SANTA CRUZ – Baba Hari Dass, the spiritual leader and silent monk who inspired thousands out of the Mount Madonna Center north of Watsonville, died Tuesday morning in his Bonny Doon home. He was 95.
Known by his students and devotees as Babaji — Hindi for “respected father,” he taught yoga and meditation out of the Watsonville retreat center and school after moving to the U.S. from India in 1971.
Babaji took a vow of silence in 1952, conversing only through his writings and a small chalkboard from which he would dispense terse-yet-profound utterances to those who sought his advice.
Asked once by a Sentinel reporter to describe himself, he wrote simply, “I am what people see me as.” Asked how should one live a good life, he would reportedly respond, “Work honestly, meditate every day, meet people without fear, and play.”
Born March 26, 1923, in Almora, India, in the foothills of the Himalayas, Babaji was said to have left his home at age 8 to pursue what his calling to become a monk, joining a nearby spiritual school.
He is said to have spent his youth practicing yoga and meditation and helping to build temples in the Himalayan foothills, soon becoming a venerated yogi and ascetic in his own right and building a following in India.
He emigrated to the U.S. in 1972 at the invitation of two American students, and took up residence with UC Davis professor Ruth Horsting. His reputation in the U.S. spread on the wings of a 1971 book “Be Here Now” by former Harvard psychologist Richard “Ram Dass” Alpert, who had studied yoga with Babaji in India. A group of devotees formed at UC Santa Cruz and Babaji soon moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains with Horsting.
His followers formed the nonprofit Hanuman Fellowship in 1972 and began hosting retreats. In 1978 the nonprofit purchased 350 acres of rural land north of Watsonville and founded the Mount Madonna Center. The center now sees thousands of visitors each year and is the site of the Mount Madonna School, a private K-12 school with about 200 students.
“Babaji put things in motion around him,” said Ward Mailliard, who led the Hanuman Fellowship for decades and now serves on its board. “He had a way of seeing people’s talents and gifts and helping put them in service to the greater good. That’s how Mount Madonna came about.”
In 1982, Babaji founded the Sri Ram Ashram orphanage near Haridwar in northern India.
Among those raised at the orphanage are Prabha Sharan, 29, and Soma Sharan, 24, who each said they consider Babaji their father due to his impact on their lives. Both women immigrated to the U.S. as children to study at the Mount Madonna School on student visas.
“He taught me how to serve others, whether through laughter or kind being,” said Prabha Sharan, now an orthopedic nurse at Stanford Hospital.
“He was the most selfless human being I think any of us who met him ever encountered or will encounter in their lives,” said Soma Sharan, who works at a social justice nonprofit in Los Angeles. “Everything he did made people better versions of themselves.”
Once asked by a Sentinel reporter about why he chose to remain silent, he wrote this: “First to conserve life energy. Second, to silence the mind. And third, to develop non-attachment to desires.”
“He had the ability to see people,” Mailliard said. “People would come and ask him questions, and he would answer on his chalkboard, and he had a way of cutting to the essence of things.”
More than 100 people had gathered at the Santa Cruz Memorial Cemetery by 3 p.m. Tuesday, where Babaji lay in his final silence, blanketed in multicolored rose blooms.
“Ram Naam Satya Hai,” chanted the waiting devotees, a Hindi chant that translates to, “The name of Rama is truth.” Babaji was cremated later Tuesday per his wishes.
MEMORIAL SERVICE
A traditional Vedic memorial service is planned for Oct. 7 at the Mount Madonna Center, 445 Summit Road north of Watsonville, with details to be announced at mountmadonna.org.
Those wishing to make a memorial donation to the children at the Sri Ram Ashram may do so at sriramfoundation.org.
