski (Ramachandra)
Holly Cedar
Video: “Blanket Story”
Ken Sandin
Chris
Jack van Maas
Sean Collins
Jessica Slade
Elizabeth Severino
Durga
Denise Coates
Maria C Salomone Gabelberger
Tracy Peng
Shanti (Stephanie Reiter)
Carla Lockwood
Christa Melde
Saraswati Markus
Video: “Maharajji’s Heart Turned on my Heart”
Visit ramdass.org/epub to view videos from Remarkable Encounters
with Ram Dass.
Introduction
In the late Sixties, when Ram Dass first returned from India, he
began to share with American audiences his personal transformation
from Richard Alpert to Ram Dass. After hearing Ram Dass’s words
of his direct experience with Neem Karoli Baba, or Maharajji as we
came to call him, we were deeply affected and drawn to the
experience of “hanging out” with Ram Dass either on his lecture
tours or at his father’s farm in New Hampshire.
As we started meeting each other and sharing our stories of how
we met Ram Dass, we realized that there was a common theme or
understanding - a connection through Ram Dass to unconditional
love, to an honest direct awareness of the foibles of being human,
and to having a sense of humor about it all.
The sharing of our stories became a way of recognizing our
interconnection, that we are all in this together. It foretold what we
were to feel upon meeting Maharajji, which Larry Brilliant described
this way: “The miracle was not that Maharajji loved me; it was that I
loved everyone around me when I was with Maharajji.” That
experience is the essence of how Ram Dass transmitted Maharajji’s
love.
So, to continue what Ram Dass started with the publication of Be
Here Now, we decided to publish an e-book in celebration of the
fortieth anniversary of his first sharing his story in print. And it is even
more fitting that these new stories are from people who are part of
Ram Dass’s online satsang, also called Be Here Now. They are very
similar to the stories we shared in the late Sixties, but also unique to
each person within the collective heart. It is indeed awe-inspiring that
the power of the unconditional love can connect us all over this wide
expanse of time and bring us into the collective spiritual heart that
Ram Dass has represented over the last four decades.
Please accept this small offering as a tribute to the willingness of
Ram Dass to share what he learned in India in 1967 from Maharajji.
May that willingness to share compassion and love continue to light
our path and others for generations to come.
-Raghu Markus
