Kainchi Dham Ki Kahani: Neem Karoli Baba, the Ashram in the Hills and Its Famous Visitors

On the road from Nainital to Almora, the highway bends sharply twice, like the two blades of a pair of scissors. Locals call the spot Kainchi — scissors. Beside a small mountain stream at this bend stands Kainchi Dham, the ashram of Neem Karoli Baba, whom devotees lovingly call Maharaj-ji.

Who was Neem Karoli Baba?

Born Lakshmi Narayan Sharma in Akbarpur, Uttar Pradesh, around 1900, he left home young and wandered as a sadhu. He was a devotee of Hanuman ji and taught very simply: love everyone, serve everyone, remember God. He never gave long lectures. Devotees say he would sit wrapped in a plain blanket, joking, feeding people, and somehow knowing exactly what was in their hearts.

His name comes from the village of Neeb Karori near Farrukhabad. The story devotees tell is that he was once asked to leave a train for travelling without a ticket — and the train would not move again until he was invited back on board. A small station was later built there. Whether you take it as fact or faith, it is the story everyone in Kumaon knows.

How Kainchi Dham began

Maharaj-ji first came to this valley in the early 1960s. With the help of local devotees, a small ashram and a Hanuman temple were built, and the murti was installed on 15 June 1964. That date is now the ashram's foundation day, celebrated every year with a huge bhandara where lakhs of devotees receive prasad.

Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and the West

In the late 1960s, the American psychologist Richard Alpert met Maharaj-ji and became Ram Dass. His book Be Here Now (1971) brought thousands of young Westerners to the Himalaya in search of the Baba. In 1974, a young Steve Jobs travelled to India hoping to meet him — but Maharaj-ji had already passed away. Years later, Mark Zuckerberg has said Jobs advised him to visit a temple in India, and he came to Kainchi in 2015.

Today, cricketers, film stars and ordinary families from every corner of India sit side by side in the same quiet courtyard. Nobody is special here — which is exactly what Maharaj-ji taught.

Visiting Kainchi Dham

Go early in the morning, when the valley is cool and the courtyard is calm. Photography is not allowed inside the temple area. Dress simply, keep silence near the shrines, and take a moment by the stream before you leave.

Questions