My introduction to Maharaji was in a restaurant in Afghanistan, back in 1970, when Sandy Collier wrote his Dehradun, India address in my address book. Sandy and her companion Ron Geaves, were on their may overland back to London, after having met Maharaji and received the techniques of Knowledge. Of course, I just filed this impression away and continued my overland journey to India.

I was 22 years old. I had left America when I was 20 and set out on my odyssey which would three years later, end me up in India, at the doorstep of Maharaji's home in Dehradun. There was tons of synchronicity in the story. Not only meeting Sandy and Ron, but during my travels in India I kept bumping into "sages" who would tell me in their consultations with me that I would find what I was looking for in Dehradun.

Finally, my travels landed me in the lower Himalayan village of Bageshwar. I was on my way to Lake Mansorovar in Tibet, but the Chinese occupation stopped me in Bageshwar. There, in a temple one rainy day a strange saddhu opened up his metal suitcase, pulled out a poster of Maharaji in shining crown and red velvet coat, and said I should go to Dehradun.

Well, I may be crazy, but I'm not dumb. This time I went straight away. I landed on Maharaji's front porch with a letter of introduction the saddhu had given me (he turned out to be one of Maharaji's travelling instructors).

I waited for Maharaji to come home from St. Joseph's Academy, where he was attending 5th grade. He was 12 year old. I was extremely nervous, and wanted to run out the gate. Finally a car came screeching into the gravel driveway.

Soon, Maharaji appeared, having changed into his white kurta and pajama outfit I came to love so well. He sat down in front of me and asked, "What do you want?" My answer was what seemed like an infinity of crying. While I wept, Maharaji listened. I really felt I was telling him my whole story in tears, and that he was listening. Finally. when I subsided, he said, 'Ok. Your room is up there. Take rest and we will talk more later." And all he went back inside the residence.

So began my one month stay with Maharaji. In that time I had the chance to talk with Maharaji almost every day on the porch after he came back from school. I argued and argued. Maharaji loved and loved. Finally, I was melted and began to feel optimism ad hope re-enter my life.

Then it was school vacation and Maharaji was scheduled to go to Delhi and Chandigarh to give public talks there. I worried and worried as departure preparations were going on. Finally Maharaji told me I was going along. We drove to Delhi where I got to see Maharaji speaking before almost a million people at a huge outdoor programme. To put it mildly, my mind was blown. There he was really telling it like it was giving such love that I just melted.

I asked for Knowledge that night. Maharaji told me I had to wait, that I wasn't ready yet. The next day we drove to Chandigarh and one again I saw Maharaji offer great clarity and insight to large numbers of people as well as being able to heap tons of love and fun at the same time. I asked for Knowledge again that night. This time Maharaji said yes.

The next morning Sampuranand took me to a private room and showed me the techniques of Knowledge. The only problem with receiving Knowledge was that when we got back to Dehradun Maharaji told me it was time to go to Prem Nagar ashram and learn about service.

I was not pleased to leaving the residence, but Maharaji came often to visit and there was a lot of preparation going on for the Peace Bomb programme in November, 1970 at India Gate, Delhi. That is how I learned about service.

There were a group of Westerners coming overland by van that had received Knowledge in London. Maharaji asked me to look after their needs. I was also doing public relations in a tent on the India Gate grounds. This was the most amazing event of Maharaji's I have ever been.

The group of westerners ended up being two vans full of miscellaneous nationalities. We all went up to Prem Nagar ashram and had absolutely incredible days with Maharaji.

You could tell Maharaji enjoyed the unruly Westerners, who would greet his arrival on the roof where he would come to talk to us and answer questions with wild whooping enthusiasm. We would ask lots of questions, and Maharaji enjoyed that. He kept telling us that he was going to the west soon.

A lot of people went back to their various countries to prepare for him. But still I could not leave. The idea that Maharaji, still in school, would leave to travel in the West seemed a remote possibility.

Finally, in April of 1971, I left. I had been with Maharaji for ten months.

When I talk about Maharaji and the gift of Knowledge that he gave me, I always use the analogy of my treasured pearl necklace, each pearl being a person who has brought huge value to my life. These are the teachers, mentors and inspirations who have helped me identify important areas of my life that were still unexplored. When I meet these people, something clicks. Maharaji is a rare Tahitian pearl on that necklace of great gifts in my life. I met Maharaji at the end of 1969. I was a hippie wanderer, traveling overland to India. I had a keen awareness of 'something missing', but would not have been able to tell you what was missing. I was not searching for a spiritual master or a technique of meditation. It was not until I met Maharaji and heard him speak that I began to feel pieces of the puzzle fall into place. It all started when I heard him address his huge audience as 'dear seekers of truth.'

Maharaji spoke to the importance of having a practical connection to a part of myself that is connected to - whatever I call that life-force that is keeping me alive. His message shocked me because it was so different. This was not an intellectual pursuit. This was not a lifestyle. This was not an external practice, like rosaries or mantras. This was an offer to learn the 'how to' of practicing an inner focus on a daily basis.

The other thing that fit me perfectly about Maharaji's message was that he was not just offering a 'how to' and then leaving me on my own. I definitely needed support to be able to shift from a purely external focus to a more balanced menu, which included internal nourishment. Maharaji helped me see things differently, and opened up new possibilities in my life. I loved spending time with him, my heart bursting with the joy of what I was discovering!

I wouldn't call myself a disciplined person. I am an emotional person; more comfortable following my heart than making an action plan to make my dreams come true. This is another reason a competent teacher is such a treasure in my life. He reminds me where the rubber meets the road. If I really want a life where I feel a connection to something that I can always count on, then it is up to me to organize my life accordingly.

I call the time I practice Knowledge my 'quiet time.' It's the necessary break-time in my life that is increasingly filled with places to go, people to see, and things to do. I feel sincerely fortunate that Maharaji has offered me a method to find that quiet place, one that works for me.

I wouldn't say it's easy to practice Knowledge. It's daunting to be aware of the motor mouth of the mind. But it is simple. Even I can do it. The rewards? Maybe just that little inch of separation between my worries and me, which makes a huge difference in my life!

Or Joan Apter, the second American convert (the one accused of smuggling the jewels into India), who had tasted the "freedom" of so many hundreds of acid trips and sexual encounters and was so exhausted from the San Francisco-Mexico City-Amsterdam air triangle ("I was on acid continuously. I'd go up as fast as I got down.") that she ended up destitute and half-crazed in India-a "white saint" cared for by the peasants, wandering in search of truth until she stumbled upon the Guru Maharaj Ji.

Joan's father was a Washington liberal lobbyist. Another devotee escaped from the mendacity of life at the American Embassy in New Delhi, where her father was the acting American Ambassador. "He was forced to lie for the Government. It destroyed him and I wanted to find the truth." Virtually all were white and privileged; they were also in a good deal of pain.