American billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs, 61, who recently visited Kashi Vishwanath Temple, in Varanasi and the Kumbh in Allahabad, is both a business executive and philanthropist.
She was married to Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple and since his death has been looking after the Steve Jobs Trust. Laurene also chairs the Emerson Collective, that she began 21 years that looks at education, reform of immigration, the environment etc and the XQ Institute, founded in 2015 with the aim of reforming high schools.
In 1989, Steve Jobs met Laurene Powell during a lecture he gave at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was studying. She grew up in West Milford, NJ; her father was a stock broker and her mom, a housewife.
Steve later recalled how captivated he was by Laurene's presence, saying, ‘She was right there in the front row in the lecture hall, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her... kept losing my train of thought, and started feeling a little giddy’.
After the talk, they ran into each other in the parking lot, and he invited her to dinner. From that moment on, they were mostly inseparable for the rest of his life.
Jobs proposed on New Year's Day in 1990, and the couple tied the knot on March 18, 1991, in a Buddhist ceremony at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. About fifty guests attended, including Jobs's father, Paul, and his sister, Mona. The ceremony was officiated by Jobs' guru, Kobun Chino Otogawa.
Since Steve was mostly vegan, they had a vegan wedding cake shaped like Yosemite's Half Dome (a rock formation in the park), and the celebration ended with a hike and a playful snowball fight involving Laurene's brothers. They eventually had three children together, a son and two daughters.
Fifty years before Laurene, Steve Jobs first had an interest in Hinduism, and he travelled to India, in mid-1974 in search of spiritual enlightenment. His first destination was the Kainchi ashram of Neem Karoli Baba but the babae had passed away and the place was nearly desolate.
He continued on, visiting other ashrams. After spending seven months in India, Jobs returned to America.
Steve's time abroad had quite the effect on him; he sported a shaved head and embraced traditional Indian attire. During this transformative period, Jobs delved into psychedelics, later describing his experiences with LSD as among the most significant of his life.
He then immersed himself in Zen Buddhism, guided by the teachings of Zen master Kōbun Chino Otogawa.
Laurene arrived in Varanasi she and visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple. She apparently offered prayers for the success of the Maha Kumbh and jalabhishek or water offering to Lord Vishwanath, an avatar of Lord Shiv.
Laurene Powell Jobs, clad in a flowing white dress and a radiant orange shawl, arrived in Prayagraj probably for the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025. At a ceremonial gathering at Niranjani Akhara, she was honoured with the beautiful name Kamala and took part in a pattabhishek for spiritual leader, Vyasanandp Giri Maharaj. He said she expressed interest in Sanatan Dharma.