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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Sanskrit महर्षि महेश योगी maharṣi maheśa yogī), born Mahesh Prasad Varma (January 12, 1914 - February 5, 2008) developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader or "guru" of the TM movement, a "Neo-Hindu" new religious movement.[1] Varma's given name was Mahesh, while Maharishi and yogi are honorifics.
He became a disciple and assistant of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, who was the Shankaracharya (spiritual leader) of Jyotirmath in the Indian Himalayas. The Maharishi credits Brahmananda Saraswati with inspiring his teachings. Beginning in 1955, the Maharishi began to introduce the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique and other related programs and initiatives to the world. His first global tour began in 1958.[2]
Varma began to be known as "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi" around the year 1960. His devotees referred to him as "His Holiness",[3] and he became known as the "giggling guru".[4][5][6]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he achieved fame as the guru to The Beatles and other celebrities. In the mid-1970s, he started the TM-Sidhi program, which claimed to offer practitioners the ability to levitate and to create world peace. His followers started the Natural Law Party in 1992, which ran campaigns in dozens of countries. He moved to MERU, Holland, near Vlodrop, the Netherlands, in the same year.[7] In 2000, he created the Global Country of World Peace, a country without borders, and appointed its leaders. In 2008, he announced his retirement from all administrative activities and went into mauna (spiritual silence) until his death three weeks later.
According to news reports, "more than 5 million people studied his methods".[8][9] TM websites report tens of thousands having learned his advanced meditation techniques. His initiatives include schools and universities with campuses in several countries including India, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.[10] The Maharishi, his family and close associates created charitable organisations and for-profit businesses that include nearly 1,000 TM centres, schools, universities, clinics, health supplements and organic farms. Estimates of the value of the Maharishi's empire range from the multi-millions to the billions of dollars.
Biography
Birth
The birth name, birth date, and caste of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are not known with certainty, in part because of the tradition of ascetics and monks to renounce family connections.[11]Many accounts say he was born Mahesh Prasad Varma (Hindi: महेश प्रसाद वर्मा) into a family of the Kayastha caste[12][13] living in the Central Provinces of British India.[14] A different name appears in the Allahabad University list of distinguished alumni, where he is listed as M.C. Srivastava.[15] Srivastava is the name of his nephews and cousins,[11] and an obituary says his name was "Mahesh Srivastava".[16] The given name "Mahesh", an epithet of Shiva, indicated that the Maharishi came from a Shaivaite family.[17]
The name of his father is given as Sri Ram Prasad,[citation needed] identified as a local tax official in the civil service.[6][18] One source says he worked in the department of forestry.[14]
Various accounts give the year of his birth as 1911, 1917 or 1918.[6] Biographies by Paul Mason and William Jefferson say that he was born January 12, 1917 in Jabalpur, Central Provinces. The place of birth given in his passport[unreliable source?] is "Pounalulla", India and his birth date as 12 January 1918.
While a few sources say Maharishi came from a lower-caste family,[19] the predominant view is that he was a member of the Kayastha caste, a high status caste whose traditional profession was writing.[20]
Early life
Varma studied physics at Allahabad University and earned a degree in 1942. Some accounts say that he worked in a factory following graduation.[21][22] In 1941, Varma became a secretary to the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, who addressed him as "Bala Brahmachari Mahesh".[23][24] The title "Bala Brahmachari" designates someone as "a dedicated student of spiritual knowledge and life-long celibate ascetic".[24] Mahesh remained with Swami Brahmananda Saraswati until the latter died in 1953, when Brahmachari Mahesh moved to Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand in the Himalayas. He was trusted to take care of the bulk of Saraswati's correspondence without direction, and was also sent out to give public speeches on Vedic (scriptural) themes.[25] Although Mahesh was a close disciple, he could not be the Shankaracharya's spiritual successor because he was not of the Brahmin caste.[26][27] Canadian author and journalist Paul Grescoe reported in 1968 that "A British magazine said his teacher was Jagad Guru Shankaracharya Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, ... or Guru Dev for short. The Maharishi ... was his pupil for 13 years. When the Guru Dev died, the Maharishi was so disappointed at not being named successor, that he launched an unsuccessful lawsuit."[28] The Shankaracharya, at the end of his life, charged Maharishi with the responsibility of travelling and teaching meditation to the masses, and named Swami Shantananda Saraswati as his successor.[29][30]Tour in India (1955-1957)
