Richard Alpert earned a Ph. D. in psychology from Stanford and went on to become one of the youngest tenured professors at Harvard University. He went to India and met Neem Karoli Baba, a Hindu holy man who became his guru. The American was renamed Ram Dass, which means "servant of God."
This 28-minute documentary, filmed by Elda Hartley, focuses on the spiritual messages and practices that Ram Dass brought back from India and taught to seekers yearning for a oneness with God. On his family's property, he is seen teaching his disciples who try various practices designed to free them from their senses and attachment to their thought processes. He describes meditation as being similar to a person who is so intent on reading a book that he does not hear the loud ticking of the clock in the room. When he is finished, suddenly he is aware of the clock's noise.
Ram Dass has the seekers try various techniques including meditation over a candle, dancing, chanting, and hatha yoga. He hopes that everyone in his presence will be able to achieve the mystical oneness with all living beings and to reach the higher place within. This brief documentary perfectly catches a pivotal moment in American cultural history when people were turning to the East for a way of being that was transformative in every sense of the term.
