What was the author's personality like before he became a devotee and wrote this book?

The author, who would come to be known as Hemadpant, provides a very candid self-assessment of his character before his spiritual transformation. In Chapter 2, he describes himself as having been mischievous, talkative, cynical, and critical. He admits to being arrogant about his knowledge, possessing a logic-driven mind that was always proud of its own wisdom and prone to argumentation. He explicitly states that he initially knew nothing of a Satguru's greatness and had a "bad intellect," setting the stage for the profound change that his association with Sai Baba would bring about.