Editor's entry
~1 min readRam Dass’s account of his transformation from Harvard psychologist Richard Alpert into a devotee of the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba. The book’s middle section is a hand-illustrated, non-linear meditation manual that has been continuously in print since 1971, and is credited by figures from Steve Jobs to George Harrison as a pivotal text.
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Reception
editor-collectedA counterculture landmark — over 2 million copies sold and credited by figures from Steve Jobs to George Harrison as a pivotal text. Praised for its visual inventiveness and its bridging of psychedelic 1960s seekership with Hindu devotional practice. The standard critique is that it romanticises the guru-disciple relationship in ways that aged poorly, and that Ram Dass himself spent later decades qualifying the certainty of the original text.
Index reception note
Frequently asked
3 questions- What is Be Here Now about?
- Ram Dass’s account of his transformation from the Harvard psychologist Richard Alpert into a devotee of the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba. The book’s middle section is a hand-illustrated, non-linear meditation manual; the front and back frame the autobiographical and practical material around it.
- Why is Be Here Now considered a counterculture landmark?
- Released in 1971, it sold more than two million copies and was credited by figures from Steve Jobs to George Harrison as a pivotal text. It is one of the books most responsible for moving Hindu devotional practice into the American counterculture.
- How did Ram Dass himself view the book later in life?
- He spent later decades qualifying the certainty of the original text — particularly around the guru-disciple framing — while continuing to recommend the book as a record of where he was in 1971. The middle section is still the most widely cited part.
Catalogue record
- Author
- Ram Dass
- Title
- Be Here Now
- Publisher
- Crown Publishing Group
- Year
- 12 October 1971
- Pages
- 416
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780517543054
- Shelf
- Awakening · Presence · Now
Availability
By the same author
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