Based on the text, what was the author's personality and intellectual disposition before he met Sai Baba in Shirdi?

Before his life-changing visit to Shirdi, the author describes himself as having a challenging personality. In Chapter 2, he confesses to being "mischievous, talkative, cynical, and critical." He was intellectually arrogant, proud of his own wisdom, and possessed a logic-driven mind that was prone to argumentation. He admits he knew nothing of a Satguru's greatness and was a "staunch debater." His journey to see Sai Baba was not born from faith but occurred by chance, largely due to the strong insistence of his friends, Kakasaheb Dixit and Nanasaheb Chandorkar.