In 1955,[6][31][32][33] the Maharishi left Uttarkashi and began publicly teaching what he stated was a traditional meditation technique[34] that he learned from his master Brahmananda Saraswati, which he called Transcendental Deep Meditation and later renamed Transcendental Meditation.[35] The Maharishi travelled around India for two years.[36][37] At that time, he called his movement the "Spiritual Development Movement", but renamed it "The Spiritual Regeneration Movement" in 1957, in Madras, India, on the concluding day of the Seminar of Spiritual Luminaries.[6] According to J. Lynwood King, in his dissertation Fundamentals of Maharishi Vedic Science, the feedback Maharishi received from the diverse population that learned his technique suggested to him that it could be of wide benefit.[38] In his visits to Southern India, the Maharishi spoke in English rather than the Hindi-language spoken in his home area to avoid provoking resistance among those seeking linguistic self-determination and to appeal to the "learned classes", according to Coplin.[39]World tours (1958-1968)
In 1959, the Maharishi began his first world tour,[6][8] writing: "I had one thing in mind, that I know something which is useful to every man".[4]The Maharishi's 1986 book, Thirty Years Around the World, gives a detailed account of his world tours, as does a later biography, The Maharishi by Paul Mason.[40] The first world tour began in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar) and included the countries of Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and Hawaii.[41][42][43] The Honolulu Star Bulletin reported: "He has no money, he asks for nothing. His worldly possessions can be carried in one hand. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is on a world odyssey. He carries a message that he says will rid the world of all unhappiness and discontent."[44] In 1959, the Maharishi lectured and taught the Transcendental Meditation technique in Honolulu, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, New York and London.[8][41][45][46][47]
When the Maharishi came to the U.S. in 1959, his movement was renamed Transcendental Meditation.[4] That same year he began the International Meditation Society with centres in San Francisco and London.[18] Maharishi was a frequent guest at the Los Angeles home of Roland and Helena Olson and their daughter Theresa, who wrote several books about their experiences. He continued to visit the Olsons' home over the next few years.[41][48]
In 1960, the Maharishi travelled to many cities in India, France, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Africa.[49][50] He lectured, taught the Transcendental Meditation technique, and established administrative centres where practitioners could gather for meetings in his absence.
While in Manchester, England, the Maharishi gave a television interview and was featured in many English newspapers such as the Birmingham Post, the Oxford Mail and the Cambridge Daily News.[51] This was also the year in which the Maharishi trained Henry Nyburg to be the first Transcendental Meditation teacher in Europe.[52][53]
In 1961, the Maharishi visited Austria, Sweden, France, Italy, Greece, India, Kenya, England, USA and Canada.[36][54] While in England, the Maharishi appeared on BBC television and gave a lecture to 5,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London.[36][55] In April 1961, the Maharishi conducted his first Transcendental Meditation Teacher Training Course in Rishikesh, India with 60 participants from various countries.[8][56] Teachers continued to be trained as time progressed.[57] During the course, Maharishi began to introduce additional knowledge regarding the development of human potential, and began writing his translation and commentary on the first six chapters of the ancient Vedic text, the Bhagavad Gita.[58][59]
At this time, the Maharishi began to recommend the daily practice of yoga exercises or asanas to accelerate growth through meditation. "For good health it is necessary for everyone to do something with the body so that it remain flexible and normal," Maharishi said. "The advantage of YOGA ASANAS over other eastern and western systems of physical posture is that they do not consume energy. They help restore life force, promote health and maintain normal conditions in the body." His organisation produced an introductory publication on yoga asanas in cooperation with a professor of yoga at the University of Travancore, India, K.B. Hari Krishna.[60]
