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Well, at the very least I feel
sorry for him having backed minself into a corner. He has all the money and
power in the world but can't set foot in India or anywhere else on the planet
for fear of being hauled into court for one thing or another, most usually tax
evasion. This narcissist has made himself an ivory tower for sure.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 2:16 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: where
Maharishi went wrong
I liked your story Jim, and I see MMY in a similar light.
Only I
cannot see Guru Dev having implanted a time bomb here.
What
has happened to MMY is fully in accordance with natural law. I
mean what
happened to MMY, is the typical course. That tends to happen
to people with
narcissistic personality order, who have managed to get
to leading
positions. And it is true, that in movements, where people
use powerful
inner techniques, leaders end up exposing themselves
through their
ridiculous behaviour much faster than elsewhere. And in
TMO the behavior is
just ridiculous, and for the outsiders even
entertaining. It could also be
disastrous for the people involved as
history has shown innumerable
times.
A narcissist wants to be seen as superior to others. He is wired
to
make himself infallible and self-satisfied. These people
have
difficulties to transform themselves. They break down, if the
internal
image of themselves as superior beings gets shattered. When the
image
is threatened, they have to take to more drastic measures to keep
it
going.
On the other hand a narcissistic can be a very efficient
distributor.
He can create very fast a big mass movement, better than
anyone else.
In that sense MMY has done a good job. A lot of people did
learn an
easy, effortless meditation technique. Having the technique they
have
moved ahead and brought with them that light to many other
spiritual
organizations.
Irmeli
--- In
[email protected], "jim_flanegin"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> After thinking over the last day about
where Maharishi went wrong, I
> have reached the following
conclusions:
>
> He starts out as a naive Indian student and
seeker. By naive I mean he
> knows very little about the West, or the
rest of the world outside
> India. I suspect too that he was probably
kind of a geek as a
> householder, physics student and all...
>
> He is fortunate through his seeking to find Brahmananda Saraswati,
and
> commences his study with him. He also decides he will be a
celibate
> monk, etc. Through his association with Guru Dev, he derives
a clear
> understanding of Reality, and finds he can speak about it
clearly too.
>
> I think what was going on here was a couple of
things: Maharishi comes
> from India where Hinduism and the knowledge
of the Veda are relatively
> commonplace. When I think about his early
exposition of his teaching,
> there is not a lot of content, just some
mantras and their proper use,
> derived from his closeness to Guru Dev.
>
> Profound knowledge to be sure, though something which could
be derived
> relatively quickly with the proper guidance, if one is
already
> operating within a supportive cultural context for such
knowledge.
> Combine this with his ability to speak well, and
possessing a
> charismatic personality, and who emerges? Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi.
>
> Then as he spreads his message and the knowledge
of the mantras,
> absorbed by him from Guru Dev, he enjoys enormous
success. The success
> is due to him having a systematic and practical
technique to back up
> his speaking. However, he remains a naive monk
from India. He also has
> the ambition to enlighten the world. Given
his experience up til then,
> and 'cooking' in Guru Dev's presence for
years, it seems a reasonable
> ambition.
>
> As he becomes
more and more successful, beyond his wildest dreams I am
> sure, he
begins to see that those around him are granting him
> unlimited power
over them. He now begins to equate the rudimentary
> knowledge that he
has perfected, the teaching of TM mantras, with
> himself. He also sees
that to ever admit that he is less than perfect
> will possibly
jeopardize his teaching amongst his followers, and
> consequently his
ambition to enlighten the world.
>
> Here we come to the good
part: So now, Maharishi finds himself in a
> position where he has a
lot of power, unfulfilled desires, and little
> knowledge about the
West. A potentially explosive combo for sure.
>
> He begins to
act out his unfulfilled desires for sex and hobnobbing
> with the rich
and powerful; pretty common desires in the world. At the
> same time,
he is aware from the feedback he has received that he is
> seen as a
realized Master (and he is probably pretty high on himself
> at this
point too...).
>
> This sets up the key quandry for
Maharishi:
> If he acts on his desires and is open about it, he will
disappoint the
> vision of himself that his followers, and he himself,
has of himself,
> Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the celibate monk. If he
doesn't act on his
> desires, this 'guru' business just isn't all that
much fun, is it?
>
> So he makes his fatal mistake: He will act
on his desires for sex and
> hobnobbing with the rich, only he won't
admit it to his public, and
> possibly not to himself as time goes
on...
>
> And it works for awhile, however unbeknownst to
Maharishi, Guru Dev
> has planted a time bomb of sorts associated with
this type of
> deception.
>
> Unlike a businessman or
politician who indulges in the abuse of power,
> the sins of a
meditator, including Maharishi, will come to light more
> quickly with
far more devastating consequences, for the simple reason
> that the use
of the TM mantra leads to an irrevocable expansion of
> awareness. And
what you are aware of, you are accountable for.
>
> This
expansion of awareness in Maharishi and those around him meant
> that
on a subtle feeling level he was literally broadcasting his
> hidden
desires, while at the same time attempting to keep them quiet
> on the
surface.
>
> Like the wife of a husband who is cheating on her,
those around
> Maharishi knew on a subtle level something was wrong,
but their
> infatuation with 'the monk from India' illusion kept them
from seeing
> it clearly, and calling him on it.
>
> This
then led to the dyfunction common in such situations. The impact
> on
Maharishi's organization was devestating, especially so because of
>
the ongoing expansion of awareness experienced by the group. There is
>
obviously no way to support the very selective expansion of awareness;
> it leads to warping of the mind.
>
> As all of us here
can attest, with our ongoing meditations, awareness
> expands 360
degrees, not selectively as we may wish it to.
>
> To make a long
story short, this was the undoing of Maharishi.
> Although he has
continued to grow and change, he has never been able
> to put the genie
back in the bottle. His organization, mirroring his
> need for
deception has become necessarily deformed from what it might
> have
been, similar to an inflating balloon which is being stepped on.
>
> The purity of the teaching remains. TM can still be taught
effectively
> by all the teachers who would do so. However, Maharishi's
ambitions
> have been curtailed by Guru Dev because he abused his
power.
>
> Jai Guru Dev,
>
> Jim
>
>
--- In [email protected], Rick Archer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> <snip> Around 1990 one of the big donors once sat in a
room with me
> > chatting and very seriously told me that Maharishi
had
> > told him something like the more money you have, the
>
> more evolved you are.
> >
> > So Maharishi feeds these
people this kind of thing all
> > the time.
> >
> > I just sat there dazed....I mean how do you answer
> >
something like that. He sure was in his own puffed up
world...
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