as a youth he was classically educated and studied sanskrit, the vedas and the upanishads. he says that he began to have spiritual experiences at the age of six, when his awareness spontaneously left the body and he saw himself lying motionless on the floor. many saints and sadhus blessed him and reassured his parents that he had a very developed awareness. this experience of disembodied awareness continued, which led him to many saints of that time such as anandamayi ma. he also met a tantric bhairavi, sukhman giri, who gave him shaktipat and directed him to find a guru to stabilise his spiritual experiences. however, in one of his early publications, "yoga from shore to shore", he says he would become unconscious during meditation and that "one day i met a mahatma, a great saint, who was passing by my birthplace...so he told me i should find a guru."