--- In [email protected], "do.rflex" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > As I was told, the meeting between Maharishi and Chopra was > very strained. Maharishi was grim and Chopra was insistent. > Chopra made his case by saying "I am an intelligent human > being and I see that what these people under you are doing > is wrong. I can not any longer participate in this without > you doing something about it." And Maharishi told him, "I > am your master. You will do what I say." Chopra said, "I < cannot accept that you refuse to see the reckless behaviour > of these people." Maharishi repeated, "I am your master. > You will do what I say." Chopra looked at him and said, > "You are not my master. I am my own master." And he walked > out of the room.
I know nothing about Chopra and don't really want to know any more; he was long after my time in the TMO, and means nothing to me what- soever. If this event really took place, more power to him; I would have done the same thing. However, the lines attributed to MMY and to Chopra just might have been lifted from another tale, one that I witnessed, in which another of Maharishi's students told him that he was "seeing someone else" (another teacher), and Maharishi told him to stop, using the same phrase. The fellow replied using the phrase attributed here to Chopra and walked out. At that point MMY started circulating stories that he had thrown the offending student out. That was *not* how it went down. Maybe they both said it, Chopra and this other fellow; I don't know. What I do know is that IMO Maharishi can't hear it too many times. Maybe the hundreth time he hears it, it will sink in and he will realize that he's living in a different century than his students are. "Master" is a term with many meanings. One of the more benevolent ones implies mastery, some- thing that IMO Maharishi has never demonstrated. He seems to prefer the meaning that has to do with slaves' relationship with their owners. I feel blessed that somehow I escaped the com- mon tendency in the TMO to consider Maharishi my "master." He was just a teacher, that's all. *As* a teacher, IMO he deserved the same degree of respect I give to any teacher. If the teach- ings seem good, and of benefit to the *students*, I'll respect them; if not, they don't deserve my respect.
