Alistair Shearer is a cultural historian specialising in the art and religions of South Asia. He is a former lecturer at The School of Oriental and African Studies at London University and the British Museum and a veteran teacher of meditation. His books have been translated into all the major European languages, as well as Japanese, Chinese and Hebrew, and his translation from Sanskrit of the Yoga Sutras has remained in print for forty years. Alistair is co-creator of the award-winning retreat hotel Neeleshwar Hermitage on the coast of Malabar, in Kerala.