Baba Hari Dass (Devanagari: बाबा हरि दास) (26 March 1923 – 25 September 2018) was an Indian yoga master, silent monk, temple builder, and commentator of Indian scriptural traditions of dharma and moksha. He was classically trained in the Ashtanga of Patanjali (also known as Rāja yoga),[1] as well as Kriya yoga, Ayurveda, Samkhya, Tantra, Vedanta, and Sanskrit.

Baba Hari Dass took a vow of silence in 1952, which he upheld through this life.[2] Although he did not speak, he was able to communicate in several languages through writing. His literary output included scriptural commentaries to Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Bhagavad Gita, Samkhya Karika, and Vedanta, collections of aphorisms about the meaning and purpose of life, essays, plays, short stories, children's stories, kirtan, mantras, and in-depth instructional yoga materials that formed the basis of a yoga certification-training program.[3]

Upon his arrival in North America in early 1971,[4] Baba Hari Dass and his teachings inspired the creation of several yoga centers and retreat programs in the United States in Santa Cruz County, California,[5] and in Canada at Salt Spring Island and in Toronto.[6] He was an early proponent of Ayurveda,[7] an ancient Indian system of health and healing, and helped introduce the practice to the United States.

In an annual rendition of Indian classic Ramayana,[8] he taught performing arts, choreography and costume making. Baba Hari Dass devoted himself to helping others, with an emphasis on selfless service (karma yoga); In 1987 he opened Sri Ram Orphanage for homeless children in Haridwar India.[9] To the local population of Nainital and Almora, Baba Hari Dass was also known as Haridas[10] (lit "servant of Lord Hari"), Haridas Baba,[11] Chota Maharaji[4] (literally "little great king"), or Harda Baba.

Hari Datt Karnatak was born on March 26, 1923, in Almora, Uttarakhand, India. He grew up in the lower Himalayan region of Kumaon, where he listened to stories of siddha yogis and saints of that region. His parents were devotees of a saint of Kumaon, Hariakhan Baba Maharaj. Hari Datt received his first darshana with the sage Sombari Baba Maharaj on a journey to Haldwani in 1929.

Hari Datt's early childhood years were marked by sadness and the feeling of separation. His father died in 1931–1932, which brought Hari Datt a sense of relief as he was free to do anything he wanted. He was attracted to the lifestyle of monks, unburdened by excess of clothing or work and who did not have to attend school. His mother was not in favor of this and Hari Datt had several conversations with her about God, soul, and peace. His view of the surrounding world as being a restraining box made of earth as the bottom and sky as the top induced him to weep. Deciding it had to be lifted, he made his conviction known to his mother, asking her to release him from the confinement of "this box of earth and sky." To that she said, "I can't." He replied, "I'm going." With his mother's consent, he left home at the age of eight and joined an ashram for young yoga practitioners in the jungles of Kumaon, where he was initiated into Brahmacharya.

Baba Hari Dass was introduced to the teachings of Swami Satyananda Giri in 1936, where he learned about Hatha Yoga and Ayurvedic principles. He was then asked to teach others in the class, which helped him overcome his shyness. In the same year, he had a darshan of Anandamayi Ma, a woman saint who was in a trance state, which made him interested in practicing yoga. His quest for knowledge continued as he visited different villages in the Himalayan mountains and encountered several Westerners who were learning yogic practices. In 1942, at the age of 19, he was initiated into the Vairagi-Tyagi Vaishnava order of Ramanandi Sampradaya by his guru, Baba Raghubar Dassji Maharaj. Maharaj was known for minimal verbal communication but was highly regarded as a renunciate and a Sanskrit Acharya. Baba Hari Dass also had an experience with the legendary Kumaon yogi Hariakhan Baba while staying in a cave in the winter of 1952-1953. Later on, Baba Hari Dass took a vow of silence and practiced tapas, which helped him in his spiritual growth.

