A GURU TAKES SPIRITUAL STOCK.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

THE LATEST documentary on Baba Ram Dass finds the man who arguably opened more Western souls to Eastern inner enlightenment coping with the effects of a stroke - and, no less gravely, with the greatest spiritual crisis he's experienced since trading psychedelics for meditation some three decades earlier.

Much like ``Be Here Now,'' Ram Dass' influential book about his earlier enlightenment (at one point, only the Bible and Dr. Spock sold more copies), Mickey Lemle's film guides and inspires, albeit through a much different stage of human consciousness. Lucid, although confined to a wheelchair by the time the cameras caught up with him, Ram Dass admits that he lost all connection to the spiritual dimension that so long defined his life when the stroke hit in 1997.

Fortunately, the spirit has been recovered, and a new mission clarified. Much as he led the hippie generation into chemical mind expansion and then spiritual realization, Ram Dass now feels it's necessary to guide the graying demographic to an understanding of its looming mortality. As he did with earlier explorations, Ram Dass applies characteristic gentleness and open curiosity to the potentially harrowing task.

Combining interviews, archival footage and recently shot scenes of physical therapy, public appearances and at least one devastatingly tender, one-on-one encounter with a tragedy-stricken young woman, Lemle covers the history and ongoing development of his subject.

Born Richard Alpert, the son of a wealthy Boston lawyer, the psychology researcher and his cohort Timothy Leary were the only Harvard professors expelled from the university in the 20th century, for their drug experiments.

While Leary delved deeper into LSD, Alpert became disillusioned with drugs. He went to India, where he ultimately found his guru, Maharaj Ji (Ram Dass recounts the oft-repeated but still fascinating story of how, when his teacher asked to try acid, he gave Maharaj Ji all of the hits he'd brought to India to absolutely no discernible effect on the elderly man).

Rechristened Baba Ram Dass (``Servant of God''), Alpert returned to the States a kind of guru himself. The transformation of the Alpert clan's rural New Hampshire estate into a meditation retreat overrun by tie-dyed seekers is humorously depicted from worldly achievement-focused Dad's point of view.

One commentator nails the special genius of ``Be Here Now'': that the book was not religion-specific, but gets right to the pay dirt of spiritual experience. The point is reinforced by tales of Hasidic rabbis and Buddhist monks whose lives were equally changed by Hindu-influenced Ram Dass' work.

Having recently completed a new book on aging, Ram Dass admits that his expectations about being old did not include having strokes.

``Physical pain is a worthy adversary of my spiritual practices,'' he notes with surprise but acceptance. Later, he adds that he feels like an advanced party that calls back to baby boomers, now, about aging. Whether or not Ram Dass proves as clear and reliable an authority on that as he was about inner consciousness, ``Fierce Grace'' reassures us that he will once again be an honest and loving one.

RAM DASS: FIERCE GRACE - Three stars

(Not rated: drug use, language)

Director: Mickey Lemle.

Running time: 1 hr. 33 min.

Playing: Nuart, West L.A.

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The life and spirit of Baba Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert) are chronicled in the documentary ``Ram Dass: Fierce Grace.''