L e g e n d a ry guru and musician Bhagavan Das alights inNew York City for a month of

chanting and worship By S t e ffie Nelson

As an author, musician, educator and religious see ke r, Bhagavan Das, 58, has devoted thegreater pa rt of his life to God, enlightenment and go o dt i m e s. At 19, when he was still called Michael Riggs, the

L aguna Bea ch, California, native began a seve n -year spiritual jour-ney through India and Nepal. He lea rned from mystics, spent wee k sfasting in caves, and traveled for months wearing only a loincloth andc a rrying a begging bowl made from a human skull. In 1970, Bhagava nDas introduced f ormer Harva rd pro fe s s or Rich a rd Alpe rt to hisfriend and guru Neem Ka roli Baba. The meeting tra n s f ormed the al-rea dy unort h o d ox academic into the famous spiritualist Ram Dass.In fact, the sage ’s first book, Be Here Now, took its title f rom one ofB h a gavan Das’s mantras, and its success pro pelled him into the spo t-light, where he became a ro ck star for the spiritual set. He toured withAllen Ginsberg, re c orded a chanting a l bu m , AH ( D h a rm aw a re ) ,and lived in lavish mansions lent by wea l t hy admire rs.

In the past decade, the 6'5" drea d l o cked guru has focused hissubstantial energies on pe r f orming k i r t a n s— evenings of c a l l - a n d -re s ponse chants—and leading spiritual work s h o p s. In 2002, he re-l eased the albu m N ow (Karuna), a collaboration with the BeastieB oys’ Mike D. Though Baba, as he’s affe c t i o n a t e ly known, is an in-s p i rational spiritual figure, his path to enlightenment was hard lyf ree of v i c e. As recounted in his memoir, 1998’s I t ’s Here Now (AreYo u ? ) ( Random House), he romanced groupies, married three timesand pa rtied exc e s s ive ly, which led to a stint in AA.

“He doesn’t put himself on some spiritual pedestal, and that’s whyI look up to him,” says Uma Sara swati, a Jivamukti yo ga tea cher whowas married to Bhagavan Das for four yea rs in the late ’90s. “Thatreal, honest quality is something ve ry hard to find in high people likehim—[most] like to do eve rything that’s un-yogic behind cl o s e dd o ors.”

TO N Y took the A train to Bhagavan Das’s current digs in In-

wood, where he discussed the spiritual path and his upcomingroster of N ew York kirtans over green tea .Time Out New Yo r k : I that understand you’re planning tomake New York your home base. Do you feel that the cityis evolving as a spiritual center? Bhagavan Das: A b s o l u t e ly. This is the center of s a m s a ra— t h erealm of b i rth and death. Money is eve ry t h i n g, sex is where it’s at,who kills the most wins. And this kind of gross consciousness is awonderful, fe rtile ground for real spiritual growth. So the audience isre c ep t ive because it’s rea l ly hard here. When people come to see me,t h e y ’re gonna rea l ly connect with me, t h e y ’re gonna rea l ly ch a n t ,and it’s going to ch a n ge their lives because they’re open to it.T O N Y: One of my yoga teachers said that we a re in theKali Yuga, the Age of Kali, a time of great change andre b i rth [under Hindu philosophy]. She even saidSeptember 11 was connected to this.B D :We ’re in ve ry dange rous times, even on a physical plane. We ’rel iving in a time of great darkness, spiritually. As Kali Yu ga pro-gresses, this time of materialism rea ches its zenith. The Kali Yu gais the dharma-ending age, when the blackness has come so deep lyu pon us that it just starts accelerating until the whole thing is de-s t royed. And it grinds you down to a point of excellence in yo urown being. T O N Y: For someone who senses this darkness and wantsto embark on a spiritual path, what’s the best way to gets t a rted? BD: I don’t think there ’s spe c i f i c a l ly “a way.” Any path will takeyou there, if you have great devotion. The key here is real intentionand the deepest level of commitment; like eve rything in life, yo uo n ly become adept at something that you wholehea rt e d ly giveyo ur attention to.

T O N Y: Do you identify with a particular re l i g i o n ?Obviously Hinduism, but you’ve also studied Ti b e t a nBuddhism and you were a born-again Christian. BD: I identify with love, I identify with attention, with consciousness,with aw a re n e s s. There ’s only one religion, and that’s compassion. I loveHinduism, I love Buddhism, I love Jesus, I have a lot of c o n n e c t i o n s.Buddhism is pro b ab ly the best bet for most people because it’s not are l igion, it’s a science. Science is good, because people don’t have tob e l i eve any t h i n g. T O N Y: Yet you say that the nature of the true self is bliss.BD: But you see, you have to discover that. It’s not a concept. It’sl i ke, back off f rom the drama and just be still. Get up ea rly in them orning and sit for 15 minutes; just look at what we think is rea l .Wh e re is our self? Who is our self? My self ch a n ges all the time; Idon’t know who I am. We just fl ow into whatever the thing is. Im ean, what do you identify with? The yo ga thing is good, we alln eed something to keep us in a s a t s a n g,an association of l i ke - m i n d-ed souls. So we go to the center and do yo ga and hang out with pe o-ple who are working on themselve s. T O N Y: So is it satsang that people who come to yourk i rtans are looking for?BD: A b s o l u t e ly, ’cause when we ’re all together in a room and we ’re allchanting and we ’re all breathing toge t h e r, it’s like we become thish u ge deity of b reath and now we have a thousand arms and legs anda thousand heads and eve ryo n e ’s in the same breath. You wanna loseweight? Great. It doesn’t make any diffe rence what yo ur trip is. Thepoint is to get in.T O N Y: Could you talk a bit about the tradition of kirt a n ?BD: K i rtan is a form of i nvoking a mantra or the name of a deity ove rand over again so that it takes you out of the conceptual mind and yo ufall back into pure aw a reness and pure sound. And then that invo c a-tion and that praise bring about an ex perience of connecting with yo urinner being. T O N Y: You’ve made an album with Mike D. from the BeastieBoys, which marries traditional Hindu chants and mantraswith blues, gospel, beats and samples. How did that comea b o u t ?BD: M i ke D. is a great yogi; he does yo ga, like, four hours a day. Hedoes p u j a [ritual worship], he chants, he’s in it. He’d read my book,fl i p ped out, wanted to meet me, and he came to my workshop on n a d ay oga[ yo ga of sound]. And then the re c ord happened…After I laidd own all the basic tra cks, Mike D. put eve rything around it and turn e dit into what it is. It was a full collab oration. You like it?T O N Y: I t ’s great, I love it.BD: Yeah, it work s. The thing is, the only way to a real mystical con-nection is to rea l ly find it where yo u ’re at. This is my job. I’m like a har-b i n ger of that energy to this culture. Without someone in this culturewho speaks Americanese, who is in an American body, people are n ’ tgonna get it. Otherwise, it’s just a foreign thing; it’s an interesting ex-otic re s t a urant to go eat in.

Bhagavan Das will be leading kirtans at Jivamukti Yoga Center April 5, 12,

19 and 26. 8pm, donations requested. For more i n f o rmation, go to

w w w. j i v a m u k t i y o g a . c o m .He will also teach a puja intensive workshop a t

Laughing Lotus Yoga Center April 26–30, culminating in a benefit kirtan Fri

30. $450 for a full week, $100 per day; kirtan $20. For more inform a t i o n ,

go to www. l a u g h i n g l o t u s . c o m

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