After traveling at age 18 from his native California to India in 1969, Rampuri was drawn to the Naga Babas, an ancient and wild order of naked yogis whom he calls the “Hell’s Angels of Indian Spirituality.” 

Organized into a sect by Adi Shankara in the 5^th century BC, the Naga Babas see themselves as the ultimate protectors of the Sanatan Dharma, or what we call the Hindu religion. 

Rampuri became a disciple of a Naga Baba—a master shaman sadhu—from Rajasthan and, as foretold by astrological prophecy, soon found himself the first foreigner to become an initiate of the Juna Akhara, the oldest and largest grouping of Naga Babas with more than 200,000 sadhu members.

But the spiritual path isn’t quite what the young Rampuri expected, as the tantric murder of his guru presents a riddle to the young man that he must solve, requiring an inner journey of self-discovery, as well as the outer “Journey of the Hero,” in order to know who he really is. 

From drinking the “Nectar of Immortality” at the source of the Ganges River to allegations of tantric murder, this autobiography is filled with true accounts of magic, miracles, ghosts, and austerities, with lessons on Hindu gods, ayurveda, mantra, and Indian culture woven throughout. Through his journey of extremes, Rampuri takes us into the mystic heart of India. 

The storytelling in Autobiography of a Sadhu derives from Baba’s travels in India, making pilgrimages to a ‘crossing point between worlds’, the hidden entrances to these other worlds, the meaning of ‘darshan’ the beholding, achieving immortality, the transformational mission of the alchemist, being both subject and object of the alchemical experiment, expanding one’s articulation, Indian scriptures and words: their relevance to experience, Indian culture and the oral tradition of naga babas the ‘yogi shamans’, the search for new meanings, gurus and their communication of self-knowledge, the distortion of Hinduism by India’s colonizers, the book of the world, the mother goddess and her fruits spread across the world, the uncluttered mind of the yogi and his connection with the goddess, and amrita the elixir of immortality.