On May 30, 2009, at 12:01 PM, sparaig wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jst...@...> wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Marek Reavis" <reavismarek@>
wrote:
Like you, I've only read the few chapters of Coplin's
dissertation that appear in a google search. I'd like
to read the rest, too.
And these titles, like referring to Guru Dev as "His
Divinity", all seem to be purely honorific. I hadn't
heard about the use of maharishi as a "pathfinder"
title, but I agree that it's appropriate should that
be so.
The flip side may be that, as I suggested, it would
indicate he wasn't claiming either an "official"
spiritual rank or to be the successor in a *lineage*
per se. I'd bet such subtleties would be fairly obvious
to Indians familiar with the spiritual-title game.
I seem to recall that in MMY's explanation for why MIU had
an "M" in it, that he referred to a "rishi" as someone who
was enlightened, and a "maharishi" as someone who could
teach others to be enlightened, and that therefore, the
name was to refer to the goal of the school (and maybe as
an hommage to all [other?] maharishis throughout the ages).
I think you're missing the point. Is it a self-serving title, coming
from the ego, or one given by the guru or some institution?
Unfortunately, without any official announcement in the historical
record we're forced to assume the former. And certainly for someone
without any spiritual accomplishment prior, it seems even more
suspect, esp. say when compared to a spiritual giant like Ramana
Maharishi who had a long history of spiritual accomplishment prior.
Since we know the other aliases, "Yogi" and "His Holiness" were self-
assumed, it's further support for a self-aggrandizing person taking
lofty titles. A more honest one might read "Mahesh Varma, meditation
teacher, philosopher, businessman and former secretary of Swami
Brahamananda Saraswati".
It also raises the question of all the other titles like "The world's
foremost scientist in the field of consciousness". Are appellations
like these from Mahesh or from his disciples? I would assume his
disciples, but ones does start to wonder. At a certain point, a person
would start sounding like any number of whacky dictators the world has
seen.
