Excellent obit and fine review of Maharishi's history for the non-
initiated.
What a guy.
**
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "feste37" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Obituary
> Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
>
>
> Malise Ruthven
> Wednesday February 6, 2008
> Guardian Unlimited
>
> Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, often known simply as "Maharishi" or "The
> Maharishi," achieved world renown as the Indian guru who inspired
the
> Beatles and was said to have persuaded them to give up drugs. He
has
> died has died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, and is
> believed to have been around 90.
>
> In the summer of 1967, the year of Flower Power and Sergeant
Pepper,
> he made headlines when the four Beatles, with their wives and
> girlfriends, as well as Mick Jagger, Jane Asher and Marianne
Faithful,
> followed the whiskered Swami from London to Bangor in Wales to sit
> very publicly at his feet imbibing his message of universal love
and
> peace. The Beatles announced that they had decided to abandon
LSD: "We
> think we're finding new ways of getting there."
>
> Article continues
> Though disillusionment soon set in for everyone except George
Harrison
> - John Lennon's song Sexy Sadie ("You made a fool of everyone") is
> said to refer to Maharishi - the guru's reputation continued to
> thrive. A gifted publicist, as well as a charismatic religious
teacher
> of a more traditional kind, he carefully directed his teachings to
> suit changing fashions in the West. As the era of flower power and
> psychotropic revelation faded into the hard-nosed commercialism of
the
> Reagan-Thatcher years, Maharishi's message became more focused.
>
> While he never abandoned his claim to be transforming humanity's
> consciousness in the direction of universal harmony and peace (he
was
> happy to claim credit for ending the cold war), he built a highly
> successful empire out of selling the spiritual techniques
practised by
> yogis and brahmins for millennia to companies as aids to stress
> management.
>
> With executives who learned to meditate, improving their
performance
> and productivity, large corporations such as IBM and Toyota had no
> more qualms about sending staff on transcental meditation courses
than
> they had about the development of other personal skills.
>
> Known from his early days in India as the "giggling guru" because
of
> his sparkling eyes and bubbling witticisms, Mahesh succeeded in
making
> TM his personal trademark, netting for his organisation assets that
> came to be measured in billions.
>
> As is often the case with those who have entered the religious
life in
> India, details about Maharishi's early life are sketchy. Various
dates
> have been given for his birth (1911, 1917 and 1918), in the central
> Indian city of Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh, though the celebration
of
> his 80th birthday in 1998 made 1918 official for his followers. He
was
> born Mahesh Prasad Varma. His father was a member of the
kshatriya, or
> warrior caste, and worked as a mid-level official in the
department of
> forestry.
>
> After completing his secondary education, Maharishi attended
Allahabad
> University, where he read mathematics and physics. It was here
that he
> began to practise yoga with Swami Brahmananda Saraswati Maharaj
(known
> by his more familiar name of Shri Guru Deva).
>
> In April1941, while Maharishi was still at university, Guru Deva
> became the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, one of the four main
leaders
> of the Hindu community. Maharishi wanted to abandon his studies to
> become the new Shankaracharya's disciple, but Guru Deva demanded
that
> he graduate first. After leaving university, Maharishi spent more
than
> a decade with Guru Deva at his retreat at Uttar Kashi in the
Himalayas.
>
> A follower of Sankara, India's most famous religious teacher, Guru
> Deva belonged to the Advaita Vedanta tradition of philosophy which
> teaches that spiritual ignorance or illusion is caused by the
> superimposition of a false self onto the true self, considered to
be
> ontologically identical with the absolute (brahman). Liberation
> (moksa) achieved through meditation enables one to distinguish
between
> pure being and worldly phenomena. While true liberation may only be
> achieved by adepts who follow their masters in a rigorous
programme of
> ascetic disciplines and spiritual techniques, Maharishi realised
that
> some of these techniques could be used to beneficial effect outside
> the confines of the Advaita Vedanta tradition.
>
> Two years after the death of Guru Deva in 1955, he travelled south
to
> Kerala, where he began to broadcast his message. On January 1
1958, at
> a conference in Madras, he announced the formation of a world-wide
> Spiritual Regeneration Movement aimed at the spiritual revival of
> humanity by spreading the teachings of Transcendental Meditation.
> Shortly afterwards, Maharishi left India for a round-the-world tour
> that took him to Burma, Malaya, Hong Kong and Honolulu. He spent
most
> of 1959 in the US, where he worked on a three-year plan to
introduce
> Transcendental Meditation to all the countries of the world.
Further
> world tours followed in 1961 and 1962.
>
> In 1963, he finished his first major book, the Science of Being and
> Art of Living. He completed his English translation and commentary
on
> the Bhagavad-Gita in 1965.
>
> Although Maharishi's grandiose claims to be saving the world
through
> Transcendental Meditation and other spiritual techniques such as
> levitation or "flying" attracted ridicule as well as curiosity, he
was
> shrewdly aware that publicity, however negative, could be used to
gain
> converts and to broaden his base of recruitment. While several
> scientific papers have been published demonstrating that meditation
> can relieve stress, and hence improve the quality of an
individual's
> life, his claims that collective meditation by followers or sidhas
can
> create a "spiritual force field" capable of bringing about such
> effects as a reduction in crime or a rise in the stock market have
> been treated much more sceptically.
>
> In 1972, he announced his world plan for reorganising society in
such
> a way as to solve the basic problems of humankind. An umbrella
> organisation, the World Plan Executive Council, was formed to
> co-ordinate the various activities of his increasingly complex
empire.
> One of the organisations spawned by his teachings, the Natural Law
> Party, regularly contests elections in several countries, including
> Britain. In 1971, he opened the Maharishi International University
in
> Los Angeles; it moved to Fairfield, Iowa, in 1974, where there are
now
> some 300 businesses owned by his disciples, bringing new activity
to
> an economically depressed region. His first European "university"
> opened in Switzerland in 1975.
>
> While rooted in the discourse of Sankara and his disciples,
Maharishi
> took issue with interpretations of Hinduism that stress
renunciation
> and asceticism over the call to this-worldly action. Far from
leading
> to worldly renunciation, the call to Transcendental Meditation he
saw
> was central to the message of the Bhavagad-Gita represented
a "dynamic
> philosophy" intended to "inspire a disheartened man and strengthen
a
> normal mind ... he who practises Transcendental Meditation and
becomes
> acquainted with the inner divine consciousness truly enjoys the
> greatest fruits of action in the world."
>
> ยท Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, born around 1918; died
February
> 5 2008
>