His 1962 world tour included visits to Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand. The year concluded in California where the Maharishi began dictating his book The Science of Being and Art of Living.[61][62] In Rishikesh, India, beginning on 20 April 1962, a 40-day course was held for "sadhus, sanyasis, and brahmacharis" to introduce TM to "religious preachers and spiritual masters in India".[63]
The Maharishi toured cities in Europe, Asia, North America and India in 1963, and also addressed ministers of the Indian Parliament.[64][65] According to his memoirs, twenty-one members of parliament then issued a public statement endorsing the Maharishi's goals and meditation technique.[66] His Canadian tour[67] generated news articles in the magazine Enjoy and in the Daily Colonist, Calgary Herald and The Albertan.[68]
The Maharishi's fifth world tour, in 1964, consisted of visits to many cities in North America, Europe and India.[69][70] During his visit to England, he appeared with the Abbot of Downside, Abbot Butler, on a BBC television show called "The Viewpoint".[71][72] In October of that year, in California, the Maharishi began teaching the first Advanced Technique of Transcendental Meditation to some experienced meditators.[73][74] While travelling in America, the Maharishi met with Robert Maynard Hutchins, the head of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, and U Thant, the Secretary General of the United Nations.[75][76] During this same year, the Maharishi finished his book The Science of Being and Art of Living, which sold more than a million copies and was published in 15 languages.[77]
In 1966, the Maharishi founded the Students' International Meditation Society, which The Los Angeles Times later characterised as a "phenomenal success".[6][78]
In 1967, the Maharishi gave a lecture at Caxton Hall in London which was attended by Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's wife,[18] as well as Leon MacLaren, the founder and leader of the School of Economic Science (SES).[25]
In 1967, according to religion and culture scholar Sean McCloud, Time magazine reported that the Maharishi “has been sharply criticised by other Indian sages, who complain that his program for spiritual peace without either penance or asceticism contravenes every traditional Hindu belief." McCloud says that Newsweek reported that “many Indian sages contend that his rather simplified system of meditation is without basis in the Bhagavad-Gita --- the epic poem that is Hinduism’s most exalted scripture". McCloud also writes that Look magazine "asserted that tradition-minded gurus, angrily citing the Bhagavad Gita, say that self-abnegation and suffering along with rigid concentration are the prescribed pathway to Enlightenment", in contrast to the Maharishi's "belief that Enlightenment was compatible with active living and easily available to everyone."[79]
Interaction with The Beatles
Main article: The Beatles at Rishikesh
In 1967, the Maharishi's fame increased and his movement "really took off" when he became the "spiritual advisor to The Beatles".[77][80] The Beatles met him for the first time in London in August 1967, and studied with him in Bangor, Wales, before travelling to Rishikesh, India in February 1968 to "devote themselves fully to his instruction".[81] Starr left after ten days because he disliked the vegetarian diet,[77][81][82] and McCartney left three weeks later. Both Beatles said later that they enjoyed the ashram experience and planned to continue with their meditation.[82] Lennon and Harrison departed two weeks later after hearing a rumour that the Maharishi had made sexual advances towards Mia Farrow and a few other women.[81][83]Lennon wrote the song "Maharishi" (with the lines: "what have you done? You made a fool of everyone") as he was leaving.[84] George Harrison argued that the title was disrespectful and possibly libelous.[81][85] The title and lyrics were changed from "Maharishi" to "Sexy Sadie."[81][85] On the Tonight Show a few months later, Lennon said that "We believe in meditation, but not the Maharishi and his scene".[86] Lennon said the Beatles' association with the Maharishi was an "an error of judgment" and "a public mistake".[87][88]
The New York Times and The Independent reported that the influence of the Maharishi and the journey to Rishikesh to meditate, weaned The Beatles from LSD and inspired them to write many new songs.[18][81] It was "an extraordinary period of creativity for them," during which they wrote almost all of the songs that would appear on both the White Album and Abbey Road, said biographer Barry Miles.[81][82]
Alexis Mardas, head of the Beatles' Apple Electronics, noted the luxurious infrastructure at the Rishikesh ashram. Neil Aspinall, The Beatles' road manager, recalled his opinion in reference to obtaining rights for a feature film that, "This guy knows more about making deals than I do. He's really into scoring, the Maharishi".[78]
