Rabbu Dada: The Delhi Devotee Who Spent His Life Serving Neem Karoli Baba

Complete guide: Neem Karoli Baba: Life, Miracles & Teachings

Introduction

Among the Indian devotees who stayed close to Neem Karoli Baba for decades, Delhi’s Rabbu Dada holds a special place. Devotees remember him not as a teacher or a writer first, but as a sevak — a man who gave his life to practical service of his guru, above all in the building of temples and the installation of idols, and who then preserved what he had lived in a book of his own.

As told by devotees, Rabbu Dada met Maharajji as a young man in the 1950s and never really left his orbit. He served him during his lifetime, stood by Sri Siddhi Ma after Maharajji left his body in 1973, and was still carrying that work forward fifty years later, when in 2023 he helped send a Hanuman murti to a satsang in Germany. His book, I and My Father Are One, is one of the few full-length accounts of a life with Maharajji written by an Indian devotee who knew him personally.

Rabbu Dada at a Glance

Detail	As told by devotees
Full name	Ravindra Kumar Joshi, known to all as “Rabbu Dada” (also written “Rabboo”)
From	Delhi
First met Maharajji	In the 1950s, as a young man, at Nainital (accounts differ on the exact year — see note below)
Known for	Temple construction and idol installation seva; support to Sri Siddhi Ma after 1973
Book	I and My Father Are One: The Grand Unification
Also wrote	“Hanuman of Taos”, a history of the Taos Hanuman temple
Later seva	Helped send a Hanuman murti to the Sri Neem Karoli Baba Mandir in Germany in 2023

A Young Man Meets Maharajji at Nainital

As devotees tell it, Rabbu Dada first met Neem Karoli Baba while visiting Nainital in the 1950s, after hearing stories of the saint’s miracles at Hanumangarhi. Two published accounts differ on the exact year — one says 1954, when he was fourteen, and another says the summer of 1958 — so this post simply says he met Maharajji as a young man in the 1950s, and the difference is noted openly in the questions below rather than smoothed over.

What both accounts agree on is the shape of that first meeting. For three days, Maharajji reportedly ignored him completely, neither speaking to him nor calling him, leaving the young visitor confused and restless. On the fourth day, during evening prayers, Maharajji finally called him and remarked that the boy had been wondering why he was being ignored.

Then came the moment Rabbu Dada himself describes as the turning point of his life. As he recounts it, Maharajji suddenly struck him on the head — an act he never described as punishment, but as a blessing. In that moment, he says, he felt tears, a deep mental stillness, and a sense of unity with his guru, as though there were no separation between himself and Maharajji. Devotees often point to this episode when they explain the title of his book: a life in which the devotee and the father became one.

A Life of Seva: Temples, Idols, and Standing by Siddhi Ma

After that meeting, Rabbu Dada dedicated his life to Maharajji’s service, and the form that service most often took was practical and physical: the construction of temples and the installation of idols. According to memoirs cited in Vijay Chhabria and Dr. Deepak Patwardhan’s book Divya Anubhuti, his temple work ranged from Taos in the United States to Bawaniya in Gujarat. He also wrote “Hanuman of Taos”, a history of the Hanuman temple at the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram in Taos, New Mexico, where the ashram itself points readers to his account for more of that temple’s story.

When Maharajji left his body in 1973, Rabbu Dada did not drift away. As the Durgamayi Ma ashram’s account of him puts it, he gave his full support to Sri Siddhi Ma from 1973 onward, carrying on Baba’s work in India. Readers of his book note that it speaks at unusual length about Siddhi Ma and her role — something our own post on Sri Siddhi Ma also reflects: it was Rabbu Dada’s account that preserved the rainy-night episode at Nainital’s India Hotel, when, as he tells it, he asked Siddhi Ma at midnight whether she could leave her household forever at that very moment, and she agreed at once, asking Jivanti Ma to come with her.

That same spirit of practical seva was still visible fifty years later. In the spring of 2023, Rabbu Dada approached Durgamayi Ma with a heartfelt request: that she accept a murti of Lord Hanuman as an offering from devotees in India and the United Kingdom. In September 2023, on Nirvan Divas — the commemoration of Maharajji’s fiftieth Mahasamadhi — Ma inaugurated the new Hanuman murti at the Sri Neem Karoli Baba Mandir in Germany. Later that year he visited the ashram in Ulm for four days, sharing his earliest memories of Baba with the community there.

