Be Here Now

Ram Dass’s *Be Here Now*, first published in 1971, is a landmark of Western spiritual literature that grew out of his transformation from Harvard psychologist Richard Alpert into a devotee of the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba. The book unfolds in four distinct sections. The first, “Journey: The Transformation,” is a candid autobiographical account of Alpert’s path from psychedelic research with Timothy Leary at Harvard through his 1967 travels in India, where he met Maharaj-ji and was given the name Ram Dass, meaning “servant of God.” The second section, “From Bindu to Ojas,” presents the core teachings in a graphically inventive format of sparse text, photographs, and line drawings. It maps the spiritual journey through concepts such as the bindu (a point of concentrated energy) and ojas (vital essence), while introducing Hindu and Buddhist frameworks including the gunas, the chakras, and the cycle of death and rebirth. Central to this section is the metaphor of the “somebody” versus the “nobody” training, along with practices of mantra repetition and guru devotion. The third and longest section, “Cookbook for a Sacred Life,” is a practical manual of yogic methods: meditation instructions, breathing exercises, karma yoga, and guidance on finding and relating to a guru. The final section, “Painted Cakes Do Not Satisfy Hunger,” consists of a curated anthology of spiritual texts from Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and Sufi sources, closing with a glossary and bibliography. Its distinctive collage-like design and countercultural fusion of Eastern practice with Western seeking made it a defining text of the 1970s spiritual movement and a perennial introduction to meditation and devotional yoga.