When my friends invited me to visit the Himalayas, I agreed. By that moment it seemed I had already visited everywhere: America, many countries in Europe and Asia, but I hadn’t been to India yet.

The country looked strange to me. Everywhere was poor and dirty, but the eyes of the citizens were somehow happy. “How come?” – I thought. “How can you be happy living in such conditions?”

So, we got to Rishikesh. Got some rest and went to the mountains. We reached the height of 3,500 meters to a holy place there. And, all of a sudden, I got an awkward feeling that I was in a jelly – that the space around me was dense and tough. That’s the way a crystal purity shows itself. And that actual purity was squeezing me out of myself. I’d even say it kicked me out – that’s how hard it was to stay in that place.

UNEXPECTEDLY, I UNDERSTOOD HOW MUCH DIRT AND SLAG THERE WAS IN MY BODY. I SAW THAT MY MIND IS, ACTUALLY, AN OVERWHELMED COMPUTER, WHICH HADN’T HAD ANY FREE SPACE FOR ANYTHING NEW FOR A LONG TIME.

I felt so bad, that I couldn’t walk forward anymore, fell behind, and finally went back to the place where we started.

For the next several days I felt literally ill, physically feeling worse, I’d say, than ever before: sickness, vomiting, all the body was just turning inside out… The only thing that was clear was: that it wasn’t a normal illness, but a physical cleansing. I realized – it was high time to change my life starting with food.

After I came back from the trip, I quit alcohol and meat, and started paying more attention to my health. The first months, of course, it was tough – I had to change too much in myself. Though, I got reassured that after making a decision, a man can break almost any unhealthy habit. Right, it will be hard for some time, but if you don’t surrender, after just a couple of months you will feel much better. And after a year, you’ll forget that there was a time when you were addicted to alcohol, slept late, loved fatty foods, and didn’t move much…

The main aim I had after coming back from India was cleansing – first, my physical body, then my mind, and finally – all the spheres of my life. I remember the first 3 days without food. Later, I fasted periodically, drank some herbal essences and curative tonics. I expanded both the intensity and length of my yoga exercises.

Though, all in all, I didn’t quite understand which direction I should take for my development and what I should actually do. What is that path which suits me? Thousands of sources were speaking about something that seemed to be the same, but the puzzle pieces didn’t fit in my mind. “It’d be great to find a person, who would become my teacher, a guide to the spiritual world,” – I thought those days.

One day, while discussing our monthly plan with a marketer I asked her a common question: “How are you?” As an answer, she shared her feelings about visiting a yoga-seminar, which took place on the lake Teletskoye. In her story, I felt (even more than heard), – there was something really important for me. That was an interesting feeling: listening to another person, telling a story, I literally saw the images, emotions and energy given by a process I had never taken a part in. When my colleague started describing a master, leading the seminar, I felt an immediate response inside: “that’s what I need!”

I asked the employee to organize the same workshop for us. We gathered a group – and went with Maksim (the trainer) to Sri-Lanka.

That’s how we dived into the amazing nature of the island. We did breath and physical practices, relaxed and listened to Maksim throughout the days. I liked everything I saw and heard more and more.