I had studied Hindu teachings and corresponded with ashrams and teachers in India for many years. I had written articles for journals in India since 1978 and books from  1982. Bu I hadn’t actually been to India, though I almost made it twice. One of my Hindu teachers in America remarked, "David didn’t go to India, India came to him."

In 1987 I traveled to China and Tibet as part of my study of Chinese medicine. A few months later, I took a second trip to Asia and finally made it to India. Though, perhaps belatedly, visiting India was an important and transformative experience, marking another era in my life. After that first visit I continued to go back to India on a yearly basis.

My first trip to India occurred as part of my pursuit of Ayurveda. It involved visiting Ayurvedic schools and companies in Bombay and Nagpur, and sightseeing to other parts of the country. I also had two important visits of a spiritual nature, first to Pondicherry and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and second to the Ramanashram in nearby Tiruvannamalai, a pattern that was repeated in future visits to the country.