In the 1960s and 70s thousands of hippies journeyed east to India in search of enlightenment. Hippie Masala is a fascinating chronicle about flower children who, after fleeing Western civilization, found a new way of life in India.
It is with love we announce that Baba Cesare has left his suffering body today 29 December 2018.
“I'm nine, it's my first time in India. I don't like it at all: dirt everywhere, poverty, lepers in the streets pushing themselves on trolleys with bloody stumps. We go to visit a large temple in Delhi. To enter you have to take off your shoes and that's the last thing I want to do. I walk barefoot, with the terror of getting some kind of disease. I am shocked and lock myself in the hotel to watch television and eat peanuts. I don't want to go out anymore.
Then shortly before leaving, I put my head back out and in a square, in the midst of the large moving crowd, I see three men crouched, practically naked. They look serene, composed, and their very long hair wrapped over their heads like a kind of crown. One of them is holding a very simple musical instrument, with only one string. They have fewer than beggars, but they look like kings. "Who I am?!" We get closer and people explain to us that they are ascetics. They live alone in the jungle. It seems incredible to me that such people exist. I never forget them " [Folco Terzani from the book, A Barefoot on the Earth]
Baba Cesare felt he was not suitable to have a normal family or a normal job, he wanted something different, another life, always on this Earth, but different, not interested in material issues and needs, but made only of spiritual fulfillments. And so, Cesare leaves Italy to go to India dressed only with rags and begging along the streets. Step by step, people start to trust him, step by step Cesare also learns to speak Hindi and this makes him more reliable as an Indian guru, or rather, Sadhu. A Sadhu is a person who lives with no possessions, such as a home or money.
A Sadhu always enjoys the greatest respect of his fellows and common people who help him to have food, clothes and a place where he can sleep. Cesare attends other Indian gurus to learn the secrets of a spiritual life, showing that an alternative way to live is always possible. Until when, thanks to his knowledge, Cesare is really regarded as an Indian guru and he can live a wonderful life with no goods or other possessions. This story can be read like an educational or spiritual journey, the reflections about the meaning of life are amazing and gripping, the style is sharp, but always true.
Cesare’s life is fully different from the Western life where people are accustomed to seek saints and angels inside the beatification procedures of the Church. Humbleness and patience are the unique ingredients in Cesare’s life, but thanks to them, his life is totally fulfilled. Maybe for us it will be impossible to live like Baba Cesare, but this book reveals that nothing is impossible when accomplished with the true essence of our soul. Nothing is impossible, even with no money, no home, no jobs. This book shakes our sensitivity, screams, make us cry, and shapes a unique book, an adventure novel, but, above all, a spiritual journey inside the real meaning of life on the Earth.
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