The New York Times reported in 2008 that Harrison and McCartney reconsidered the accusations. McCartney said that the rumours of sexual impropriety were raised by Alexis Mardas who "had agendas of his own, and may have fabricated (or at least exaggerated) the story".[81] In a press conference on April 3, 2009, prior to his performance at the David Lynch Foundation benefit concert "Change Begins Within", Paul McCartney commented that Transcendental Meditation was a gift The Beatles had received from Maharishi at a time when they were looking for something to stabilise them.[89] Harrison commented, "Now, historically, there's the story that something went on that shouldn't have done — but nothing did".[90] Farrow's autobiography is ambiguous about the incident: she describes "panicking" and fleeing after the Maharishi put his arms around her in a dark cave, immediately after a private meditation session.[91] Deepak Chopra, who met and became a "disciple of the Maharishi's" in the 1990s before later splitting, said in 2008 that the Maharishi had a "falling out with the rock stars when he discovered them using drugs".[80][92][93] In their obituaries of the Maharishi, Rolling Stone and Bloomberg news service stated that the rumour of impropriety was "unfounded" and never proven.[4][94][95] Yoko Ono said in 2008 that if Lennon were alive he probably would have reconciled with the Maharishi.[94]
Further growth of his TM movement (1968-1990)
In 1970, the Maharishi held a TM teacher training course at a Victorian hotel located in Poland Springs, Maine with 1,200 participants. Later that year, he held a similar four-week course at Humboldt State College in Arcata, California. About 1,500 people attended and it was described as a "sort of a crash program to train transcendental teachers".[96] Following tax troubles in India, he moved his headquarters to Italy and then to Austria.[95] That same year, the City of Hope Foundation in Los Angeles gave the Maharishi their "Man of Hope" award.[97]
A 1972, a TM training course was given by the Maharishi at Queens University and attended by 1,000 young people from all over the USA and Canada. At the start of the course the Maharishi encouraged the attendees to improve their appearance by getting haircuts and wearing ties.[98]
In March 1973, Maharishi addressed the legislature of the state of Illinois. That same year, the legislature passed a resolution in support of the use of Maharishi’s Science of Creative Intelligence in Illinois public schools.[99][100]
In 1974, Maharishi International University was founded. In October 1975, the Maharishi was pictured on the front cover of Time magazine. He made his last visit to the Spiritual Regeneration Movement center in Los Angeles in 1975, according to film director David Lynch, who met him for the first time there.[101]
In 1975, the Maharishi embarked on a five continent trip to inaugurate what he called "the Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment". The Maharishi said the purpose of the inaugural tour was to "go around the country and give a gentle whisper to the population".[102][103] He visited Ottawa during this tour and had a private meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, during which he spoke about the principles of TM and "the possibility of structuring an ideal society."[104] That same year, the Pittsburg Press reported that “The Maharishi has been criticised by other Eastern yogis for simplifying their ancient art.”[105]
In the mid 1970s, the Maharishi's U.S. movement was operating 370 TM centres manned by 6,000 TM teachers.[4] At that time, the Maharishi also began approaching the business community via an organisation called the American Foundation for SCI (AFSCI), whose objective was to eliminate stress for business professionals. The Maharishi's message was a promise of "increased creativity and flexibility, increased productivity, improved job satisfaction, improved relations with supervisors and co-workers".[102] His TM movement came to be increasingly structured along the lines of a multinational corporation.[78]
During the 1980s, the organisation continued to expand despite making claims that grew more and more outlandish and accusations of fraud from disaffected former disciples.[78] However, his meditation technique continued to attract celebrities.[4]
The Maharishi made a number of property investments with the funds he amassed. In England, he bought Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, Roydon Hall in Maidstone, Swythamley Park in the Peak District and a Georgian rectory in Suffolk.[78] In the United States, resorts and hotels, many in city centres, were purchased to be used as TM training centres. Doug Henning and the Maharishi planned a magical Vedic amusement park, Vedaland, and bought large tracts of land near Orlando, Florida and Niagara Falls, Ontario to host the park. The Maharish commissioned plans from a prominent architect for the world's tallest building, a Vedic-style pyramid to be built in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and to be filled with Yogic Flyers and other TM endeavors.[107] In later years, the Maharishi directed the purchase of properties in locations such as islands and land at the geographic center of the continental United States and other countries.
