Letter to us about writing the book ‘From Bindu to Ojas‘ – the brown pages in Be Here Now
This letter is addressed to my mother, Marge, my aunt Jean, my brother, two of my cousins and Don Douglas and his wife at the time. This is his first mention anywhere of his work on the manuscript From Bindu to Ojas. He sent us this letter before he traveled to California, and then on to Taos, New Mexico. In Taos, at the Lama Foundation, is where the artists created artwork drawing to go along with the words of that book, creating what would later become the brown pages in in the book Be Here Now. We got this letter in late 1968.
He writes:
Dear Margie, Jean, Mara, Cheri Sue, Frosty, Storm, Don and Lexi,
Your heart beams created much Ananda here in New Hampshire cabin in the woods where Ram Dass does his yogi thing and other parts of sadhana (including a book ‘From Bindu to Ojas’). They arrived last week / I arrived last week / every day is Birth/Death day / just in time.
Soon you will receive 2000 reproductions of groovy Tibetan Tanka from India to give away free. More on this (anon?).
Anticipate we shall share a time and space intersection in end of September early October. Maybe lectures at AIAA on Berkeley Boulevard. Check if available for three successive Fridays or Saturday or Thursdays – last week September on and what front money is necessary.
In Bharat (India) I hit the jackpot! They really know. (i.e. grok the fullness)
Side 2 of this letter starts with prose from Ram Tirtha:
I am without form, without limit, Beyond space beyond time. I am in everything. Everything is in me. I am the Bliss of the Universe. Everywhere am I. I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute. I am that, I am that. Ram Tirtha
After that prose quote he drew the ohm symbol and topped it with a shiny sticker. Then he provided his current address in New Hampshire and drew a stick figure, this time with a beard, looking up at a drawing of the sun with the ohm symbol in it. On the left he writes a mantra in Indian and then below it he gives the translation. This mantra was recorded and described by him on the album that came with the box set From Bindu to Ojas. It was one of the first mantras that I started using, when I was 17 years old.
My friend Don Douglas isolated just the stick figure drawing from this letter. It is explicitly offered here into the public domain.
All Evils of Life Vanish When the Sun is Kept in the Heart
On the record album that came with the 1970 box set manuscript From Bindu to Ojas, that became the brown pages in the book Be Here Now, Ram Dass describes using the ‘Aditya Hridayam Punyam’ mantra this way:
“I would think about the sun. How the sun just gives off light, gives off heat, gives off life. Pure energy. It does it, it gives it to you whether your deserving or not, just like it shines on everybody. It doesn’t ask anything in return. It doesn’t’ say ‘I’ll shine on you if you do this for me.’ It shines, it does its thing. It does the sun thing. And the sun thing is a thing that happens from a source of pure energy, light, love. It’s who we are when we finally figure out who we are.“
Letter to my mother about driving across the desert to Big Sur in April 1969
In this letter Ram Dass writes:
Margie – Here I sit in Big Sur drinking in much beauty. Going across the desert painted with brilliant splashes of spring flower colors – I thought of you often – recalling how you took the kids to see the flowers.
I’ll be in Berkeley and S.F. during next 6 weeks. Dates uncertain. Otherwise staying hold up 20 miles south of Esalen.
Delighted your health is mending. Love to all. Shanti, Ram Dass
Two malas and a letter from Ram Dass in 1969
Ram Dass sent us two wooden malas, each with a thread from Maharaji-ji’s blanket. I have a picture of two separate letters from him, each referring to a mala he sent us. I only have this one mala shown here with the red thread. I only have one of the letters in that picture I took in 2010. The large mala made out of rudraksha seeds was displayed on my mother’s puja table from the time she acquired it, around 1970, until the time she made her transition in 2002.
My friend Jon Vasu, who knew Ram Dass over a very long period of time, said this about these malas with special threads in them: “The “mala ceremony” was an important part of Ram Dass retreats over the years. Over 800 people per year were given malas with threads from Maharaj-ji’s blanket over the years Ram Dass lived in Maui. Ram Dass would order malas from Indian city of Vrindavan and volunteers would tie the thread on the malas before the Ram Dass retreats.“
