Revealing Ram Dass’s Secret Thoughts of His Mother

In 1967, Dr. Richard Alpert was a prominent Harvard University psychologist, intellectual, and scientific researcher. Disillusioned with Western academic materialism and seeking higher consciousness, he traveled through India with young seeker Bhagavan Das in a Land Rover.

When Bhagavan Das announced that they were going to meet his guru in the Kumaon foothills, Alpert was deeply cynical. He was determined not to be duped by another Indian holy man or charismatic guru.

The night before they met Maharaj Ji, Alpert stepped out of the ashram house into the crisp mountain air. Looking up at the starry Himalayan night sky, an overwhelming wave of sadness overcame him as he remembered his mother, who had passed away from spleen illness in Boston a year prior. He thought intimately of her hospital room, her pain, and the unresolved emotional bond between them. He did not speak a single word of these private thoughts to Bhagavan Das or anyone alive.

The next morning, Alpert was brought into a courtyard where an elderly Indian man wrapped in a plaid blanket was reclining on a wooden cot. Alpert felt skeptical and uncomfortable.

Suddenly, Maharaj Ji looked directly across the courtyard, pierced Alpert with his radiant eyes, and motioned him over. In rapid Hindi, Baba said: "You were thinking about your mother last night under the stars, weren’t you?"

Alpert froze. The translator translated the words. Baba continued: "She died in the hospital of spleen disease, didn’t she? Before she died, she had a big belly."

Alpert’s mind stopped completely. A physical shockwave ripped through his nervous system. Here was an illiterate saint living in a remote Himalayan valley who not only knew his most intimate thoughts from midnight hours before, but spoke of his mother’s exact medical condition in Boston.

In that timeless moment, Alpert realized that Maharaj Ji was not just an individual mind, but pure, all-knowing consciousness itself. More importantly, as Baba looked into his eyes, Alpert felt a torrent of total, unconditional love that washed away decades of academic ego, guilt, and alienation. He fell to his knees, wept openly, and was reborn as "Ram Dass" (Servant of God).