September 1972: Back to UK, Hospital, The Guru and Norwich

 Taken From All About My Hat The Hippy Trail 1972 ISBN ‎ 978-0993210716

On the final morning (in Tehran), sure enough, a car from the embassy arrived and took Al first to the American Express where he picked up just twenty pounds that had been sent to Delhi and then he headed back to the hotel. He paid his bill.

After a small outing to a nearby restaurant where he ate vegetables and rice again, he went back to his hotel feeling very tired as if it had been a hard day, and soon again he was asleep.

The following morning after breakfast, Al went out and bought some limes as he had been told they were good to fight Infectious Hepatitis.

Soon enough, the car arrived again and Al was taken to Tehran airport and given his ticket for a flight to London Heathrow airport. He asked the driver to ask the embassy to phone his parents to tell them he was due to arrive, writing down the phone number.

Al put me into his rucksack and that was all I knew until we landed.

Al had to go through customs at Heathrow.

They opened his rucksack and there I was, soon to be back on Al's head and back in communication.

Next to come out was Al's worn and dirty sleeping bag – but as it was being pulled out, about half a dozen limes came with it, falling to the ground and rolling down the slightly inclined floor. The customs officer quickly caught them and put them back into the rucksack saying “Thank you, you can go!”

Al found a phone box and phoned his parents in Wales, telling them he would catch a train to Cardiff and then a bus.

Al's mother said “We'll pick you up in Cardiff. We have a little car now and your Dad is driving. We had a little win on the pools just after we heard you were ill and that was how we got the money so quick.”

“Prayers do get answered,” thought Al to himself.

When his parents met Al on Cardiff General railway station, his Dad said “You look like Gandhi – you are so thin.”

Back in Wales, the following day, the family doctor visited and said that Al would have to go to hospital and stay in for a while and have tests to see what was wrong. Al explained that he was on tablets from the hospital in Iran and that he was diagnosed with Infectious Hepatitis and dysentery. The doctor asked to see the pills.

“I'll keep them, you don't need them and we don't know what they are. They may not be good for you if they are from Iran! We'll get the tests done and find out the problem.”

So Al was taken to a hospital near Cardiff. He had written some letters to friends in Norwich, such as Pam and also to Australian Paul, as well as John's parents saying how sorry he was to hear the sad news about his death. Al asked his Mum to post them. As he was leaving his parents house, he picked me off the hook I had been on, saying “Mustn't forget my hat, my old travelling buddy.”

Al explained to the doctors that he was vegetarian and had been told not to eat fried food, fruit or salads. The doctor said “We'll see when we've done the tests”

They fed him on salad and chips!

Al's Mum visited every day, and one day she came again, with some letters from Norwich and a newspaper.

One letter was from two good friends, Pam and Steve, saying that he could stay with them when Al got back to Norwich and saying how sad they had been to hear that John was dead.

John had been a very much loved man and admired man by so many. Everyone that knew his was devastated at the news, they wrote.

But “stay away from Paul, he's taken up some sort of Guru called Maharaji”, they wrote.

The second letter was from Paul, saying how he had given up drugs and was meditating on something called “Knowledge” that he had been shown by a boy just of fifteen years of age called Guru Maharaji.

There was another letter too, from John's parents, wishing Al well and saying “John died amongst the people he loved so much.”

Al finished reading the letter and picked up the newspaper. He opened it randomly and there in front of him was an article about the “Boy wonder Guru Maharaji” that had come from Haridwar in India, an ashram called Prem Nagar, to bring his “Knowledge” to the West. There was a small picture with a caption that read “Lord of the Universe”.

“How strange,” thought Al - “that must be the place opposite where I nearly drowned in the Ganges. I wonder if that is some sort of child prodigy for that Maharishi Yogi guru guy that the Beatles had seen – but that was called Transcendental Meditation and now this is called Knowledge”.

A couple of days later, the test results were through and sure enough he had Infectious Hepatitis and dysentery – they gave Al pills and a strict diet of no alcohol, no fried food and no fresh fruit or salad.

He went home and stayed with his parents for several weeks, putting on weight and rebuilding his strength. I stayed on a hook by the front door.

Later Al put me into a special box.

The next thing I knew, I was in Norwich.

Al was staying with his two good friends, Pam and Steve, and visiting Australian Paul and his wife. There were no more chillums and joints with Paul. Instead, Paul told Al much about his boy teacher, the Guru Maharaji, and the techniques that the boy gave to enable people to experience the "Knowledge" within inside themselves.

Al was now actively seeking some sort of answer to an uncertain question about life and the universe. He started asking the ‘I Ching’,the book that Diane had given him in Kabul, for guidance.

One day whilst Al was about to consult the "I Ching" again, having thrown the coins and drawn the lines that would reveal the "hexagram" and reading, there was a knock on the door.

It was Australian Paul and his wife and another follower of the Guru Maharaji.

Al did not want to be unsociable, so made tea, and then whilst the three guests chatted away, telling him once again about this "Knowledge", Al could not resist picking up the book again.

The "lines" pointed him to read Hexagram 5:"The Waiting": as he wished that Paul would stop talking so that he could focus on the reading, Al reached the lines that read:

"Six at the top means:

"One falls into the pit.

"Three uninvited guests arrive.

"Honour them, and in the end there will be good fortune."

It did not take Al long to realise that the three uninvited guests may well have been sitting in his living room.

So he started listening and began to understand that Paul was talking about some sort of experience within a person, an experience that he called peace.

Al started going to public meetings about this Knowledge. The meetings were called "Satsang". He learnt that it was free for the asking but took commitment, "to yourself," the Guru said.

One day Al picked up his "I Ching" again and asked "Who is Guru Maharaji?"

The result was the revelation of Hexagram 1 "The Creative" changing to Hexagram 50: "The Cauldron" with changing lines in positions first and fifth.

Al was determined to find out – but that is another story.

I can tell you now, that Al never saw Mike, Miriam, Hellmut or Diane again and never went back to Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran or Pakistan. He wonders to this day where those people that he met were today and whether they were still alive.

I have since travelled with Al on many occasions and I have more adventurous tales to tell you about. Until then,

Peace be upon you. Myhat.

NOTE: Guru Maharaji is now known as Prem Rawat