Bhagavan Das (yogi)

For the Theosophist, see Bhagwan Das.

Bhagavan Das (Devanagari: भगवान दास) (born Kermit[1] Michael Riggs on May 17, 1945), is a Western yogi who lived for six years in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He is a singer and teacher.

Biography

Bhagavan Das is a bhakti yogi, a shakta tantra adept, and teacher of Nada Yoga. As a young man he was one of the first Western initiates/devotees of the late Hindu holy man Neem Karoli Baba, as well as the first American to meet Kalu Rinpoche of the Shangpa Kargyupas lineage. He has received Vajra Yogini initiation from His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje of the Karma Kagyu lineage and Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the 11th Trungpa Tulku. During the almost seven years he spent as a wandering ascetic in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka he received numerous initiations and teachings from living saints and sages including A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,[2] Swami Chaitanya Prakashananda Tirtha, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Sri Anandamoyi Ma, and Tarthang Tulku of the Dudjom Rinpoche lineage.

In 1972 in California he married his girlfriend, Bhavani, who was expecting their child; subsequently their daughter, Soma, was born in New York.[3] In 1974 in Berkeley, California, he met Usha, who eventually became his common-law wife and bore him a son, Mikyo, and a daughter, Lalita.[4]

Bhagavan Das guided spiritual teacher Ram Dass, at the time known as Dr. Richard Alpert, throughout India, eventually introducing him to Neem Karoli Baba. Bhagavan Das gained fame after being featured in Ram Dass' book Be Here Now, which described Bhagavan Das' role in his spiritual journeys in India. Bhagavan Das travels widely throughout the world as a performer of traditional and non-traditional Indian bhajans and kirtans, and is the author of an autobiography, It's Here Now (Are You?).

Works

Books

Music

Radio plays

Video

Interviews and talks

Notes

  1. ↑ Bhagavan Das (1997), pg. 265
  2. ↑ Bhagavan Das (1997), pg. 179
  3. ↑ Bhagavan Das (1997), pp. 190, 194
  4. ↑ Bhagavan Das (1997), pp. 220, 221, 238

References

External links

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