Devotees of Maharajji

A Harvard psychology professor who had been exploring consciousness through LSD with Timothy Leary, Ram Dass came to India in 1967 searching for something deeper. His encounter with Maharajji was utterly transformative — Maharajji demonstrated impossible knowledge of his life, his deceased mother, and his innermost thoughts. This shattered Alpert's materialist framework. Maharajji gave him the name "Ram Dass" (servant of God) and sent him back to the West to share the message of love. His book Be Here Now (1971) became one of the most influential spiritual books of the 20th century, read by millions worldwide. Ram Dass spent the rest of his life teaching, writing, and serving as a living embodiment of Maharajji's grace. He passed away in 2019 in Maui, Hawaii.

Krishna Das spent years at Maharajji's feet in the early 1970s and was devastated by his mahasamadhi in 1973. Returning to America, he struggled to integrate the experience, eventually finding his way through kirtan — devotional chanting. His recordings have sold millions of copies and he received a Grammy nomination for Live Ananda. Each performance is an act of devotion to Maharajji — Krishna Das describes every concert as him "calling out" to his guru. He has said: "Maharajji showed me that love was possible. He changed everything I thought I knew about who I was."

Steve Jobs visited India in 1974 at age 19, specifically going to Kainchi Dham to seek Maharajji — not knowing he had passed away the previous year. Jobs spent months in the Kumaon hills and across India, adopting a fruit-based diet as a spiritual practice (some link this to his later choice of "Apple" as a company name). In his authorized biography by Walter Isaacson, Jobs described this India journey as one of the most important of his life, attributing his intuitive, non-linear creative approach and his belief in the power of experience over intellect directly to this period of immersion in Indian spiritual culture.

In 2015, during a particularly difficult period at Facebook — facing criticism, self-doubt, and questions about purpose — Mark Zuckerberg visited India and made a specific pilgrimage to Kainchi Dham on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi had recommended the ashram as a place to reconnect with the idea of service. Zuckerberg subsequently wrote publicly about the visit as deeply meaningful, describing how it renewed his conviction that technology must be in service of human connection and wellbeing. The visit became internationally reported as evidence of Maharajji's growing influence on the global tech world.

Dr. Larry Brilliant came to India as a young doctor and encountered Maharajji in the early 1970s. Maharajji directed him to work with the WHO's smallpox eradication programme — a suggestion Brilliant followed despite knowing nothing about epidemiology at the time. He went on to lead the successful WHO effort to eradicate smallpox from India — one of the greatest public health achievements in human history. Brilliant attributes this entire chapter of his life directly to Maharajji's guidance. He later became CEO of Google.org and has remained one of Maharajji's most prominent Western devotees.

A Grammy-nominated musician and producer who spent his formative years in Maharajji's presence in the early 1970s. Uttal has said that Maharajji's love completely dismantled his sense of self and rebuilt him around devotion. His music — blending Indian classical forms with Western rock and jazz — has been heard by millions and has been a major vehicle for bringing the Bhakti tradition to Western audiences. Each recording, he says, is an offering at Maharajji's feet.

The Harvard psychologist and author of the landmark Emotional Intelligence (1995) spent time with Maharajji during his India travels in the early 1970s. He has described Maharajji's presence as a living example of the highest emotional and spiritual intelligence — someone who operated from a place of pure love and total awareness. Goleman has said the encounter with Maharajji was foundational to his later thinking about the relationship between emotional awareness, compassion, and human flourishing.

Perhaps Maharajji's closest Indian devotee, Siddhi Ma (whose given name was Jivanti) was considered by many to be a saint in her own right. She lived with and served Maharajji for decades and after his mahasamadhi became the primary guardian and caretaker of the Kainchi Dham ashram. Her presence at the ashram for over 40 years after Maharajji's passing was itself considered a continuation of his grace. She passed away in 2017, and her own samadhi is at Kainchi.