English-Man, Beggar-Man, Holy-Man

In 1965 I left England and I spent a year travelling overland until I reached India. I only planned to go as far as Istanbul. However I found myself on what became known as the "hippy trail". I was 17 when I left home and 18 when I reached India. By the time I got to India I was physically and mentally exhausted. Looking back I was probably clinically depressed, physically unwell, and suffering from the effects of too much cannabis use. I found myself in a spiritual centre called an ashram. I met my first Guru, (my spiritual teacher) – a Swami & sannyasin renunciate in ochre robes. I never had at that time any intention of becoming a monk for 10 years. However I spent 10 years in India living the life of a monk otherwise known as a sadhu, who sometimes travelled and eventually saw nearly every part of India. The first few chapters of my book talks about my travel through various countries of Europe and Asia, in the days before the name "hippy" or "flower power people" was known (I was a "beatnik). I then talk about my time with my first Guru, when I became initiated into monastic Hinduism and the life of a celibate Brahmachari, dressed in white cloth. I was that teacher's disciple for over four years. He was an orthodox Swami, very high up in the hierarchy of the system, & I travelled widely with him on the religious lecture circuit. I learnt a lot and I changed into somebody completely different from who I had been! My book then moves on to my travels around India and my adopting of the red robes of a sannyasin, living the mendicant sadhu life.