THEN there’s Baba Ram Dass, who isn’t at all alarmed about the energy crisis.
It’s not because he drives a Volkswagen. Or lives simply. But rather, in his words, because, “There is no crisis of energy. The whole universe is energy. We have available to us all the energy in the universe.”
Ram Dass is the former Richard Alpert of Harvard University. There, with Timothy Leary, and later, on his own, he experimented many times with LSD and other mind-expanding drugs. In India, several years ago, he met his guru and began to study yoga. His book, Be Here Now, is a spiritual autobiography and “cookbook” for the sacred life.
In a recent interview, Ram Dass, who moves and speaks with an economy of energy suited to the times, suggests that the energy crisis is, “like all trauma, an exquisitely designed opportunity to reawaken man.” He adds:
“If God were to send somebody to completely reshape our consciousness, it’s Nixon.”
For those who live simply, “whose minds are available as servants, not masters,” there is no crisis, he says.
Our problems come from our “dominance of man over nature culture.” Our intellect, he says, is out of harmony with all the forces in the universe.
“All our knowledgeable men — Kissinger, Kahn — didn’t prevent the crisis,” he observes. “They’re too attached to power. As long as you’re attached to anything, you’re out of balance.”
