Neem Karoli Baba was a guru avatar of Lord Hanuman and a great saint. He was a strong devotee (Bhakt) of Lord Ram. He is originally known as Lakshmi Narayan Sharma. He is also known by various other names. Neem Karoli Baba was born approximately around 1900 AD, at Akbarpur (Uttar Pradesh) in a Brahmin family of Durga Prasad Sharma. He became a wandering Sadhu after he married at the age of 11 years. On his father’s request he did return back home to live a married life after which he fathered a daughter and two sons.
He went to Gujarat at a very young age and resided at a small temple at the side of a lake at a place named Bavania. Gradually he started living at other different places. Neem Karoli Baba has helped a lot of people and built many temples during his lifetime. A lot of devotees visited him always. He began to be well known as Guru or Bhagavan Das and Baba Ram Dass in the countries in the West through his works like ‘It is here now’ and ‘Be here now’. During the 1960s and 1970s a lot of Americans visited India during which Neem Karoli Baba became their Guru.
On September 11th, 1973, Neem Karoli Baba he left his physical body at Vrindavan after attaining enlightenment. However numerous devotees do receive his guidance and blessing and also experience his physical presence.
His followers know him as a Hindu Guru (Maharaj-ji), as a devotee of the Hindu God Hanuman and as a mystic. A number of ashrams are dedicated in Neem Karoli Baba’s name at Shimla, Kainchi, Rishikesh, Vrindaan and Neem Karoli village in Farrukhabad at Khimasepur, besides Delhi and Lucknow.
