TANTRIC-QUEST-Encounter-with-Absolute-Love

good year for writing the text, and, with the photography forthe book behind me, I planned to follow the teachings of somegreat Tibetan master. My initial work had given me opportunitiesto meet with the highest authorities of the various schools.Now I needed to go back to see those who had left the greatestimpression and ask one of them to take me on as a disciple.Just before my train entered the Delhi station, the powerwas interrupted and the lights went off for a few minutes.When they came back on, I realized that my suitcase offilm and my camera had disappeared. In a state of shock, Ifiled a complaint with the station police and launched intoa desperate search.Furious and worn out, I spent the night hunting throughall the nearby garbage cans, questioning in vain those whoslept on the street, in the hope that the thief had abandonedmy film bag. I thought about those long and difficult treks,about the marvels I had uncovered, and, occasionally, aboutthe cost of enduring patience. Here were hundreds of kilometersI'd crossed by foot, countless meetings, and hard-wonpermissions, and above all a treasure of many thousands ofnegatives, vanishing forever. A band of shrewd, resourcefulstreet urchins who knew their way around came to my aid,and I promised them a big reward. Dawn arrived, and not theleast trace of the film had been found.Bitter and disappointed at watching my big chance topublish a book with a great editor disappear, I decided tostay in Delhi for ten or fifteen days. The first thing I didwas take a room with a bath in a luxury hotel in Janpath totaste a pleasure I hadn't known for months. I had bathed inrivers, sacred and otherwise, in streams and lakes, but notonce in a bathtub. By this time, I was wearing several12