stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

BEEN HERE, DONE THAT, WHAT NOW? 65
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So where are they now?
Well, Neem Karoli Baba passed away in the autumn of 1973.
Ram Dass himself sadly suffered a serious stroke in 1997, providing
him with the personal background to complete a touching
and (thankfully) relatively non-mystical book on aging—Still Here.
The sixty-something Joya, in no danger of “sitting at Ram
Dass’ feet” at any point in the near future, continues her teaching
activities at her own Kashi Ashram in Florida. That environment
itself, along with its “Ma,” has been uncomplimentarily profiled
numerous times in various local, regional and national newspapers
and magazines since the mid-’70s, as documented at www.kashi
ashram.com. Also see Tobias and Lalich’s (1994) Captive Hearts,
Captive Minds.
And what of the “mythical being,” Bhagavan Das, in America?
I ... found myself onstage before thousands of people, I
named babies and blessed people, and people fell at my feet.
I felt like a king with my patrons and movie stars, but I was
still a kid, a guru at twenty-five, sitting on a tiger skin in a
Manhattan town house....
After three years of “spiritual life” that was really a
party [drugs, groupies, etc.], I got sick of it and wanted to be
home with my children. I rejoined the world and [ironically,
given the Land Rover incident] sold used cars in Santa Cruz,
I became a businessman, and I gradually lost my sense of
[the] divine completely (in Kornfield, 2000).
At one point during that Faustian descent into the business
world, after having experienced a profoundly moving vision of the
crucified Jesus, Das actually became a born-again Christian, thereby
returning to his family’s Episcopalian roots.
I was now officially in Bible college, and I was going to be a
pastor....
I got rid of everything but my Bible, which I worshiped.
I’d go to bed with my Bible, I’d sleep with it, and I’d hug it.
And God woke me up at all different times of the night....
I would go into Denny’s restaurant with my Bible, constantly
looking for souls to save. I did nothing but read the
Bible and pray (Das, 1997).