Born as William A. Gans in 14 July 1950, Baba Rampuri is a Sadhu, who claims to be the leading foreigner into India’s most ancient and biggest order of yogis known as the Naga Sannyasis. Having a number of disciples inside the order currently he is a guru. Given permanent seat in the committee of Juna Akhara and given the name “Shri Mahant “ William A. Gans is the son of the world famous pediatric surgeon Dr Stephen L. Gans who assisted to launch the field of pediatric surgery and was one of its supreme innovators. Having grown up in California, Beverly Hills among the rich and well-known, he wanted to explore other cultures and was influenced by teachings and readings of Alan Watts on Indian philosophy, Williams left for India in 1969.

He established the Hari puri Asharam at Hardwar, the Himalayan foothill town. He distributes his time among his ashram in Hardwar, Goa, and Ujjain. He was selected to the Assembly of Elders of Datt Akhara in Ujjain. An International camp his hosted at kumbh Mela by Baba Rampuri and also conducts retreats, trainings and instigation in India and abroad. In 2013, National Geography documentary on kumbh Mela featured an Interview of Baba Rampuri.

He is the father of two children, his daughter jade Archutela-Gans, and son Kalyan Gans. Together they now run the Baba Rampuri Cultural Foundation Inc.. situated in New York, Brooklyn established in January 2013. Baba Rampuri has written book which was published in 2010 titled “Autobiography of a Sadhu” which was originally published as “Autobiography of the Blue eyed Yogi” earlier in 2005.