Baba Hari Dass, a silent monk, teacher, and guru, passed away on the first day of Krishna Paksha Pratipada in the Lunar Indian calendar system following Purnima in the month of Bhadrapad. Twelve days after his mahāsamadhi, a Sraddha ritual was performed lakeside at Mount Madonna Center in Watsonville, California, on October 7, 2018, which was attended by around 1,500 people. The San Francisco Chronicle noted that although Baba Hari Dass had been absent due to his health deteriorating in the last five years, his passing would still have an impact on the community. On November 19, 2018, his ashes were immersed in the Ganga at Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar, India, on an auspicious day of Ekadashi with special puja and arati.

The text describes the events that led to the departure of Haridas, one of Neem Karoli Baba's disciples, from the organization in the late 1960s. Haridas had been a monk who had accepted silence and disciplined life as essential in spiritual progress. However, he encountered several obstacles in his observance of silence and eating habits, including during the Kumbh Mela, where he was forced by Neem Karoli Baba to break his monastic rules. Haridas sought conducive circumstances for his teaching environment to benefit learners and to build a small community of his own devotees. However, several disruptions and conflicts occurred in Kainchi ashram where he was a resident, teacher, and supervisor, and he eventually discontinued his involvement with Neem Karoli Baba. The text also discusses the relationship between Neem Karoli Baba and Baba Hari Dass, another disciple who traveled to the US in the early 1970s to continue his way of silent teaching. Finally, the text mentions Ma Renu, also known as Ruth Horsting, who invited Baba Hari Dass to the US and sponsored his stay for the purpose of teaching yoga. Their association over the years led to the formation of several organizational projects and service missions in the US, Canada, and India.

The impact of Baba Hari Dass and Ram Dass on the spread of yoga in the United States cannot be overstated. Baba Hari Dass was an influential yoga teacher whose reputation preceded him by several years before he arrived in America in 1971. He had already been teaching yoga in India for many years and was highly respected in the yoga community there.

Ram Dass, who was a prominent spiritual teacher and author, was one of Baba Hari Dass's students. Ram Dass spent five months under Baba Hari Dass's tutelage in Nainital, where he learned about hatha yoga, yogic life, and conduct. Ram Dass later compiled this knowledge into his book Be Here Now, which was published in 1971 and quickly became a bestseller.

Be Here Now was a significant contribution to the public knowledge of yoga in the United States and Canada, and Baba Hari Dass was recognized as a master yogi as a result. Ram Dass called Baba Hari Dass "this incredible fellow" and spoke highly of him in the first edition of Be Here Now, but some of these comments were later removed.

The removal of these comments was explained in Ram Dass's book Be Love Now, where he stated that he had mixed up Baba Hari Dass and Neem Karoli Baba when he heard a story from Baba Hari Dass. This story was about a person who left home at a young age to pursue spiritual liberation, and Ram Dass mistakenly attributed it to Neem Karoli Baba instead of Baba Hari Dass.

Despite this mistake, Baba Hari Dass and Ram Dass played a significant role in the spread of yoga in the United States. Baba Hari Dass continued to teach yoga and meditation in the US for many years and founded several yoga centers. Ram Dass became a prominent spiritual teacher and author, and his books and lectures on spirituality and yoga have had a profound impact on many people.

Baba Hari Dass was a yoga teacher who started teaching core yoga practices in California in the early 1970s, which later evolved into an aerobic hatha yoga regimen called Fitness Asanas. He also introduced other practices such as kirtan, mudras, fire ceremony, and satsang to complement the busy schedule. He traveled to Canada to establish Dharmasara community in Toronto, Salt Spring Centre of Yoga on Salt Spring Island, and Dharma Sara Satsang in Vancouver.

In 1973, Baba Hari Dass's first book, The Yellow Book, was published, followed by Hariakhan Baba - Known, Unknown, a compilation of stories about an Indian saint, in 1975, and Silence Speaks, a collection of question-answer discussions, in 1977.

Baba Hari Dass's experiences in designing, building, and managing ashrams in India led to the creation of the Hanuman Fellowship in Santa Cruz, California, in 1974. The fellowship established the Mount Madonna Center for Creative Arts in Watsonville, California, in 1978. The center's vast mountainous terrain was well suited for physical work with many volunteers working as karma yogis. However, in 1982, the main program building burnt down due to a candle fire. Baba Hari Dass and his followers responded to the disaster by implementing a new plan to build a larger program building that could host multi-user activities.

