A History of Hacienda de Guru Ram Das Ashram

The ashram actually began in Santa Fe in early 1971. Camped in tents on Aqua Fria Street, this little hippy community was led by Dawson and Karen, and was populated by young people who were fully dedicated to “alternative living.” It was a typical scene in Santa Fe in the sixties and seventies, with one big difference. This group did sadhana together in the field every day around a campfire.

By November, the weather had turned cold and Dawson and Karen were ready to move on. In the terminology of the time, they “freaked-out and left the path.” The small group of students, under the leadership of Wha Guru Singh suddenly found themselves without a place to live so they did what everyone did in those early days – they called Yogiji. This was the privilege of every student – to pick up the phone, make the call, and hear that deep warm voice at the other end who always answered “Sat Nam.”

Yogiji said that the group must stay together. He told them to drive north and find a place where the sun was shining on a house – that was to be their new home. He gave them kind words of assurance that God and Guru would guide their destiny. Of course, no one had a car. So Yogiji asked an old friend to drive them, someone who had helped him the summer before as well, the intrepid Frenchman, Robert Bossier. (Robert has since left this earth, but not before building his own home which is now the wonderful Gabriel’s Restaurant.)

With enthusiasm they drove north to look for a new place for the ashram. It was a cloudy day, unusual in New Mexico in the fall, but they traveled on in full faith because if “Yogiji said it," then it must come true. As the car passed through Arroyo Seco and started up the gentle hill on the way into Espanola, the sun suddenly and dramatically pierced through the clouds. A shaft of light beamed down to earth off the road on the right like a sign from God, Himself. Clearly, that was the place to turn and the little group left the main road at the junction of Route 106.

The house they found was the only place the sun was shining on that day. It was a humble farmhouse with a barn located on a little over six acres of land. The belabored old building dated back to the turn of the century and looked every year of it. The walls were thick adobe and some of the floors were hard-packed dirt, but there was a good roof, electricity and running water. It was perfect. When they asked the old couple who were living there if the house was for sale, it took them by surprise. It had never occurred to them that someone would actually want to pay money for their dry farm. When they saw that this group of strange young people was serious, they immediately agreed and named their price - $24,000 for house, shed, barn, and six acres. Yogiji borrowed $10,000 from one of the yoga students, which he later paid back from his own money, and borrowed the rest from Valley National Bank.

There was a large, dirt-floor room used for apple storage. The young Sikhs laid carpet right on the dirt and it became the Sadhana room. A dirt-floored room for vegetable storage became the men’s room, and across the hall was the ladies dormitory room. The simple kitchen soon became the heart-center of the new ashram where community meals were cooked and hot Yogi Tea filled the short evenings. Behind the house were thousands of old tires in giant piles along with several wrecked cars that needed to be disposed of. The group went to work, and the house transformed into the Guru Ram Das Ashram.

“God guided us to Espanola, and that is why I have always said that this place never belongs to any person. It belongs to God because we would never have thought of getting it, and we had no means to get it. It was given to us. Therefore it is a gift of God and Guru.” (the Siri Singh Sahib, Beads of Truth, Fall 1975)

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