Love, Serve, Remember: Ram Dass and the Bhakti Path of Devotion

Love, Serve, Remember:

Ram Dass and the Bhakti Path of Devotion

presented by Forrest Rivers

Feb. 23 & March 2 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM

Elk Haven Wellness Center, Brevard, N.C.

The life and teachings of Baba Ram Dass – whose given name was Richard Alpert and who emerged as one of America's most beloved spiritual teachers in the 1960s and 70s after writing the seminal spiritual classic Be Here Now – are a powerful testament to the fact that following the bhakti path of yoga can have a profoundly positive impact on our own personal and spiritual growth. Bhakti is a Sanskrit word that in English translates to the path of devotion to a supreme spiritual being like a Christ, Buddha, Krishna, or in the case of Ram Dass, his guru Neem Karoli Baba.

In Bhakti yoga, a devotee's emphasis is not so much focused on worshipping the physical embodiment of that supreme spiritual being(s) but rather on the divine consciousness that being(s) transmits through their living presence. The ultimate purpose of all Bhakti yogis is to purify their thoughts, intentions, and actions through loving devotion to the one with many names. In this two-part workshop,

Forrest will draw on the life and teachings of Ram Dass to illustrate the key aspects of the Bhakti tradition. Those key aspects are devotion, love, faith, and the spirit of selfless service. In Part One, we will embark on a journey together to explore the meaning of Bhakti Yoga through the life and teachings of Ram Dass, emphasizing the relevancy of that path in today's world. In Part Two we will take all that we learned from Part One and directly apply that wisdom through participating together in one moving traditional bhakti practice: Devotional chanting and music.

Forrest Rivers is a spiritual teacher, writer, and workshop facilitator from the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. He is the author of The Hippie Revival and Collected Writings and Humanity’s Spiritual Rebirth: Lessons Lived and Learned from a Pandemic. You can contact Forrest through his website.