Parvati Markus - Whisper in the Heart: The Ongoing Presence of Neem Karoli Baba

Maharajji turns on the light to give us a glimpse of what we truly are and to bring us back home to ourselves.

Krishna Das

Whisper in the Heart

The Ongoing Presence of Neem Karoli Baba

Parvati Markus

Foreword by Pete Holmes, Author of Comedy Sex God

Neem Karoli Baba is a being who transcends all boundaries religious classification, preconceived notions of a yogic path, even death so why wouldnt he be as real to those of us who never physically met him as our own most beloved family members? In this magical and evocative collection of stories, we meet the one Ram Dass called Maharajji in all his variegated beauty, his unconventional holiness, his deep humanity and sublime transmission, his wildness and rootedness. If you didnt already love this baba before picking up this book, I promise you will fall in love right here, and that such a love will change everything, everything.

M IRABAI S TARR

author of Caravan of No Despair and Wild Mercy

People all over the world have had interactions with Neem Karoli Baba since he died in 1973. These stories remind us that the hereafter is here and now, and that love transcends death. That presence and love are never really distant. The influence of such a being is always available, no matter our limited concepts of time and space. The wind of grace is always blowing!

R AMESHWAR D AS

co-author of Being Ram Dass

Years ago, after hearing me complain about not having the sort of karma that allows you to meet a being like Maharajji in person, Krishna Das put his hand on my shoulder and said, The Longing is the grace. This book will fill you up with that kind of grace. Stories of Maharajji are somehow more than just stories. They reach through time and allow you a taste of the sweetness that drew so many people to India just to spend a few moments at his feet.

D UNCAN T RUSSELL

comedian, writer, podcaster, actor

Parvati has birthed a beautiful blessing for our world. Listen! This book will amplify the whispers of hope, inspiration, courage, and kindness in your heart.

T RUDY G OODMAN

PhD, Vipassana teacher and founding teacher of InsightLA

When I first met Neem Karoli Baba through chanting with Krishna Das, reading stories of him by the old devotees was the way I learned to understand the feelings that arose. Stories about saints fortify our faith, so I thank Parvati for widening the circle by including these stories of Maharajjis contact with our hearts through infinite time and space.

N INA R AO

musical artist and chant leader

In each lifetime, in each moment, He finds us and brings us back home to ourselvesto Himself. Out of His love for us, He wakes us up again and again life after life. He is the one who is HERE! We are dreamers, asleep in our inner darkness. He turns on the light for us to give us a glimpse of what we truly are.

K RISHNA D AS

chant master

For many of us who didnt have the good fortune of being with Maharajji in the physical body, it is the stories that bring us his presence and love. We are always thirsty for the devotees memories and stories of him and this book is yet another well of grace to quench our hearts.

T REVOR H ALL

singer/songwriter

This wonderful collection of stories about encounters with Neem Karoli Baba is a feast for the Soul. These stories embody the essence of Grace that indefinable blessing of connection with the Divine mystical events that have happened to so many of us, in which we find ourselves stepping briefly out of the mundane and into the Sacred. The experiences so beautifully portrayed in this book will help to stretch your awareness and to see through the very thin veil that separates ordinary experience from the miraculous. Neem Karoli Baba reminds us that every moment is a miracle no matter how mundane it may seem and that miracles often happen through simple events we might overlook if were not paying attention with a quiet mind and an open heart tuned to Love.

R AMANANDA J OHN E. W ELSHONS

author of One Soul, One Love, One Heart, and Awakening from Grief

In Whisper in the Heart we learn that the veil of death is just that, and that a great being like Neem Karoli Baba removes that veil and touches the hearts and minds of people all over the world. Both while sleeping and waking, he reaches into the mindstreams of people of many ages and nationalities and lights them up with love, wisdom, and humor. What originally impressed Ram Dass, then Richard Alpert, was Maharajjis omniscience about the death of his mother. But until the birth of this book, we might not have known that Maharajjis omniscience goes beyond time and space and can still be accessed. What a valuable gift Parvati Markus has skillfully given us, to know this is possible and to bring these stories to the world in these challenging times!

L AMA T SULTRIM A LLIONE

author of Wisdom Rising and founder of Tara Mandala

It has been so hard for me to put this book down and return to attending to my daily life. Maharajjis transmission flows through all of it, with an enormous flood right out of the gate. I found myself in tears many times. I love every one of the shared stories, and there is a sweet flow to all of it. Maharajji just comes through the book.

M ELINDA E DWARDS , MD

psychiatrist and founder of Living Darshan

From the point of view of a devotee, it reassured me tremendously that there are so many others who have experienced Maharajji since he left his body; though each persons experience was their own, there was a thread that connected all of us. I think that for others who have not been so fortunate as to experience Maharajji yet, this book may very well serve as his invitation!

G AYATRI W AGLE

Bach Flower practitioner

To the One Who Whispers in Our Hearts

Neem Karoli Baba Maharaj

BY P ETE H OLMES , AUTHOR OF C OMEDY S EX G OD

Like 99.999 percent of the population, I never met Maharajji. In fact, until I was thirty-five, I had never even heard of him. If you had shown me his photo, I wouldve thought it was Sean Connery. Or maybe a bald Tom Selleck. I had no clue as to what an earth-shattering spiritual figure he was. But that all changed when I was a guest on a fellow comedians podcast, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour.

Most comedians are atheists, which makes sense. First of all, atheism looks so cool. Its the cigarette of beliefs. Just leaning on your Dodge Charger, smoking away, scoffing, You think theres a God? GET REAL! Comedians dont want to belong to any group or belief system. We prefer to be in the back of the room, huddled together and making fun of the people dumb enough to sit up front and participate.

Duncan, however, is the exception to most rules. Not only is he a hilarious comedian, he also, from what I could tell that day, believed in whatever God crossed his pathBuddha, Krishna, even Christ, the faith I was raised with. I was surprised and delighted when Duncan would go on and on about his love of Jesus, even if it was after licking three drops of liquid THC off the back of his hand. Still. To use the language of the church I grew up in, he seemed pretty on fire for the Lord. As we chatted about myth, metaphor, symbol, and LSD, I noticed behind his wide-smiling, Jim-Henson-looking head, a photo of a bald man in a blanket in front of which Duncan had left a bunch of bananas.