An open letter from a longtime listener
I want to start with what this post is not. It isn’t an attack on the people who work at the Love Serve Remember Foundation. I have real respect for Raghu Markus, Nina Rao, and others there who knew and loved Ram Dass. By the standards of an ordinary nonprofit, LSRF is well run, and fairly small. I’m not accusing anyone of greed or wrongdoing.
But LSRF isn’t an ordinary nonprofit. It holds the legacy of a man through whom, for many of us, Neem Karoli Baba spoke. It runs the website bearing Ram Dass’s name. It controls the rights to his recorded voice. That position comes with a higher standard, and I believe the foundation isn’t meeting it.
What we had before
For decades, Ram Dass’s talks traveled freely. People copied tapes for friends. There was ramdasstapes.org. There was a Dial-A-Tape line where you could call and simply listen. Later, his lectures were everywhere online, raw and unedited, tape hiss and long silences included.
That openness fit the man. As I understand his story, Ram Dass grew up in wealth, walked away from the money-chasing life, and channeled what his teaching generated into service through the Hanuman Foundation: the Prison-Ashram Project, which brought books and tapes to incarcerated people, and the Seva Foundation, which restored sight to the poor in developing countries. Behind him stood Maharaj-ji, a barefoot saint in a blanket.
What we have now
LSRF received its tax-exempt status in 2009, in the last decade of Ram Dass’s life. By then he was elderly, recovering from a severe stroke, living on Maui far from his original California community, and facing heavy care costs. The foundation’s own materials have described it as dedicated to his teachings and his care. Rights to his teachings came to rest with the foundation.
I’m not suggesting anyone acted improperly. But a decision this consequential, about the lifework of a teacher who preached non-attachment, made while he was at his most dependent, deserves full transparency. What exactly was transferred? On what terms? And what obligations does the foundation see itself as having to the wider community that spent fifty years spreading his teachings for free?
Today, the foundation reports roughly $2 to $3 million in annual revenue and expenses, according to its public IRS filings. Much of that comes from program services: retreats, courses, and events. Meanwhile, my experience as a listener has changed:
The raw recordings I used to find freely are harder to find, and fan uploads seem to disappear.
Official versions often come with intro music, background music, commentary before the talk begins, or altered playback speed.
Some come with advertisements. Imagine settling into a meditative state with Ram Dass’s voice, and then an ad cuts in.
I understand that nonprofits need money. I have no problem with merchandise sold at a markup; everyone understands it’s a form of donation. The question isn’t whether LSRF earns money. It’s where the money goes.
The missing “Serve”
Maharaj-ji’s teaching was “Love everyone, serve everyone, remember God.” Ram Dass lived the middle word. He served the forgotten: prisoners, the dying, the blind, the poor. Service wasn’t a side project for him. It was the path.
To my knowledge, LSRF has never run direct service programs of its own. Some will say that was never its job, and that its mission is preserving teachings. I’d say that’s exactly the problem. You can’t take the name “Love Serve Remember,” take stewardship of Ram Dass’s legacy, and treat the “serve” as optional. Right now, from where I sit, the main thing being served is archival audio, often with ads attached.
There’s a parallel in the tech world. The Mozilla organization earns enormous revenue from an open-source browser built on code and community contributions that came long before it. Many people in that world ask the same question I’m asking here: when an institution grows up around something that was given freely, what does it owe back?
What I’m asking for
These aren’t demands, just what I believe would honor Ram Dass:
Free the raw archive. Release unedited archival recordings under a free, noncommercial license, with no ads, no music, no commentary. Keep the polished podcasts and courses as paid or ad-supported products if needed. Let fans share the originals without fear of takedowns.
Put service back in. Commit a meaningful, published percentage of revenue to direct service: prison dharma programs, hospice and conscious-dying work, eye care through Seva, sliding-scale or free retreat spots for people who can’t afford them.
Be transparent. Publish a clear, plain-language annual account of where the money goes, and how the rights to Ram Dass’s work are held and governed.
Closing
Ram Dass was in a different league. Many of us came to him precisely because he wasn’t conventional, mainstream, or worldly. Today, the organization carrying his name feels very conventional: retreats, courses, ad revenue, brand management. All of that is normal for a nonprofit. But “normal” was never what Ram Dass stood for.
There is more the foundation could do, much more. I’d love to see LSRF prove me wrong, and I’d gladly publish their response.
Love everyone. Serve everyone. Remember God.