WHEN THE GATEKEEPERS FORGET THE TEACHER'S MESSAGE

WHEN THE GATEKEEPERS FORGET THE TEACHER'S MESSAGE (Important update below from Reddit)

A reflection on the commercialization of Ram Dass's legacy

What happens when a spiritual teacher's message of ego dissolution gets captured by ego?

I've been sitting with this question for weeks. Ram Dass has been one of my teachers for years - his voice, his humor, his radical honesty about the human condition. I return to his lectures when I need grounding. When the business world gets too loud, his words bring me back to what matters.

But lately, trying to access his teachings has become... complicated.

THE IRONY NOBODY TALKS ABOUT

Ram Dass sold Be Here Now at cost to the Lama Foundation in 1971. He never took profits from his teachings. His guru, Neem Karoli Baba, explicitly told him: "Money and truth have nothing to do with each other."

For fifty years, Ram Dass gave lectures freely, ran retreats where proceeds went to charitable foundations like Seva (which cured blindness in Nepal), and made his cassette tapes available through the Hanuman Foundation at nominal cost.

Now, after his death in 2019, the Love Serve Remember Foundation controls his archive.

And here's what that looks like in practice:

- YouTube channels sharing his lectures get copyright struck and taken down

- The most powerful lectures are locked behind a $149/year paywall (the "Inner Academy")

- Even Spotify Premium subscribers hear hard-coded ads embedded into podcast episodes

- Legacy retreats in Maui cost $3,000+

- Merchandise shop sells "Love Everyone" beanies and prayer flags

I understand nonprofits need revenue. I run a business myself. But there's something deeply ironic about gatekeeping teachings on becoming nobody, from a man who spent his life trying to dissolve the ego.

THE PODCAST PROBLEM

I tried the Ram Dass Here and Now podcast. I wanted to listen to my teacher during morning walks.

Instead, I got 15-20 minutes of Raghu Markus explaining what Ram Dass was about to say, telling me what he "really likes" about the upcoming lecture, and then - embedded ads for courses and retreats that I cannot skip even as a paying Spotify subscriber.

By the time Ram Dass actually speaks, I've lost the contemplative state I was seeking.

The Reddit community shares this frustration. People write about "autoskipping the first 15 minutes." Others say Raghu "tells the whole story before Ram Dass tells it." Someone described him as "the friend who can't hang up the phone after all has been said."

I don't want to be unkind. Raghu clearly loved Ram Dass and spent time with him and Maharaj-ji in India. That's beautiful.

But when the student's commentary takes up more time than the teacher's words, something has inverted.

WHAT OTHER ARCHIVES DO DIFFERENTLY

Look at how other teachers' legacies are preserved:

Alan Watts - Thousands of hours freely available. Fans create remixes, animations, new content. His son actively supports community sharing. Result: thriving, evolving legacy.

Terence McKenna - Complete archives maintained by fans. Family doesn't pursue takedowns. Ideas spread and cross-pollinate.

Ram Dass - Copyright strikes on community uploads. Best content behind paywall. Aggressive IP protection.

One Reddit user put it simply: "Alan Watts, Terence McKenna, all these other philosophical talkers are having their legacy preserved and enhanced by fans sharing, remixing, adoring the archives. Not Ram Dass."

WHAT RAM DASS ACTUALLY TAUGHT

I went back to his teachings on this exact topic. Here's what I found:

On commercialization: "Commercialization shifts spirituality from sacramental purposes to ego-driven ones."

On teachers making money: He warned about "ego identification, where teachers become trapped in the role of authority rather than pointing beyond themselves."

On psychedelics (and by extension, consciousness-expanding tools): They should be accessible, guided, and shared - not commodified.

His whole message was about dissolving the separate self, serving others, and recognizing that we're all just "walking each other home."

The man who said "the game is not about becoming somebody, it's about becoming nobody" probably wouldn't have designed a premium membership tier.

A MIDDLE PATH

I'm not naive. I understand that preserving an archive costs money. Staff salaries, server costs, retreat logistics, production quality - these things aren't free.

But there's a middle path the foundation could take:

1. Release raw, unedited lectures free - like the Terence McKenna archives do

2. Charge for curated content - professionally edited courses, guided retreats, masterfully produced content

3. Let community share and remix - this spreads the teaching and brings new seekers

4. Keep intros to 2-3 minutes - let the teacher speak

5. Remove hard-coded ads - or at least don't embed them into Spotify for Premium subscribers

The value-add would be curation, not gatekeeping. People would pay for quality, not for access.

WHY THIS MATTERS BEYOND RAM DASS

This isn't just about one teacher. It's about how we preserve wisdom in an age of intellectual property and subscription models.

