Neem Karoli Baba | |
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 Neem Karoli Baba at Kainchi | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Lakshman Narayan Sharma c. 1900[1] Akbarpur village,North-Western Provinces,British India[2] (present-dayFirozabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India) |
| Died | 11 September 1973 Vrindavan, India |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Philosophy | Bhakti yoga |
| Religious career | |
Neem Karoli Baba (Hindi:नीम करौली बाबा,romanized: nīm karaulī bābā)[3] orNeeb Karori Baba (Hindi:नीब करौरी बाबा,romanized: nīb karaurī bābā) (born:Laksman Narayan Sharma;c. 1900 – 11 September 1973), also known to his followers asMaharaj-ji, was aHinduguru and a devotee of theHindu deityHanuman.[4]
Lakshman Narayan Sharma[5] was born around 1900 in the village Akbarpur in the Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh, India, in a wealthyBrahmin family.[1] After being married by his parents at the age of 11, he left home to become a wanderingsadhu (religious hermit).
Neem Karoli Baba, known at the time as Baba Lakshman Das (also spelled "Laxman Das"), left his home in 1958 and wandered through Northern India.[6] He later returned home, at his father's request, to live a settled married life. He fathered two sons and a daughter.[7] During his life two mainashrams were built, at Kainchi and at Vrindavan.[1] TheKainchi Dham, where he stayed in the last decade of his life, was built in 1964 with a Hanuman ji temple.[8][9][10] In time, over 100 temples were constructed in his name.[1]
Neem Karoli Baba died at about 1:15 a.m. on 11 September 1973 in a hospital atVrindavan, India,[11][12] after slipping into a diabetic coma. He had been returning by night train toKainchi[13] nearNainital, fromAgra where he had visited a heart specialist due to experiencing pains in his chest. He and his traveling companions had disembarked atMathura railway station where he began convulsing and was taken to a hospital where he died.[14][15] His last words, repeated several times, were "Jaya Jagadish Hare" ("Hail to the Lord of the Universe").[16] Hissamadhi (shrine) was built in the complex of the Vrindavan ashram.
After returning to the United States,Ram Dass andLarry Brilliant founded theSeva Foundation, an international health organization based in Berkeley, California.[17] In the late 2000s the 'Love Serve Remember Foundation' was established to promote the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba.[18] In 2024 his followerRahul Verma founded the NKB Divine Meditation Foundation, offering free guided meditation sessions based on the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba.[19][20]
Each year on June 15, to commemorate the foundation day of Kainchi Dham in 1964, a largemela (fair) known asKainchi Dham Mela, is organised, in which thousands of devotees and pilgrims take part.[21][22]
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