“Love everyone, serve everyone, remember God.” For millions of devotees in India and around the world, these simple words sum up Neem Karoli Baba — Maharaj-ji — one of the most loved saints of modern India. He wrote no books, gave few formal lectures and owned almost nothing. Yet more than fifty years after his passing, people still travel to the Himalayas to sit where he sat.
Early life
Neem Karoli Baba was born around the year 1900 as Lakshman Narayan Sharma, in the village of Akbarpur in present-day Uttar Pradesh. As a young man he left home to wander as a sadhu across North India. The name “Neem Karoli” comes from a village associated with one of the most famous stories told about him — the legend of a train that would not move without him. Like many stories of his life, it is told with love by devotees, and is best understood as testimony rather than proven fact.
Hanuman devotion and the temples
Maharaj-ji was a lifelong devotee of Hanuman. He encouraged people to chant the Hanuman Chalisa and inspired the building of many Hanuman temples across India. Service, feeding people and simple devotion mattered far more to him than rituals or philosophy.
Kainchi Dham
In 1964 he established the ashram that became the heart of his legacy: Kainchi Dham, in a narrow valley near Nainital in Uttarakhand, at a bend in the road shaped like a pair of scissors (“kainchi”). Every year on 15 June, the anniversary of its founding, Kainchi Dham holds a mela that draws many thousands of devotees.
How the world came to know him
In 1967 a Harvard psychology professor, Richard Alpert, met Maharaj-ji in India. He returned as Ram Dass, and his book Be Here Now introduced Neem Karoli Baba to a generation of Western seekers. Another devotee, Dr Larry Brilliant, went on to work with the World Health Organization’s smallpox eradication programme in India. Kirtan musicians carried his name around the world, and later visitors to Kainchi Dham have included well-known figures from technology and entertainment.
His simple teachings
Love everyone. Serve everyone and feed people. Remember God. Tell the truth. He often said “Sub Ek” — all is one. His teaching was less about belief and more about how you treat the person in front of you.
His passing
Neem Karoli Baba left his body in the early hours of 11 September 1973 in Vrindavan. Devotees still speak of feeling his presence and grace, and his ashrams in India and abroad continue his work of devotion and service.
Also available in Hindi (नीम करौली बाबा) and Tamil (நீம் கரோலி பாபா).