Spiritual teachings have traditionally been passed freely - from teacher to student, from generation to generation. The Dharma doesn't have a paywall. The Tao Te Ching isn't behind a membership tier.

When we start treating consciousness-expanding wisdom like premium content, we lose something essential about what that wisdom was pointing to in the first place.

Ram Dass spent his life trying to help people wake up from the dream of separation. The foundation bearing his name now creates new separations: those who can afford the Inner Academy, and those who cannot.

WHERE I'VE LANDED

I still listen to Ram Dass. I've found older recordings on the Internet Archive, cassette rips on Soulseek, and community-maintained collections that (for now) haven't been struck down.

I still prefer their Spotify podcast, as I love the teachings and Baba Ram Dass. I skip Raghu's intros.

And I hold the irony gently. Ram Dass would probably find it funny - the cosmic joke of his teachings on non-attachment being captured by attachment. The humor of a message about becoming nobody being controlled by somebodies.

"And that one too," he would say. Even the foundation that misses the point is part of the dance.

But I'll keep looking for the clean recordings. The unfiltered voice. The teacher without the intermediary.

Because that's what he was pointing to all along - direct experience, unmediated by someone else's interpretation or paywall.

Be here now.

Not be here now (premium tier only).

UPDATE FROM REDDIT:

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE ARTICLE WENT TO REDDIT

A reflection on public writing, projection, and coming back to the heart

I also posted the article on Reddit, in the Ram Dass community. It was intended as a genuine question - a reflection on how spiritual archives get managed after a teacher dies, and whether there might be a more balanced approach between institutional control and community access.

What happened next became its own teaching.

THE MIRROR

Within hours, the post had over 1,600 views (now upwards of 4000) and dozens of comments. For someone posting publicly for the first time, this was unexpected. The reactions split into three categories.

Some readers engaged thoughtfully. They pointed out practical realities that had been missing from the original analysis - legal complexities, stewardship costs, the labor of preserving and sharing a teacher's work responsibly. They noted that the Love Serve Remember Foundation publishes its financial statements, that retreats include food, lodging, and airport shuttles, and that scholarships exist for those who cannot afford full price. These responses were generous. They filled in gaps and brought nuance to what had been an incomplete picture.

Other readers reacted differently. Some assumed the I was a bot, or a throwaway account, or someone who had "already made up their mind." Some made assumptions about my spiritual background and psychedelic experience without any basis. One commenter wrote "woke mind virus, probably European slavic" before eventually deleting their entire thread.

I chose not to engage in those ego battles. When one particularly assumptive thread kept escalating, the response was simply: "Ram Ram."

The thread was deleted shortly after.

WHAT IT TAUGHT

This experience became a real-time lesson in something Ram Dass himself talked about constantly - what happens when you do not feed the ego game.

When someone projects onto you and you do not defend, do not counter-attack, do not try to prove them wrong - they have nothing to push against. They either soften or they leave. In this case, some left. But more importantly, the ones who stayed created a genuine exchange.

I realized that the original article had been built on a mix of subjective reaction and incomplete information on my end. The frustration was real, but the conclusions were premature. Several commenters brought perspective that genuinely shifted understanding.

One commenter wrote: "Maharaj-ji would not let anything happen that was not supposed to happen. It is all perfect, even the things that make you go yuck. Getting upset will not solve anything. Having compassion and understanding will."

That landed.

THE UNEXPECTED OUTCOME

Because of the Reddit thread, someone mentioned the Be Here Now Network - a platform where Ram Dass content is available without embedded ads, at a reasonable subscription price.

I subscribed immediately.

This was, in the end, exactly what was being looked for. A way to support the archive financially, to listen to the teachings in peace, and to not resort to torrenting or piracy. The practical problem that started the whole inquiry got solved through the very community that was being questioned.

THE REAL LESSON

Public writing exposes the writer to projection. Words get interpreted through the reader's own lens, their own experiences, their own unresolved material. This is unavoidable. The only choice is how to respond.

Today, the choice was to stay in love. To thank those who brought nuance. To not engage with those who wanted a fight. To close threads with "Ram Ram" when there was nothing left to say.

Driving to a dance class afterward, there was an unexpected wave of gratitude - especially for the ones who had been confrontational. They had been teachers too. They showed how quickly assumptions form, how easily projection happens, and how much practice it takes to stay kind when misunderstood.

Ram Dass has been one of my greatest teachers. His voice has helped during difficult times. He helped create space for my eclectic path, and helped make peace with identities when they still felt important - without shame for being human.

Today, his community did the same thing.

The article stays up. The subscription is active. The teaching continues.

Ram Ram.

Artistic Interpretation of Peter Simon Photography