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Bhagavan Das, of Be Here Now fame (the best-selling spiritual journal by Ram Dass), was born in Laguna Beach, California in 1945.
Seeking enlightenment and his lifes purpose, he left home at age 18. His travels led him to India in 1963, where he became a Yogi and renounced the world. He now had a single purpose,
to find and know God.
Bhagavan Das was the first American to live with the acknowledged saint Neem Karoli Baba and was the catalyst for the many westerners that followed on a similar journey to the East in the late 60s and early 70s. He spent six continuous years in India and Nepal.
While there he studied Hinduism and Buddhism, living the life of a Sadhu (an ascetic renunciate). During those years, he received numerous initiations and teachings from living Masters including Karmapa, Dudjom Rinpoche, Lama Kalu, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and Anandamayi Ma.
Back in America, Bhagavan Das met and began working with the likes of poet Alan Ginsburg and Zen spiritualist Alan Watts among others. It was during this time that Bhagavan Das was introduced to Jimi Hendrixs manager Michael Jeffries who arranged for him to record in the legendary Electric Ladyland studios
Those sessions led to his first album entitled AH. AH is one of the earliest recordings in what would be known as "world music". And today, Bhagavan Das is quoted as being "the Jimi Hendrix of kirtan masters."
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