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• Anonymous Read this

  This is an excellent book. No gobbledegook and no bullshit. Just clear beautiful prose and ideas. And a great memoir. I make no apology for promoting this book. I have not connection to the author but i feel it deserves a lot more attention from anyone with an interest in Indian religions, and Indian religious culture and Indian derived spirituality. I'd always been skeptical about sadhus. I tend to keep a wide berth from them. I decided to buy this book after I saw it because I'd met a lovely man in Amarkantak who told me he used to be a sadhu. I don't usually hang around town for a long time but I was in Amarkantak for one month. Many of you will know its a holy town. Before I met the lovely ex-sadhu, i stayed in an ashram where I observed the sadhus over the course of my stay but this only gave me an external impression. I didn't know anything about them still as mostly they seemed not to speak English and I wasn't very interested in getting to know them anyway. From the book, I learnt a great deal about sadhus and the non-establishment part of Hinduism. The writer, a french man who seems to have been a student of philosophy beforehand, becomes a disciple of a sadhu who is very wise and intelligent. He lives the life of a sadhu, travelling all over and learning the philosophies of hinduism. Most of the content of the book is devoted to the meatier and more meaningful aspects of the lives of sadhus however he does mention those sadhus who are less pure. Its an excellent portrait of sadhus as a "tribe" is you will. I feel it must cover the breadth of sadhu experience. Once again its a beautiful book.