They say a person goes through a lot before they transform in life. From gruelling hardwork to crushing pain, life teaches you to be humble before it gives you success. Before Steve Jobs founded the groundbreaking tech company Apple the trajectory was similar. A confused and lost 19-year-old Jobs made pilgrimate to Kainchi Dham, the ashram of Neem Karoli Baba and years later, he created Apple, a product you might be reading this article on.
Apple: The spiritual wisdom
It was on April 1, 1976 that Steve Jobs founded Apple alongside Steve Wozniak. A dream that initially ran operations out of the garage at Jobs’ family home has now given the world every tech product it couldn’t have imagined. From the iPhone to the Mac, the iPod and Apple watch, each of the innovations that are a part of the lifestyle of people across the globe has been supplied by this one company. While the innovation lives today, the inspiration was born years back.
It was the year 1974 when a young Jobs had quit his job to follow his calling in the east. “For me, it was a serious search,” he later told biographer Walter Isaacson. “I’d been turned on to the idea of enlightenment and trying to figure out who I was and how I fit into things.”Along with Daniel Kottke, whom he met at Reed College in 1972, he set out on a trek in search of spiritual enlightenment to India. They were headed to visit Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi ashram in Nainital, Uttarakhand.
The trip was motivated by both men having read Ram Dass’ influential book “Be Here Now,” which captured the spirit of a generation of young Americans turning towards Eastern spirituality.
Finding the lost guru
According to Business Today, when the duo reached the ashram it was almost deserted as Neem Karoli Baba had died a year ago in September 1973. Despite this, Jobs is said to have stayed at the ashram for days, drawing inspiration from Neem Karoli Baba’s teachings.
He continued to live in temples, dormitories, with families in villages, travelling on foot with little money in his pockets. According to media outlets, Steve Jobs went from Haridwar to Nainital and Manali, visiting numerous holy places across India. “The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world.
Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work,” he said of his 1974 visit as per Isaacson.
Jobs spent seven months in India understanding the country’s culture and undergoing profound transformation. He carried one book with himself throughout the journey, Paramhansa Yogananda’s ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ which he read in India and continues to read annually.
It was his meeting with simplicity of life and belief in intuition here that influenced much of his values moving forward in life.
The falling Apple
After his return to the US, Jobs and Wozniak began building and selling primitive computer for hobbyists. With a $1,300 investment, they founded Apple Computer in his parents’ garage. Today, Apple has a net worth of $4.01 trillion. Many of Jobs’ close friends believe his visit to the Himalayan ashram and a guru he never met stayed with him for decades.
According to Isaacson, India deeply influenced Jobs’ intuition, minimalism and emotional awareness which later shaped Apple’s design philosophy and leadership style.
Who is Neem Karoli Baba and why is he famous across the world?
Neem Karoli Baba, also known as Maharaj ji, was a revered Indian saint and spiritual master who became famous for his simple yet powerful teachings of love, devotion, compassion and selfless service. He inspired people to live a pure life by serving others and remembering God. Over time, his teachings became famous in countries like the USA, Canada and Europe and he is still known for his spiritual teaching worldwide.