In January 1988, the Maharishi's offices in India were raided by Indian police, who reportedly confiscated cash, securities and jewels. News reports varied widely as to the dollar value of the goods seized. One source said $500,000,[108] while two others put the figure at $60,000 and $30,000, respectively.[109][110]. A fourth newspaper article, quoting Maharishi's Age of Enlightenment News Service[111] reported that nothing at all of value was confiscated.[112] The raid occurred amidst a conflict with authorities over taxes and the movement was accused of lying about expenses.[113] The Maharishi moved out of India following the tax audit.[114] That same year the Maharishi created a "Master Plan to Create Heaven on Earth", a plan for reduced crime, longer life spans and increased prosperity and happiness.[95]
Years in Vlodrop (1991-2008)
The Maharishi called Washington D.C. a "pool of mud" in 1991. After a decade of attempts to lower the rate of crime in the city, which had the second-largest TM community in the US, he told his followers to leave and save themselves from its "criminal atmosphere".[117] The Maharishi is believed to have made his final public appearance in 1991, in Maastricht, the Netherlands.[116] Deepak Chopra, "one of the Maharishi's top assistants before he launched his own career",[6] wrote that the Maharishi collapsed in 1991 with kidney and pancreas failure, that the illness was kept secret by the Maharishi's family and that he tended to Maharishi during a year-long recovery. According to Chopra, the Maharishi accused him, in July 1993, of trying to compete for the position of guru and asked him to stop travelling and writing books, which led to Chopra's decision to leave the movement in January 1994.[118]
The Maharishi inaugurated the Natural Law Party (NLP) as a means for achieving a "natural government" to enact his plans.[95] His adherents, led by Maharishi University of Management president Bevan Morris, founded the NLP in 1992.[119] It was active in 42 countries.[120] John Hagelin, the NLP's three-time candidate for U.S. president, denied any formal connection between the Maharishi and the party.[121] The chief plank in the NLP's platform was funding the Maharishi's plan for thousands of Yogic Flyers who could create the Maharishi Effect and thereby insure invincibility for every nation.[122] According to spokesman Bob Roth, "The Maharishi has said the party has to grow to encompass everyone".[120] Critics charged that the party was an effort to recruit people for Transcendental Meditation,[123] and that it resembled "the political arm of an international corporation" more than a "home-grown political creation".[124] The Indian arm of the NLP, the Ajeya Bharat Party, achieved electoral success, winning one seat in a state assembly in 1998.[125] The Maharishi shut down the political effort in 2004, saying, "I had to get into politics to know what is wrong there."[126]
In 1992, the Maharishi began to send groups of Yogic Flyers to India, America, China and Brazil in an effort to increase global peace through a "coherent world consciousness".[95]
In 2000, the Maharishi founded the Global Country of World Peace (GCWP) "to create global world peace by unifying all nations in happiness, prosperity, invincibility and perfect health, while supporting the rich diversity of our world family".[13][127] The Maharishi crowned Tony Nader as the Maharaja (king) of the GCWP in 2000. The GCWP unsuccessfully attempted to establish a sovereign microstate when it offered USD 1.3 billion to the President of Suriname for a 200-year lease of 3,500 acres (14 km2) of land and in 2002, attempted to choose a king for the Talamanca, a "remote Indian reservation" in Costa Rica.[128][129]
In 2001, followers of the Maharishi founded Maharishi Vedic City a few miles north of Fairfield, Iowa in the United States. This new city requires that the construction of its homes and buildings be done according to the Maharishi Sthapatya Veda principles of "harmony with nature".[130]
In a 2002 appearance on the CNN show, Larry King Live, the first time in 25 years that the Maharishi had appeared in the mainstream media, he said "Transcendental Meditation is something that can be defined as a means to do what one wants to do in a better way, a right way, for maximum results".[77] It was occasioned by the reissue of the Maharishi's book The Science of Being and Art of Living.[131] That same year, the Maharishi Global Financing Research Foundation issued the "RAAM" as a currency "dedicated to financing peace promoting projects".[78]
In 2003, David Lynch began a fundraising project to raise USD 1 billion "on behalf of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi" to build a meditation center large enough to hold 8,000 skilled practitioners.[132]
The Maharishi ordered a suspension in TM training in Britain in 2005 due to his opposition to Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to support the Iraq War.[133] The Maharishi said that he did not want to waste the "beautiful nectar" of TM on a "scorpion nation".[133][134] He lifted the ban after Blair's resignation in 2007.[135]
In 2007, the GCWP purchased the American Bank Note Company Building near the New York Stock Exchange for its Maharishi Global Financial Capital. Its purpose is to create funding that will support the construction of 3,000 “peace palaces” around the world.[4]
