"The Praying Man"

I first entered therapy as a moderately depressed 19 year old. By the time that I completed that course of treatment it became clear to me that Western psychotherapy could only bring me so far and that my personal and professional life would feel incomplete without more. In 1974 after I completed my doctorate I was fortunate enough to be able to go on what was originally supposed to be a 4 month vacation to Asia. Two and a half years later my wife and I returned to America. Most of that time was spent living, studying and working, between Iran and India.
My first visit to India started in May 1974. It was hot, humid, and overwhelming on so many levels that I hated how I felt most of the day. I knew that if I had killed an Indian and was tried by a jury of my peers, they would give me an award. When I returned to India 16 months later, for reasons that are still unknown to me, all the things that I so hated were all still there but they no longer made my insides want to explode. I then had the great fortune to be able to live and study at a Yoga ashram named the Yoga Institute of Santa Cruz in a suburb of Mumbai (then Bombay). It was here that I was able to begin the process of filling in the missing pieces that life and therapy were not able to supply.
For me the enigma of India was how people could live in such abject poverty yet evidence such a profound sense of contentment. That is one of the spiritual lessons that has been India's gift to me.

"The Praying Man"

This shot was taken in Varanasi, India's most holy city in 1997. This man is very poor and has perhaps minus three percent body fat. He is facing the Ganges River at sunrise. He is saluting and praying to the rising sun. This is one of my favorite pictures as for me it captures a highly significant component of my relationship to India.