India was the source of spirituality to Steve Jobs
October 6th, 2011 - 9:27 pm ICT by IANSWashington, Oct 6 (IANS) Apple’s visionary co-founder Steve Jobs had a spiritual side too shaped by a “spiritual retreat to India” and “traversing through the country had sparked Jobs’ conversion to Buddhism.”
Like the Beatles, Jobs took a spiritual retreat to India and regularly walked around his neighbourhood and the office barefoot, according to various media reports.
Traversing India sparked Jobs’ conversion to Buddhism. Kobun Chino, a monk, presided over his wedding to Laurene Powell, a Stanford University MBA.
The name of Jobs’ company is said to be inspired by the Beatles’ Apple Corps, which repeatedly sued the electronics maker for trademark infringement until signing an exclusive digital distribution deal with iTunes, CNN said.
Rebirth is a precept of Buddhism, and Apple experienced rebirth of sorts when Jobs returned, after he was fired, to remake a company that had fallen the verge of bankruptcy.
In Autumn 1974, Jobs took a job as a technician at Atari, a manufacturer of popular video games, with the primary intent of saving money for his spiritual retreat to India.
Jobs then travelled to India to visit the Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi Ashram with a Reed College friend (and, later, the first Apple employee), Daniel Kottke, in search of spiritual enlightenment.
He came back a Buddhist with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing. During this time, Jobs experimented with psychedelics, calling his LSD experiences “one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life”.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
- Wandering in India, Steve Jobs learned intuition - Oct 24, 2011
- World says iGrieve as Steve Jobs passes away - Oct 06, 2011
- Picture of guru "Neem Karoli Baba" attracted Julia Roberts to Hinduism - Aug 10, 2010
- What made Steve Jobs tick? Boredom - Oct 06, 2011
- Devotees of Beatles Proclaim That John Lennon's LSD Stash Has Been Unearthed - Apr 24, 2010
- Milestones in a tech legend's journey - Oct 06, 2011
- Australian held for peddling drugs - Jan 01, 2011
- Julia Roberts is among top "Religion Stories" of 2010 - Jan 01, 2011
- Jade Buddha to visit India in November 2012 - Nov 29, 2011
- My art reflects my affair with Lennon: Yoko Ono (With Image) - Jan 16, 2012
- Lennon's handwritten lyric for 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' up for grabs - Apr 15, 2011
- LSD lowers relapse among alcoholics - Mar 09, 2012
- India helping Ethiopia realise full potential of neem - Jan 05, 2012
- Reincarnation is my personal right: Dalai Lama - Sep 23, 2011
- A dialogue between Hinduism and Buddhism through fiction - Jan 13, 2012
Tags: apple corps, apple employee, arun kumar, beatles apple, cnn, college friend, first apple, kobun, laurene powell, lsd experiences, neem karoli baba, popular video games, reed college, spiritual enlightenment, spiritual retreat, spiritual side, stanford university, trademark infringement, traditional indian clothing, university mba