During this period, sceptics were critical of some of the Maharishi's programs, such as a $10 trillion plan to end poverty through organic farming in poor countries and a $1 billion plan to use meditation groups to end conflict.[93] In 2008, BBC news reported that "The Maharishi's commercial mantras drew criticism from stricter Hindus, but his promises of better health, stress relief and spiritual enlightenment drew devotees from all over the world".[87][136]
One of the claimants[137] to become Saraswati's successor, Swami Swaroopanand, told a German filmmaker in 2010 that, as a member of the trader class and Saraswati's bookkeeper, the Maharishi had no right to teach meditation or to give mantras, and that "Gurus don't sell their knowledge, they share it."[19] Other sources say that Maharishi worked closely with the Shankaracharya and was considered a "great disciple" and his "right (hand) man".[16][138] According to biographer Paul Mason, Swami Shantanand Saraswati (who Brahmananda Saraswati had named as his successor) "publicly commended the practice of the Maharishi’s meditation," referring to it as a ‘master key to the knowledge of Vedanta.’[139] Sociologist J.R Coplin, who conducted interviews in India as part of his research on the TM organisation, says that Swami Shantanand’s successor as Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, Swami Vishnudevanand, “speaks highly of Maharishi and sees his teaching as a reflection of their master's (Brahmananda Saraswati)”.[140]
Death
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, concerned about his health,[141] became increasingly secluded in two rooms of his residence.[93] He communicated with even his closest advisors by closed-circuit television.[13]On January 12, 2008, Maharishi declared: "It has been my pleasure at the feet of Guru Dev (Brahmananda Saraswati), to take the light of Guru Dev and pass it on in my environment. Now today, I am closing my designed duty to Guru Dev. And I can only say, 'Live long the world in peace, happiness, prosperity, and freedom from suffering.'"[142][143][144]
A week before his death, the Maharishi said that he was "stepping down as leader of the TM movement" and "retreating into silence" and that he planned to spend his remaining time studying "the ancient Indian texts".[77][80] Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes on February 5, 2008 at his residence in Vlodrop, Netherlands.[145] The cremation and funeral rites were conducted at the Maharishi's Allahabad ashram in India, overlooking the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.[146][147] The funeral, with state honours,[148] was carried by Sadhana TV station and was presided over by one of the claimants to the seat of Shankaracharya of the North, Swami Vasudevananda Saraswati Maharaj.[citation needed] Also in attendance were state and local officials, 35 Rajas of the Global Country of World Peace, one-time disciple Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and David Lynch.[149] A troop of uniformed policemen lowered their arms in salute.[149]
The Maharishi was survived by a number of nephews and nieces.[150] One nephew, Girish Varma, is chairman of the Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools Group, chancellor of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic University and chancellor of Maharishi University of Management and Technology in India.[151][152] Other nephews include Anand Shrivastava, chairman of the Maharishi Group,[153][154] and Ajay Prakash Shrivastava, president of Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools.[155][156]
Public image
Diminutive at a little over five feet tall, the Maharishi was often seen wearing a traditional cotton or silk white dhoti and carrying or wearing flowers.[13] The Maharishi sitting cross-legged on a deerskin became a familiar sight.[13] He had a "grayish-white beard, mustache and long, dark, stringy hair".[157] Barry Miles says that the Maharishi had "liquid eyes, twinkling but inscrutable with the wisdom from the East".[82] In his 70s, Miles described the Maharishi as looking much younger than his age.[158] He had a high-pitched voice.[158] Newspapers, detractors, and even followers began referring to him as the "Giggling Guru", in part due to his habit of laughing during television interviews.[133][159]The Maharishi attracted scepticism because of his involvement with wealthy celebrities, his business acumen, and his love of luxury, such as his habit of touring in a Rolls-Royce.[78] However, others have noted his comparative moderation, personally and financially. Said an Economist obituary: “He did not use his money for sinister ends. He neither drank, nor smoked, nor took drugs. . . . . He did not accumulate scores of Rolls-Royces, like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh; his biggest self-indulgence was a helicopter.” [160][161] And the Maharishi is also credited with helping to "inspire the anti-materialism of the late 60s".[8]
Private Eye ridiculed the guru as "Veririchi Lottsa Money Yogi Bear".[18] The Maharishi was also parodied by comedians Bill Dana and Joey Forman in the 1968 comedy album "The Mashuganishi Yogi",[162] and by comedian Mike Myers in the movie The Love Guru[163] and in the character "Guru Maharishi Yogi" featured in the BBC sketch Goodness Gracious Me.
