Just Like You: An Autobiography

After a difficult childhood in the deep South and with her marriage failing, Toni Varner arrived in San Francisco looking for happiness. Joining the counterculture, she spent two decades on a spiritual search. Then, in 1990, she met Papaji, an awakened master in the lineage of Sri Ramana Maharshi. She had never wanted a guru, and she certainly hadn't wanted an Indian name. But when she met Papji, he stopped her in her tracks. In meeting him, she discovered the source of true fulfillment.

Since that time, Gangaji, a beloved spiritual teacher, has been holding public meetings and retreats across the United States and around the world. In her autobiography, written with Roslyn Moore, Gangaji tells her story. It is a candid, inspiring, and often humorous account. "Just Like You" includes dozens of pictures, a section of penetrating questions and answers, and an appendix with letters exchanged between Gangaji and her teacher.

Gangaji says she is just like you and me, that she would be happy to tell us if she weren't, but she is. By sharing the experience of her life she is offering herself as living proof that it is possible for anyone to stop telling their endless story of suffering, to wake up to what is, and to live life truly and freely.