What was the author's personality and intellectual disposition like before he began documenting Sai Baba's life?

The author, who is referred to as Hemadpant, provides a self-critical description of his former character. In Chapter 2, he confesses to being mischievous, cynical, talkative, and critical. He states that he was arrogant about his own knowledge, possessing a "bad intellect and a logic-driven mind" that was always prone to argumentation. He admits he knew nothing of a Satguru's greatness and was always proud of his own wisdom, a disposition that Sai Baba warns against as being filled with ignorance and false logic.