Accounts of Grace, as He Recounts Them

Like many devotees who lived with Maharajji, Rabbu Dada carried a store of personal stories, and he told them as his own experience rather than as claims to be proved. A few are retold here briefly, in that spirit.

Once, as he recounts it, while frying puris in the kitchen, hot ghee spilled onto his hand and badly burned it. Before he could even cry out in pain, Maharajji asked whether his hand was burnt, and on hearing that it was, placed the hand inside his own blanket and pressed it, telling him it was fine now. Rabbu Dada says the pain and burning sensation disappeared at once.

He also tells of his aunt, a devotee of Lord Krishna who was sceptical of saints, who reportedly saw Maharajji himself as Lord Krishna — after which, he says, her doubts disappeared. And he recounts a dream in which he saw Maharajji standing near a staircase at a house in Allahabad, only to find Maharajji at that very spot the next morning — an event he counted among the most unforgettable of his life.

Another story comes from his own wedding journey. In 1970, when his marriage was arranged, Maharajji advised him to travel by train. He chose instead to travel by a private bus, which met with an accident and overturned. Fortunately, no one suffered serious injuries, and Maharajji is said to have remarked afterwards, with humour, that he had to protect everyone on the bus since his instructions had not been followed. Rabbu Dada believed the safe survival of the whole party was Maharajji’s grace — and he held fast all his life to the assurance he recalls from Maharajji: “Once I hold someone’s hand, I never leave them.”

His Book: I and My Father Are One

Rabbu Dada’s book, I and My Father Are One: The Grand Unification, is his own full-length telling of a life with Maharajji. Bibliographic listings record it as first published in 2011 in New Delhi, with later editions in 2023 and 2024; the author is given as R. K. “Rabboo” Joshi, and the publisher as Rabindra Kumar Joshi, Delhi. Readers describe it as a sincere, moving account of devotion, and several note that it is unusual among books on Maharajji for how much it says about Sri Siddhi Ma and her place in the story.

The title itself sums up what devotees say his life was about. It is not a book of philosophy argued from a distance, but a devotee’s own record of a bond in which, as he experienced it, the distance between father and son, guru and disciple, closed entirely — the same oneness he felt in that first blessing at Nainital.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Rabbu Dada?

Rabbu Dada (Ravindra Kumar Joshi, also written “Rabboo”) was a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba from Delhi, remembered chiefly for a lifetime of practical seva — temple construction and idol installation — and for his book I and My Father Are One, a first-person account of his life with Maharajji.

When did Rabbu Dada first meet Maharajji?

As a young man in the 1950s, while visiting Nainital. Two published accounts differ on the exact year: the Durgamayi Ma ashram’s account says 1954, when he was fourteen, while memoirs cited in Divya Anubhuti place the meeting in the summer of 1958. This post says “the 1950s” rather than choosing one year as fact.

What seva did Rabbu Dada do?

Above all, temple work: according to the Divya Anubhuti memoirs, he was involved in temple construction and idol installation from Taos in the United States to Bawaniya in Gujarat, and he wrote “Hanuman of Taos”, a history of the Taos Hanuman temple. After 1973 he gave his full support to Sri Siddhi Ma, and in 2023 he helped send a Hanuman murti to the Sri Neem Karoli Baba Mandir in Germany.

What is his book about?

I and My Father Are One: The Grand Unification is Rabbu Dada’s own account of his life with Neem Karoli Baba, first published in 2011 with later editions in 2023 and 2024. Readers particularly note how much it says about Sri Siddhi Ma, alongside its stories of Maharajji himself.

Did Rabbu Dada stay connected to the satsang after Maharajji’s passing?

Yes, as told by devotees. He supported Sri Siddhi Ma from 1973 onward, and he was still active decades later: in 2023 he arranged the gift of a Hanuman murti to the Germany mandir and visited the ashram there, sharing his earliest memories of Baba.

Disclaimer

This post shares devotional accounts of Rabbu Dada as remembered and told by devotees of Neem Karoli Baba, including his own book and memoirs about him. Dates and details follow the published sources available, and where those sources differ, the difference is noted rather than smoothed over. Nothing here is presented as a verified historical record beyond what those accounts state.

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