The Guru Came From Harvard

Mickey Lemle’s “Ram Dass: Fierce Grace,” an ingratiating and comprehensive portrait of the widely admired spiritual leader, author and lecturer, takes its subtitle from Lemle’s description of how the subject of his documentary is coping with the effects of a stroke that felled him more than five years ago, leaving him partially paralyzed and with speech aphasia. The opening section shows Ram Dass going through endless rehabilitation therapy, which he sees as an opportunity for spiritual growth and a metaphor for the challenge of aging.

Indeed, this splendid film culminates with the publication, in May 2000, of Ram Dass’ latest book, “Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying,” intended to make the aging process less frightening for his readers. Ram Dass comes across as a warm, profoundly spiritual man who has turned adversity into a way of strengthening of his communication with others.

Once Lemle acquaints us with Ram Dass’ current everyday life, he flashes back to show us how Richard Alpert, the youngest son of the president of the New York and New Haven Railroad, a founder of Brandeis University and one of Boston’s preeminent attorneys, became a respected Harvard psychologist. He was fired by the university in 1963 after another professor, Timothy Leary, was assigned to the office next door and turned him on to the new world of psychedelic drugs.

For Alpert, dropping acid was a transforming religious experience. But as it became less satisfying, he decided to travel to India, where his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, known as Maharaj ji, convinced him that he could expand his consciousness from within without recourse to drugs. He also gave him his new name, Ram (Love) and Dass (Servant).

In regard to psychedelics, Ram Dass’ longtime colleague Dr. Larry Brilliant says that it is important to acknowledge that “a lot of very good friends died from a lot of bad drugs.”

That Ram Dass pursued a path of spiritual enlightenment not dependent upon LSD surely has contributed to his becoming such an enduring and influential figure, even if Lemle doesn’t come right out and say so. In any event, “Be Here Now,” an account of his journey into consciousness-expanding published in 1971, is now in its 39th printing.

If Ram Dass seems a selfless, admirable man with a remarkable, conscientiously developed gift for empathizing with others, he also clearly has been fortunate. Just as he has the wherewithal to marshal an army of experts in his rehabilitation from his stroke, he is also lucky that he was born into a loving, supportive family. Not only was his father, dressed in a homburg and a Chesterfield coat, able to greet with equanimity his son on his return from India (the son wearing only a sheet and long beard; no shoes), he was able to open up his vast New Hampshire country estate to his son’s followers.

In archival footage, Ram Dass’ father is shown looking out over his lawns covered with hippies chanting “Hare Krishna” and dancing in circles. He pronounces his son’s work “wonderful” and expresses his gratitude in being able to make his own small contribution by opening his gates. His father is but one of the legions of admirers Ram Dass has attracted to this day. And by the time this inspiring film is over, Ram Dass is able to say that his stroke has caused him to grow in ways that he might not otherwise have experienced.

Unrated. Times guidelines: suitable for mature older children.

‘Ram Dass: Fierce Grace’

A Zeitgeist Films release. Producer-director Mickey Lemle. Cinematographer Buddy Squires. Editors Aaron Vega, Mickey Lemle, Jacob Craycroft. Music Teese Gohl. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

Exclusively at the Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 478-6379.