Scientist and futurist Buckminister Fuller, after spending two days on the stage with Maharishi at a symposium at the University of Massachusetts in 1971, said, “You could not meet with Maharishi without recognizing instantly his integrity. You look in his eyes and there it is.”[164]
Philosophy and teaching
The Maharishi had a message of happiness, writing in 1967, that "being happy is of the utmost importance. Success in anything is through happiness. Under all circumstances be happy. Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the ocean of your bliss".[77] His philosophy featured the concept that "within everyone is an unlimited reservoir of energy, intelligence, and happiness".[8] He emphasised the naturalness of his meditation technique as a simple way of developing this potential. [165]He also taught that practising Transcendental Meditation twice a day would create inner peace and that "mass meditation sessions" could create outer peace by reducing violence and war.[77] According to a TM website, the performance of yagyas by 7,000 pandits in India, plus hundreds of Yogic Flyers in Germany, brought "coherence and unity in the collective consciousness of Germany" and caused the fall of the Berlin Wall.[166]
Religious studies scholar Carl Olson writes that the TM technique was based on "a neo-Vedanta metaphysical philosophy in which an unchanging reality is opposed to an ever-changing phenomenal world" and that the Maharishi says it is not necessary to renounce worldly activities to gain enlightenment, unlike other ascetic traditions.[165]
Gerald James Larson, a religious studies scholar, states that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is one of a number of Indian gurus who brought Neo-Hindu adaptations of Vedantic Hinduism to the west.[167] Author Meera Nanda calls neo-Hinduism "the brand of Hinduism that is taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Deepak Chopra, and their clones".[168] J.R. Coplin, a sociologist and MIU graduate, says that the Maharishi saw his own purpose as "the 'revival' of the knowledge of an integrated life based upon Vedic principles and Vedantist reality".[24]
Author Barry Miles writes that, in spite of the media's scepticism for the Maharishi's spiritual message, they seized upon him because young people seemed to listen to his pro-establishment, anti-drug message.[82]
Transcendental Meditation
Main article: Transcendental Meditation
During a CNN interview in 2002, the Maharishi said "Transcendental meditation is something that can be defined as a means to do what one wants to do in a better way, a right way, for maximum results".[77] Over a 30-year period, the Maharishi held many advanced, in-residence courses and assemblies in North America, India and Europe for practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation technique. These courses consisted of long meditation sessions, lectures by Maharishi, discussions based on personal experiences of meditation, questions from course participants, and organizational meetings. This type of in-residence course style continues to this day.[169] By the time of his death, there were nearly 1,000 TM training centres around the world.[78]In the mid 1970s, the Maharishi began the TM-Sidhi program, including Yogic Flying, as an additional option for those who had been practising the Transcendental Meditation technique for some time. According to Coplin, this new aspect of knowledge emphasised not only the individual, but also the collective benefits created by group practice of this advanced program.[170] This new program gave rise to a new principle called the Maharishi Effect. The Maharishi believed that this group practice of the technique benefited the environment.[171]
Maharishi Vedic Science
Main article: Maharishi Vedic Science
These applications include programs in: Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health (MVAH);[173][174] Maharishi Sthapatya Veda, a mathematical system for the design and construction of buildings; Maharishi Gandharva Veda,[175][176] a form of classical Indian music; Maharishi Jyotish (also known as Maharishi Vedic Astrology),[176][177] a system claiming the evaluation of life tendencies of an individual; Maharishi Vedic Agriculture, a trademarked process for producing fresh, organic food; and, Consciousness-Based Education.[178]
According to educator James Grant, a former Maharishi University of Management Associate Professor of Education and the former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Maharishi brought out a "full revival of the Vedic tradition of knowledge from India" and demonstrated its relevance in many areas including education, business, medicine and government.[179]
Publications
The Maharishi has written more than twenty books on the Transcendental Meditation technique and Maharishi Vedic Science.[180]In 1955, the organizers of The Great Spiritual Development Conference of Kerala, published The Beacon Light of the Himalayas, a transcribed, 170 page, "souvenir" of the conference. Authors Chryssides, Humes and Forsthoefel, Miller, and Russel cite this as the Maharishi's first published book on Transcendental Meditation, although Transcendental Meditation is not mentioned in the text of the book.[181][182][183][184][185] The book is dedicated to Maharshi Bala Brahmanchari Mahesh Yogi Rajaram by his devotees of Kerala and contains photos, letters and lectures by numerous authors which appear in various languages such as English, Hindi and Sanskrit.[181]
The Maharishi audio taped the text of the book Science of Being and Art of Living, which was later transcribed and published in 15 languages in 1963.[77][186][187] The book is described by its author as "the summation of both the practical wisdom" of "Vedic Rishis" and the "scientific thinking" of the "Western world".[188]
