Bhagavan Das

I'm familiar with Ram Dass' spiritual journey from America to India that led to his encounter with his guru Neem Karoli Baba. What I did not know until recently is that Bhagavan Das (formerly Michael Riggs) traveled to India first from his home in Laguna Beach and it was through Bhagavan Das that Ram Dass met Neem Karoli Baba.

I thoroughly enjoy reading memoirs. My favorites are women's memoirs and spiritual memoirs. While I was at the Bodhi Tree on Sunday, I picked up a used copy of Bhagavan Das' It's Here Now (Are You?) : A Spiritual Memoir, which was originally published in 1997.

Sometimes I think I have too much of a Western skepticism within me. I've read of a two-headed dog attacking Bhagavan Das (he awoke the next day to find his wound completely healed by a Buddhist master) and of him witnessing Neem Karoli Baba perform many astonishing acts, including multiplying apples, eating more food than a human being could possibly digest, disappearing into thin air, and creating paper money out of fire. I'm sure more is to come, because I'm only about one-third of the way through the book.

I asked my husband last night what he thought of all of this. He responded that he believed it was probably true. Perhaps it is.