Neem Karoli Baba

Neem Karoli Baba
Neem Karoli Baba sculpture in Ram Dass library
Religion	Hinduism
Philosophy	Bhakti yoga, Sewa
Personal
Nationality	Indian
Born	Lakshmi Narayan Sharma 1900 c. Akbarpur, Faizabad district, North-Western Provinces, British India (now in Ambedkar Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India)
Died	September 11, 1973 Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India
Religious career
Guru	Hanuman
Disciple(s)	Bhagavan Das, Jai Uttal, Krishna Das, Ma Jaya, Ram Dass, Ram Rani, Surya Das

Neem Karoli Baba (Hindi: नीम करौली बाबा) or Neeb Karori Baba (Hindi: नीब करौरी बाबा) (1900 c. - September 11, 1973), also known to followers as Maharaj-ji, was a Hindu guru, mystic and devotee of the Hindu deity Hanuman. He is known outside India for being the guru of a number of Americans who travelled to India in the 1960s and 1970s, the most well-known being the spiritual teachers Ram Dass and Bhagavan Das, and the musicians Krishna Das and Jai Uttal. His ashrams are in Kainchi,Vrindavan, Rishikesh, Shimla, Neeb Karori village near Khimasepur in Farrukhabad, Bhumiadhar, Hanuman Gadi, Lucknow, Delhi in India and in Taos, New Mexico, USA.

Born as Lakshmi Narayan Sharma, around 1900 CE, at Akbarpur, Uttar Pradesh, in a Brahmin family of Durga Prasad Sharma. After marrying young Neem Karoli Baba became a wandering Sadhu. Baba boarded a train without a ticket and the conductor decided to halt the train and force Neem Karoli Baba off of the train at the village of Neeb Karori. After kicking Baba off of the train the conductor found that the train would not start again. After several attempts at starting the train someone suggested to the conductor that they allow the Sadhu back on to the train. Neem Karoli agreed to board the train only if the railway company could promise to build a station at the village of Neeb Karori. The officials agreed and Neem Karoli Baba boarded the train, jokingly saying, "what is it up to me to start trains?" Immediately after boarding the train started and a train station was built at the village of Neeb Karori. Baba lived in the village of Neeb Karori for a while and was given the name "Neeb Karori Baba" by locals. The name "Neem Karoli Baba" is likely due to a mispronunciation of Neeb Karori Baba that became popularized.

Neem Karoli Baba left his home in 1958, around the time when his youngest child, a daughter, was eleven, thereafter he wandered extensively throughout Northern India as a sadhu. During this time he was known under many names including Lakshman Das, Handi Wallah Baba, and Tikonia Walla Baba. When he did tapasya and sadhana at Vavania Morbi in Gujarat, he was known as Tallaiya Baba. In Vrindavan, local inhabitants addressed him by the name of Chamatkari Baba (miracle baba). During his life two main ashrams were built, first at Vrindavan and later at Kainchi, where he spent the summer months. In time, over 100 temples were constructed in his name.