Baba Rampuri, born William A. Gans (July 14, 1950) is an American born

Sadhu ''Sadhu'' (, IAST: ' (male), ''sādhvī'' or ''sādhvīne'' (female), also spelled ''saddhu'') is a religious ascetic, mendicant or any holy person in Hinduism and Jainism who has renounced the worldly life. They are sometimes alternatively ...

. He claims to be the first westerner to become a

Naga Sadhu Naga or NAGA may refer to: Mythology * Nāga, a serpentine deity or race in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions ** Phaya Naga, mythical creatures believed to live in the Laotian stretch of the Mekong River ** Naga, another name for Bakunawa, an ...

, having been initiated in 1970. He is the author of the 2010 Destiny Books published book ''Autobiography of a Sadhu: A Journey into Mystic India'', originally published in 2005 by Harmony/Bell Tower as ''Baba: Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Yogi'', and now released by Amarpuri Wellness in 2016 as ''Autobiography of a Sadhu: An Angrez among Naga Babas'' which has also been translated into German, Russian, Czech, Croatian, and Serbian. He was initiated into the religious order the Naga Sannyasis after traveling to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

on a spiritual quest from his native

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in 1969, at the age of 18.Rampuri.com
/ref> Like many Sadhus, he has stopped using his birth name since his initiation, refuses to give it, and is unwilling to talk about his past.The foreign Hindu monks at India's Kumbh Mela
/ref> He is

Shri Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Assamese, Meitei ( Manipuri), Marathi, Malay (including In ...

Mahant Mahant () is a religious superior, in particular the chief of a temple or the head of a monastery in Indian religions. James Mallinson, one of the few westerners to be named as a mahant, describes the position of a mahant as a combination of an ...

at Shri Panch Dashnam Juna Akhara (The Sacred Juna Akhara of the Ten Names).

Background

Baba Rampuri was born William A. GansMcCue, Dan
Baba Says Promoter Stiffed Him for $250,000

Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service is an American news service primarily focusing on civil litigation. It offers both free and paid services. Its core audience is lawyers and law firms, who subscribe to the service;Courthouse News Service v. Schaefer', Civi ...

, October 5, 2011. on July 14, 1950 in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

where his father was a dental surgeon, possibly Jewish. His family moved to

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...

in 1953.

1960s and 1970s

In 1969, at the age of 18, after experimenting with psychedelics, and viewed as a dropout, Gans left his prosperous family and headed for India to find himself, and as a spiritual quest. Although he returned to the United States after this visit, he went back to India in 1971 and has not returned to his native country. He claims to be the first foreigner to be initiated into India’s ancient order of yogis and shamans, the Naga Sannyasis, during the

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

Maha Kumbh Mela Kumbh Mela (, ; ) is an important Hindu pilgrimage, celebrated approximately every 6 or 12 years, correlated with the partial or full revolution of Jupiter. It is the largest peaceful gathering of people in the world. A ritual dip in the ...

in 1971. His guru is

Swami Swami (; ; sometimes abbreviated sw.) in Hinduism is an honorific title given to an Asceticism#Hinduism, ascetic who has chosen the Sannyasa, path of renunciation (''sanyāsa''), or has been initiated into a religious monastic order of Vaishnavas ...

Hari Puri Ji, son of Pir Sandhya Puri Ji), also known as Hari Puri Baba Ji, Baba Ji, and Guru Ji.

1980s

In 1984 he founded the Hari Puri Ashram in the Himalayan foothill town of Hardwar. He divides his time between his ashram in Hardwar,

Ujjain Ujjain (, , old name Avantika, ) or Ujjayinī is a city in Ujjain district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth-largest city in Madhya Pradesh by population and is the administrative as well as religious centre of Ujjain ...

, and

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

2000s

In 2004 he was admitted to the Council of Elders of Datt

Akhara Akhara or Akhada (Hindi: अखाड़ा, romanised: ''Akhāṛā'') is an Indian word for a place of practice with facilities for boarding, lodging and training, both in the context of Indian martial artists or a ''sampradaya'' monastery fo ...

in Ujjain, Central India, and has become the special envoy of its Pir (usually the title of a Muslim Sufi leader, but it is also the title of the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of Datt Akhara in Ujjain. He hosts an international camp at the

Kumbh Mela Kumbh Mela (, ; ) is an important Hinduism, Hindu pilgrimage, celebrated approximately every 6 or 12 years, correlated with the partial or full orbital period, revolution of Jupiter. It is the largest peaceful gathering of people in the w ...

(the most recent being the Ardh Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, 2007), as well as retreats, teachings, and initiations in India, and abroad. In 2007 he was part of the documentary "India Trip" by film-director Lev Victorov (Moscow).

2010s

At the 2010 Kumbh Mela in Haridwar Rampuri was honored with a permanent seat in the Juna Akhara Council and given the title Antahrashtriya (trans. 'International') Mandal (trans. 'World Circle') ka Shri Mahant. He was interviewed in the 2013

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

documentary on the Kumbh Mela. He now runs, along with his children, the Baba Rampuri Cultural Foundation Inc. located in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, created in January 2013. On August 11, 2017 Rampuri featured in an episode titled Dear India from the Chelsea late-night talk show.

Rampuri v. Stern

Rampuri says Edwin S. Stern approached him in September 2010, and asked him to secure the commitment of the Shri Panch Dashnam Juna Akhara religious society in a spiritual "Kumbha Mela" event to be held in 2012 in New York City. The planned event was cancelled by Stern in August 2011 due to an inability to secure sufficient funding. A court case subsequently ensued. Rampuri's claim for a $250,000 plus expenses Agent Fee for his assistance in securing the Juna Akhara's participation and a further $1,325,967 that was promised by Stern and his company as a Dakshina (donation) to Juna Akhara itself, was dismissed by the

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...

on January 15, 2013.Rampuri v Stern 2013 NY Slip Op 50048(U)

Justia Justia is an American website specializing in legal information retrieval. It was founded in 2003 by Tim Stanley, formerly of FindLaw, and is one of the largest online databases of legal cases. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, Cal ...

, January 15, 2013.

Written works

Rampuri's ''Autobiography of a Sadhu: A Journey into Mystic India'' was first published in English in 2005 (as ''Baba: Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Yogi'') and translated into Russian in 2006 and German in 2008, with an updated republication in English in 2010. Published in English as: * – originally published as Published in German as: * Published in Russian as: * and translated by А. Горбатюк (A. Gorbatyuk)

References

External links

*
2006 interview by Tim Rakin and Ilya Zhuravlev
Free Flow Yoga Center, Arambol, Goa, India, for Russian Yoga Magazine. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rampuri, Baba American Hindus 1950 births Living people American emigrants to India Hindu monks 20th-century American monks 20th-century Buddhist monks 20th-century American Buddhists 21st-century American monks 21st-century Buddhist monks 21st-century American Buddhists