Echoes from Neem Karoli Baba

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Samarth Guru Ram Das was guru to King Shivaji in the 1600s. The name Samarth meant “all-powerful” and there are many stories of his miraculous powers. He lived in a mud hut next to the king’s palace. The king was highly regarded for his concern for his subjects and for his generous feeding of the poor, but apparently now and then his ego got the best of him. When this happened the guru would do things like splitting a rock in which there were many tiny bugs and asking the king, Who was feeding these bugs? The realization of the triviality of his own efforts would again humble the king.

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One day the king (Shivaji) came out of the palace and did obeisance to the guru (Samarth Guru Ram Das). Then the king handed him a scroll in which he had bequeathed all his kingdom to the guru. The guru took the scroll, read it, accepted it, and then said to the king, “Now you run it for me!”

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I am in the world but not concerned with the world. I am going through the marketplace, but not as a purchaser.

- Maharajji (Neem Karoli Baba) quoting Kabir

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Maharajji would sit out in the back in his chair, looking up at the hills, saying, “Look at those trees on that mountain. Who waters them? Who takes care of them? Those are the assurance that God exists for people. Those are what people can look to, to know about God.”

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[In the context of never ever forgetting God] If you have a toothache, you do what you do, but the mind remains on the tooth.

- Maharajji

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(Excerpted from Miracles of Love: Stories About Neem Karoli Baba compiled by Ram Dass)

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