Saved from the Clutches of Maya: I was born in Los Angeles in 1949. My parents were avid volleyball players. My father had been one of America%u2019s best, and my mother had been a third-team All-American. I started playing volleyball when I was four. I passed through school easily. Sports dominated my free hours, and generally my childhood was a happy one. With adolescence came dating and more sports, and I left high school with a scholarship to UCLA.
In college my motto was %u201CSuccess,%u201D and my main ambition was simply to enjoy life. My grandfather had confided once to me that %u201CMoney is God.%u201D I wasn%u2019t sure about that, but neither was I sure about God. I evolved to agnosticism.
One warm Friday evening, June 9 1970, as I strolled through the campus village, I heard someone call my name. I looked around and didn%u2019t see anyone I knew. Continuing on my way, I heard someone call again. I focused on the only possible source of the sound a saffron-robed, shaven-headed, bespectacled man about my age standing alone between a restaurant and a cinema.