Babaji is the inspiration for the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga. He has not spoken since 1952 and communicates by means of a small wipeboard. Babaji is an evolved yogi and a quiet scholar who has remarkable skills in sculpture, music, architecture, yoga philosophy, writing and story telling, and Indian cosmology. He is a leading exponent of Ayurveda (Indian medical system), an author, a monk, and proficient in half a dozen languages.

Baba Hari Dass comes from a region of the Himalayas in India. He left home at the age of eight to join a renunciate sect in the jungles. He is a mauni sadhu, a monk who practices continual silence. The purpose is first to conserve energy, second to silence the mind, and third to develop non-attachment to desires. Babaji has the marvelous skill of saying a great deal in the fewest possible written words.

For eight months of the year, Babaji lives near Santa Cruz, California and participates three days per week at the Mount Madonna Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, and one day per week at the Pacific Cultural Center in Santa Cruz. He spends three months in India, from January through March at the Sri Ram Orphanage, which he has helped develop and expand over the last two decades.