--- In [email protected], "sparaig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Who decides? > > Found this on a site dedicated to Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati: > > http://www.aryaspiritualcenter.com/mds.htm > [...] > "His untiring efforts to promote and reorganise Vedic religion earned > him the status of MAHARISHI DAYANAND SARASWATI, a great legend and > reformer."
>From the introduction, written by one of his disciples, to "The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi": "His name of Venkataraman was shortened to Ramana, and he was also called the Maharshi, that is the Maha Rishi or Great Sage, a title traditionally given to one who inaugurates a new spiritual path. However, his devotees mostly spoke of him as Bhagavan." This doesn't answer your question, but given Ramana's independence from any kind of organized spiritual system or hierarchy, it seems unlikely the title was bestowed on him in some official sense. I would suspect it's a title one acquires by reputation rather than by a formal process: somebody starts referring to a master as Mahar(i)shi, others pick it up (with or without the approval of the master himself), and eventually it becomes established. As to inaugurating a new spiritual path, I'm not sure why Patanjali is often referred to as Maharishi Patanjali; didn't he just *codify*, rather than inaugurate, the path of Yoga? To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
