This set Alpert on a new path that led him to Neem Karoli Baba, who gave him his new name, “Ram Dass” (Servant of God). Ram Dass, in turn, became a beacon for the others, describing his experiences in the book “Be Here Now,” which became a seminal chronicle of the era, a portal into yoga and Eastern thought for a new generation of Westerners. While in school, Larry said, “I was always interested in politics. I started marching against the war in Vietnam and for civil rights. We worked with Martin Luther King. Health for all was our goal.”But, in India, that all changed. “Maharajji got a hold of me and reorganized me,” he said. Among the yogi master’s teachings, he told the young doctor that he would go to work for the World Health Organization and rid the planet of smallpox. That is exactly what happened. Led by Dr. Nicole Grasset, Larry was part of an inoculation team that knocked on every door in India, having to overcome not only the disease but the stigma and social attitudes surrounding it. He describes the adventure in his new book, “Sometimes Brilliant.” “When Maharajji gave me this opportunity to work to eradicate smallpox, that became the way that I worked,” he said. “I didn’t even know it was called epidemiology at that time. So I became an epidemiologist, working on smallpox, blindness, polio, influenza, Ebola, Zika.” He also has worked with Google and other Silicon Valley-based organizations fighting “things that can bring humanity to its knees.” He has addressed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and millions of service personnel via armed forces television, about threats we face. “It has all been linked to that one thing that Maharajji sent me to eradicate smallpox,” he said. “After we had eradicated smallpox, many of us who had come into the program, or our friends who had cheered us on and held our hand when things got tough, talked about wouldn’t it be wonderful to do something like that again?”
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