In his 1967 publication, Bhagavad-Gita: A New Translation and Commentary, the Maharishi describes the Bhagavad Gita as "the Scripture of Yoga". He says that "its purpose is to explain in theory and practice all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level."[189] In 1964, the Maharishi attended the All-India Yogic Conference held in Calcutta, India, where he said that the teachings contained in the Bhagavad Gita were misunderstood in the current age, "the practice of yoga was misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misapplied", resulting in "weakness in the fields of thought and action".[190] The Maharishi said that the source of his commentary was his master: "We are just an innocent means for the spontaneous flow of that knowledge – that's all."[191]
Other initiatives, projects and programs
Main article: Transcendental Meditation movement
Maharishi International University (renamed Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in 1995), the first university Maharishi founded, began classes in Santa Barbara, California, in 1973. Then in 1974, the university moved to Fairfield, Iowa, where it remains today. The university houses a library of the Maharishi's taped lectures and writings, including the 33-lesson, Science of Creative Intelligence course, originally a series of lectures given by the Maharishi in Fiuggi, Italy, in 1972. Described in the MUM university catalogue as combining modern science, and Vedic science,[192] the course also defines certain higher states of consciousness, and guidance on how to attain these states.[38]The Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools (MVMS), an educational system established in 16 Indian states and affiliated with the New Delhi Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), was founded in 1995 by the Maharishi.[193] It has 148 branches in 118 cities with 90,000 to 100,000 students and 5,500 teaching and support staff.[194]
In 1998, Maharishi Open University was founded by the Maharishi. It was accessible via a network of eight satellites broadcasting to every country in the world, and via the Internet.[195]
The Maharishi also introduced theories of management, defence, and government,[38] programs said to alleviate poverty, and introduced a new economic development currency called the RAAM.[196] In 2000, the Maharishi began building administrative and teaching centres called "Peace Palaces" around the world, and by 2008 at least eight had been constructed in the US alone.[197]
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in his farewell message on January 11, 2008, announced the establishment of the Brahmananda Saraswati Trust (BST), named in honour of his teacher, to support large groups totalling more than 30,000 peace-creating Vedic Pandits in perpetuity across India.[198] According to Bevan Morris, the Prime Minister of the Global Country of World Peace, the BST is an endowment fund to "support the Vedic Pandits to perform Yagyas and Graha Shanti for all 192 countries of the world generation after generation".[142] The Patron of the Brahmanand Saraswati Trust is the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math.[142]
[edit] Organizations and businesses
Main articles: Organizations associated with the Transcendental Meditation movement and Maharishi Group
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is credited with heading charitable organisations, for-profit businesses, and real estate investments whose total value has been estimated at US$ 2 to 5 billion. The real estate alone was valued in 2003 at between $3.6 and $5 billion.[199] Holdings in the United States, estimated at $250 million in 2008, include dozens of hotels, commercial buildings and undeveloped land.[197] The Maharishi Group, an international conglomerate created by the Maharishi in 1959, is controlled by members of the Maharishi's family including his nephew, Anand Shrivastava (also spelled Srivastava).[153] The group, which includes schools, solar power factories, health supplements, organic farms, software, jewellery, and many other businesses, was reported in 1999 to be worth $700 million.[200] The Maharishi "amassed a personal fortune that his spokesman told one reporter may exceed $1 billion".[201] According to a 2008 article in The Times, the Maharishi "was reported to have an income of six million pounds".[78]In his biography of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, The Story of the Maharishi ( published 1976), William Jefferson suggests that the financial aspect of the TM organisation was one of the greatest controversies it faced. He says the paradox of a movement whose concern is spiritual growth should have generated so much controversy about finances is unfortunate, and notes that other organisations handled finances differently than did the TM organisation. Jefferson says that the concerns with money came from journalists more so than those who have learned to meditate. The controversy circled around the Maharishi’s mission, the comments from leaders of the movement at that time, and fees and charges the TM organisation made. According to Jefferson, Maharishi said in response to concerns about finances in the TM organisation that, ”Money is never on my mind. When I created the world plan to establish centres in every country on earth, I didn’t consider whether we had the necessary money to do it, I saw only the possibility…". The Maharishi also said, ‘We cannot take away the economic aspects of the movement…even though my message concerns the non-economic fulfilment of life. If initiations were free we could not cover the overhead for spreading the movement through out the world."[202] According the to Times obituary, the Maharishi said he had no interest in wealth, "It goes to support the centres, it does not go on me. I have nothing.
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