My mother and I, my aunt Jean and her two children and Alla Rakha visit Ram Dass at Eslean in 1969
One of the clear memories from that wonderful day was that Ram Dass asked me to help him make tea, and help him serve it to his guests. Esalen Institute, like everything else on the Big Sur coast of California, is perched on a very steep hill that goes down to the Pacific Ocean. It is next to one of the many short, steep canyons that separate the different hills and mountains along that very rugged coastline. Ram Dass and I walked on a short path leading back into a small canyon, to an outbuilding, where he was staying. We fixed a pot of tea and brought it back to where we were visiting in the tall grass above the ocean. You can see the white ceramic bowls were were drinking it from in some of these pictures.
These beautiful black and white pictures were taken by my aunt, Jean Mayo Millay, at Esalen Institute on the Big Sur coast of California, south of Carmel in June of 1969. My mother, Marge King, and I, Jean and her two children, Mitchell and Mara, and Alla Rakha, whom my aunt was dating, got to spend a few hours there, sitting with Ram Dass in the afternoon sun, drinking tea and talking. I have a few clear memories from this day.
When we were serving the tea Marge said something to the effect that Ram Dass didn’t need to bother with providing us with tea or trying to make us feel welcome or comfortable. He said, in an offhand manner, “The host must suffer.” I told him, loud enough for everyone to hear, “What kind of Calvinistic BS is that?” Naturally this earned me a very big, warm smile from Ram Dass and the other adults. I was, after all, being a bit precocious for a 15 year old with my use of the word ‘Calvinistic’.
My last memory from that day is that I asked Ram Dass at some point what it was like to be so famous. I do not recall his answer at that time but I asked him that same question again in a letter 25 years later. His reply to me is detailed in the ‘Two letters just to me’ page of this section. It is a wonderful example of pure Ram Dassness.
Who is Alla Rakha, why is he in this picture with Ram Dass, and how was he responsible for me getting to attend the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival? (Hint: He played the tabla drums and preformed with Ravi Shankar) That story is a side story provided here:
