Neem Karoli Baba — known simply as Maharaj-ji to those who loved him — was one of the most beloved saints of modern India. He left no organisation, wrote no books, and sought no followers. And yet his love quietly reshaped countless lives, in India and far beyond, in ways still unfolding today.
A wandering sadhu
Born around the turn of the 20th century in a Brahmin family in Uttar Pradesh, he was married young, as was the custom — but the pull of God was stronger. He left home to live as a wandering sadhu, travelling across India under many names, sometimes recognised as a saint, often simply passing through.
The name by which the world now knows him came from a small village. Riding a train without a ticket, he was asked to get down at a station called Neeb Karori. He stepped off, sat by the tracks, and the train — so the devotees say — would not move again until the railway officials begged him back aboard. He took the village's name as his own.
Kainchi Dham
In the serene Kumaon hills near Nainital, where two streams meet between two hills shaped like the blades of a pair of scissors (kainchi), Maharaj-ji helped establish the ashram and Hanuman temple now known as Kainchi Dham. Its foundation is remembered each year on 15 June with a great bhandara — a feast where thousands are fed, just as Maharaj-ji always insisted everyone should be.
Devotion to Hanuman
The whole of Maharaj-ji's life flowed from his love of Hanuman — the perfect devotee, strong and humble, whose only wish is to serve Ram. Maharaj-ji built Hanuman temples across India and would not let people touch his own feet; touch Hanuman's feet instead, he would say. To be near him was to be quietly turned back toward God.
His teaching, in four breaths
He gave no complicated philosophy. When people asked how to live, how to find God, he answered with a few plain instructions — and lived every one of them himself:
- Love everyoneसबसे प्रेम करो
- Serve everyoneसबकी सेवा करो
- Feed everyoneसबको भोजन कराओ
- Remember Godराम का स्मरण करो
“Don't put anyone out of your heart.”
Mahasamadhi — and a love that travelled
Maharaj-ji left his body on 11 September 1973 in Vrindavan. But his presence had already crossed oceans. Western seekers who found him in the 1960s and 70s — among them Ram Dass, Krishna Das, and humanitarian Larry Brilliant — carried his love home. Out of it came the book Be Here Now, a worldwide movement of kirtan, and the Seva Foundation, which has restored sight to millions in his name.
Today his dhams draw devotees from every corner of the earth. And in small rooms like ours in Nashik, on a Tuesday evening, the same lamp is lit and the same names are sung.
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