Ram Dass's third major book, completing a trilogy with Be Here Now (1971) and Still Here (2000). The book centres on his decades-long relationship with his guru Neem Karoli Baba — Maharaj-ji — and the lineage of bhakti (devotional) practice he absorbed in Kainchi and brought back to American satsang life. Co-written with Rameshwar Das after Ram Dass's 1997 stroke.
Where Be Here Now is Ram Dass's account of his conversion from Harvard psychologist to spiritual seeker, Be Love Now foregrounds bhakti as the central teaching — the argument that love, not merely presence, is the heart of the path. The book moves through nine chapters covering the path of the heart, the guru relationship, Maharaj-ji's teaching stories, Ram Dass's stroke and the grace that followed it, and portraits of saints in the bhakti lineage. It is the most personally vulnerable of his major books and the one most directly shaped by his devotion to Maharaj-ji.
Once you have drunk from the water of unconditional love, no other well can satisfy your thirst.
First lines
Welcome to the path of the heart! Believe it or not, this can be your reality, to be loved unconditionally and to begin to become that love.
Contents
Getting Here from There (Foreword by Rameshwar Das)
The Path of the Heart
Excess Baggage
To Become One
Darshan
Guides
Remover of Darkness
The Way of Grace
A Family Man
One in My Heart
Reception
Treated inside the Ram Dass community as the most personally vulnerable of his major books — the stroke complicated his speech and writing process, and the collaboration with Rameshwar Das is unusually visible in the prose. Bhakti and the Maharaj-ji material had been present in his earlier books but here is foregrounded as the through-line of his life. The Love Serve Remember Foundation has continued the dissemination since his death in 2019. Reception is essentially monolithic positive within his audience; outside it the book reads as a coda rather than an entry point and most new readers still come to him through Be Here Now.
Frequently asked
What is Be Love Now about?
Ram Dass traces his forty-year relationship with his guru Neem Karoli Baba — Maharaj-ji — and the bhakti practice he received at Kainchi ashram. The book is the most devotionally explicit of his three major works and reads as a record of a life shaped by that encounter. It was co-written with Rameshwar Das after Ram Dass's 1997 stroke.
How does Be Love Now differ from Be Here Now?
Be Here Now (1971) is Ram Dass's account of his conversion from Harvard psychologist to spiritual seeker. Be Love Now shifts to bhakti as the central teaching — the argument that love, not merely presence, is the heart of the path. It is also more autobiographically intimate; the stroke-related collaboration with Rameshwar Das is visible in the prose.
Who was Maharaj-ji and why is he central to this book?
Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji) was a North Indian saint associated with Hanuman devotion who died in 1973. Ram Dass encountered him in 1967 and described the meeting as the turning point of his life. Be Love Now foregrounds that devotional relationship more than any of his earlier books, presenting Maharaj-ji as the living source of everything Ram Dass taught.