I decided that first it was going to be necessary to purify my body, and that in itself was quite a battle because my tastes had been carefully conditioned. But after battling with my senses I was able to undertake a series of fasts, the longest of which lasted for ten days. This demonstrated to me the change that was possible in the clarity of my own thinking and a tremendous improvement in my own physical well-being. I then decided to do something that I had been thinking of, on and off, for years, and that was to go to India. But my business activities had never allowed me the total freedom of going without a timetable, and I knew deep within myself that unless I could go, determined to stay as long as I needed to discover whatever I was seeking, that it was a waste of time. Once you have a deadline you are always in a hurry and this fact alone, at least for me, made it impossible to go to India with the freedom to seek out whatever it was my curiosity seemed unable to ignore. Finally I was able to detach myself from my possessions.
It was not necessary to give them up in the literal sense, but it was necessary to give them up in the sense of being possessed by them. Once we detach ourselves from our possessions we are free of them. They no longer own us. We, for the first time, own them. We are no longer the slave to money. We have mastered it. It's not an easy point to reach. It is probably the most difficult because we are haunted by insecurity. We are fearful of the future, and this fear keeps us in bondage. But finally I got on a plane with the determination never to return to the West unless I found what I was seeking. I knew vaguely that all I was doing was taking my physical body to a distant land, and that really my search was an inner one, not an external search, but that maybe in some mystical way the actual change of vibrations in a culture totally different than anything I had ever experienced would unlock the barrier that I was trying to batter down. Before going to India I fasted and meditated.
I got on the plane in Toronto and during the thirty-two hours it took to reach India I continued my fast because I wanted to prepare my body for a complete change in food and thereby conserve my energy so that my body would not be susceptible to all the disease I had been told existed on the Indian continent. Consequently, during my entire stay in India I did not suffer any illness of any kind. In fact my body grew stronger and stronger and although I had taken a little kit bag of all the best medication, including penicillin and antibiotics, I never once had to use it personally although I did use it on behalf of the other members of the group who picked up some of the various viruses that are so easily contracted in India where the sanitation is somewhat less than what our systems are used to in the Western world.
When I arrived in India, my first reaction was to get back on the plane. It was a cultural shock of such magnitude that I found it hard at first to even comprehend and I am speaking, of course, of when one leaves the major cities and goes into the villages which is the same as going back five thousand years in time. It took me several months to adjust to the change in vibrations that I felt all around me. It is rather like being in a movie where everybody, except yourself, is in slow motion. Time does not seem to exist. If you met a stranger, he would talk to you as long as you wished to talk. If you asked for directions, someone would volunteer and go for miles out of his way, without any thought of monetary reward, to help you find whoever you are looking for or wherever you want to go.
Slowly but surely, in the most isolated areas of India, my values and consciousness started subtly to change. The western mind is so caught up with viewing everything on a material level and judging everything from appearances that it is extremely difficult, at least it was for me, to shake off my attitudes and my indoctrination's. But slowly one starts to see everything differently and to hear things differently, to realize that men are what they are inside, instead of judging them from their external appearances.It was easier to recognize the subtleties of the ego, and to understand the need for discernment and to allow one's feelings, as well as one's thinking, to come into balance.
We have been told, at least in many of the eastern books, that when we are ready to find a teacher one will appear and there are many teachers, or proclaimed teachers, in the form of Gurus throughout India. More and more Gurus are starting to appear in the west. I discovered that most of these teachers seemed to me to be caught up in their own subtle game. It was possible sometimes to question them openly and to evaluate their answers for the ring of truth but it is dangerous because many of the teachers have the ability, through their conservation of energy and knowledge, of exploiting one's auto-suggestion and attempting to turn one into a perpetual follower by giving them only scraps of information and not really enough to free one from relying constantly on their presence. This is how perpetual followers seem to be manufactured.
A really sincere and genuine Guru will tell you immediately that he is simply a channel, a reflection of your own self, on whatever level of consciousness you are caught on, and that all he can do for you is to help bring you to whatever level of consciousness he has obtained, through his own inner work and self-discipline. When he has done this, he will acknowledge your progress and release you. The many warnings of wolves in sheep's clothing are valid, and it is important if one even temporarily surrenders his mind to a Guru to always maintain an independent witness of one's own intuition who sits and judges and decides.
The true Guru is within yourself. One must, however, be careful because the line between flowing and hearing the teacher and cynicism is very fine and it is difficult to recognize guide posts or cross-reference points. This is why it is wise to talk to many different Gurus and not blindly follow one. Instead, be like a bee gathering honey from any available flower. Sooner or later you will find somebody you can trust.
To Be Continued...
Can't wait for the next installment.. 
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