AI Summary
5 min readA man runs frantically to the gate of his guru. Before he can speak, the guru shouts, “I know what you want. I know he’s dying. Tell him I won’t come.” The man is the servant of a wealthy devotee who has just had a heart attack. The guru, Maharaji, refuses to visit. Instead, he hands the servant a banana. “Give him this banana, and he’ll be all right.” The servant rushes back, mashes the banana, and pushes it between the dying man’s lips. The man eats the entire banana—and dies.
This story opens Ram Dass’s 1976 retreat talk, later released as episode 314 of Ram Dass Here And Now. It is not a parable about healing. It is a parable about perspective. For Maharaji, death was not a tragedy. The man was all right—he died conscious, in the presence of his guru's grace. The banana was not a failed cure; it was a transmission. The episode’s central argument is that death, stripped of our cultural terror and egoic clinging, is the most profound opportunity for spiritual awakening—and that the work of dying well is the same work as living consciously.
The guru’s laughter and the death of the ego
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of Ram Dass Here And Now
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:03) **Death as a Gateway to Awakening** - Ram Dass opens with a story about his guru Maharaji's perspective on death, challenging the listener to reconsider the reality of different planes of consciousness.
- 2 (05:18) **A Student's Death: Ego Trip or Liberation?** - Ram Dass shares a personal story of a student who died during a dangerous combination of LSD and pranayama, and how his guru reframed the event.
- 3 (08:53) **The Pity of the Dying in Benares** - A vivid description of the burning ghats in Varanasi, where thousands come to die, and the lesson Ram Dass learned about their spiritual clarity.
- 4 (12:18) **Maharaji's Cremation: A Vision of the Clear Light** - A devotee's ecstatic vision during Maharaji's funeral fire illustrates the possibility of seeing beyond physical death.
- 5 (15:00) **Aldous Huxley's Blueprint for Conscious Dying** - Ram Dass reads from Huxley's *Island*, describing how to approach death with lightness and clarity.
- 6 (17:31) **Karma and the Moment of Death** - An explanation of how accumulated karma determines the next rebirth, and how conscious dying can break the cycle.
- 7 (20:26) **Gandhi's Death as a Model** - The example of Mahatma Gandhi being shot and uttering "Ram" shows a life fully prepared for death.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
In this exploration of death and dying, Ram Dass tells stories about his guru, Maharaj-ji, shares his own experiences with people facing death, and offers his perspective on seeing dying as an exercise in spiritual awakening.
Looking for more Maharaj-ji stories? Love Serve Remember’s free fall immersion, Gather Around the Fire: Stories of Ram Dass, Maharaj-ji, and a Legacy of Love, is happening right now. Please join us as we gather in community, listen to heart-opening stories, and bask in the spirit of loving awareness.
Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.
This episode of Here and Now is from a talk Ram Dass gave during a retreat on June 17, 1976.
A note from the archivist: This recording contains a brief section of rough audio that we’ve tried our best to clean up. This is part of the fun of working with 50-year-old lectures!
- Ram Dass begins with stories of his guru, Maharaj-ji, and how he held death very lightly. Ram Dass speaks about Maharaj-ji leaving his body, and how some devotees responded to the trauma of the loss of a guru.
- Drawing wisdom from his old friend Aldous Huxley and his book Island, Ram Dass explores how karma shapes the dying process. He talks about his own experiences with people who were facing death, and bringing dying more out into the open in our culture.
- Ram Dass shares a story about his mother’s death and the meaningful rose that appeared at her funeral, then imagines building a large center for people to come and leave their bodies. He says dying is really no different from chanting. It’s an exercise in spiritual awakening.
“Everybody’s in the process of going to God, and dying’s merely one of the vehicles of doing it. Just as chanting is, and chanting is no bigger deal than dying is. These are all exercises for becoming more conscious. And I think that’s important in thinking about dying to put it into the perspective of spiritual work. Not to elevate it so much into dying, but to see it as an exercise in spiritual awakening.” – Ram Dass
About Ram Dass:
Ram Dass’s spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying millions along on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a piece of his guru, Maharaj-ji, with everyone who has listened. Learn more at ramdass.org.
The Ram Dass community gathers reg
More from this podcast
Ram Dass Here And Now →