Baba Hari Dass developed a three-tier yoga teaching schedule for beginners, intermediate and advanced practitioners. Regular classes in the Yoga Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, satsang events, Ramayana play, martial arts, sport activities with annual Hanuman Olympics and retreats provided a rich holistic background in learning. Baba Hari Dass emphasized physical work and volunteer karma yoga services, as he believed that social contact and interaction while working together would translate into other areas and support the functioning of the multi-purpose facility "where a spiritual aspirant could come to learn yoga and find peace." Similar projects were created at the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga in Canada, in Vancouver, BC, and in the Pacific Cultural Center in Santa Cruz, California.

He helped bring Ayurveda to the US in the early 1970s. He taught combined classes in Ashtanga, Samkhya and Ayurveda and invited several notable Ayurvedic teachers. He also inspired and supervised several programs focused on training future yoga instructors in the US and Canada. His teachings combined the eight limbs of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with the scriptural tradition of Hatha yoga and the metaphysics of Samkhya. He also emphasized experience through regular routine, incorporating practices such as kirtan, mudras, pranayama, and the subtle body. Baba Hari Dass' contributions have been recognized by many authors and practitioners in the field of yoga and Ayurveda.

Sri Ram Ashram is a children's home, school, and medical clinic located in rural Shyampur village, in the northern state of Uttaranchal, India. It was established in 1984 by one of Baba Hari Dass's students, Ma Renu. The Ashram was created to support orphaned and destitute children, who are either brought to the Ashram by their families or found abandoned in the streets.

The focus of Sri Ram Ashram is to provide children with a loving home, education, and medical care. Its aim is to help children attain higher states of concentration according to Rāja yoga, which is rooted in the development of the physical body (Hatha Yoga). Baba Hari Dass believed that regular sadhana, or spiritual practice, is a key element of yoga, and he encouraged his students to adopt a disciplined life.

The yoga tradition of Dattatreya and Patanjali, according to several authors, originated with Dattatreya, who is credited with the authorship of Jivan-Mukti-Gita and Tripura-Rahasya. The Ashtanga or Rāja yoga tradition, also known as the eight-fold path of Yoga, was likely developed prior to the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in the same ascetic circles as the early sramana movements. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a fundamental text of this tradition, and Baba Hari Dass composed his own in-depth commentary to elucidate difficult theoretical concepts with many years of experience and knowledge of yoga practices.

Baba Hari Dass was a monk who dedicated his life to yoga and spiritual practice. He established Sri Ram Ashram with the proceeds from his yoga books and generous donations to provide a loving home for children in need. Baba Hari Dass started his weekly Yoga Sutras of Patanjali classes at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1975, building upon the Himalayan Kumoan tradition of centuries-old yoga development. He believed that people who are married are also capable of leading a yogic life and advocated for Grihasta Yoga, a form of householder yoga.

Baba Hari Dass was known for his contributions to the spread of yoga, Hindu philosophy, and Indian culture in the Western world. One of his notable achievements was training students at Mount Madonna School in California to perform a musical stage production of Ramayana, which became an annual tradition. He taught various aspects of theater arts, including acting, costume design, mask making, and choreography to bring the characters of Ramayana to life. His commentary on Bhagavad Gita, Chapters 1-6, emphasizes the importance of action performed for the good of all, while his commentary on Samkhya Karika and Vedanta explores the principles of the Self and the material world. Baba Hari Dass took a vow of perpetual silence in 1952, which he kept until his passing in 2018. He died peacefully in hospice care near Santa Cruz, California.

Baba Hari Dass was a spiritual leader and silent monk who inspired thousands at the Mount Madonna Center north of Watsonville, where he taught yoga and meditation after moving to the US from India in 1971. He took a vow of silence in 1952 and communicated only through his writings and a small chalkboard. He was also a builder and a local teacher-leader, who had established a local following and was considered an adept teacher, a leader, and builder in several building and karma yoga construction projects at Hanuman Garhi and Nainital Ashram temples. Baba Hari Dass used his design, planning, and construction skills in the United States and Canada as well. He donated proceeds from his books to the Sri Ram Foundation, which was set up to help destitute children in India. From those funds, and other donations, Shri Ram Ashram was created near Haridwar, in India.