Mansukh Patel

When I first heard about Mansukh Patel as being a “follower of Gandhi” I figured that he would not be such a popular guy. In all those years of loving Gandhi, I had never met anyone who shared my passion for Gandhi. So this follower of Gandhi would be some old grey guy with a long white beard, living alone in some simple shell in the mountains, I thought :p
Mansukh, however, turned out to be a good-looking author of many books who attracted hundreds of people whenever giving a talk.
Since my initial plan of having a cup of tea with this guy didn’t seem an option, I picked out one of his books which was: “Face to face with life”.
This book turned my life around. Within a week I stopped smoking, started meditating, started walking, stopped drinking soda, started drinking water, got vegetarian and even started cleaning up my neighborhood. I found myself in an amazing flow of energy. Every step felt so natural and logic. Even quitting smoking didn’t preoccupy my mind.

I had had read many books before and was used to having my own opinion about them. While reading a book, I would pick out whatever fitted with me. I would get some inspiration and ignore the parts that I would not agree on.
But reading Mansukh’s book was an eye opener. I agreed with every word he said. It was like he had taken a look inside my brain and written down whatever was already there. And he explained it all so perfectly. It was a celebration of recognition and inspiration.
I read many of his books after this.

I went to every meeting that Mansukh would organize in Netherland. And I had the awesome pleasure of meeting him twice. Meeting him would not take longer than a few seconds and max 10 words would be exchanged between us, but the impact on me was enormous.

Lately some bad things have been said about Mansukh. They have been denied and proven wrong. I had to decide for myself how this could affect my relation towards Mansukh. First I tried to decide what was true and I came to the conclusion that it is simply impossible for me to make a statement about that. I do not have any inside information, so I should not judge.
Then I decided that even if the accusations would be true it would never affect me. I am deeply grateful for the effect that Mansukh has had on my life and that of many others. Nothing he would do will ever take that away.

Mansukh and his friends had set up an organization called “The Life Foundation” (now “DRU International” ). The Life Foundation became the warmest family I ever found in my life. No place on earth where I felt more "home" than with them.
During the 3 years that I lived in India they were the only thing I missed about Netherland.

Update:
I saw Mansukh Patel again on the World Peace Conference in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands on 30-Aug-2009.
It was so good to see him again. It had been almost 4 years since I saw him because of my stay in India. Mansukh has changed, he is a bit more grey and he started of very humble. During his talk I saw him finding his inspiration again and he became the inspirer that I know he can be.
I was reminded of his awesome mix of humor and deep spiritual wisdom. Sometimes I keep thinking for days about a joke he tells, to slowly discover the deeper wisdom in it.
Mansukh, you are soo awesome. Please keep coming for meetings where I can come to meet you and see, feel and drink your inspiration.

Where to go now? The sitemap will give you a quick and interesting overview.