--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote: <snip> > 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.
Actually, no, we're not "forced to assume" any such thing. What we're "forced to assume" is that we don't know for sure. If we're honest, we're "forced to assume" that one possibility is that Jyotir Math started referring to him as "Maharishi," as per Coplin's account; or that his followers did, and it caught on; or that Jyotir Math decided to go along with what his followers were calling him. It doesn't appear that "Maharishi" is a title that is ever conferred by the guru or an institution, so one of the two possibilities Vaj is willing to acknowledge is invalid anyway. And that there are no "official" records of a title that wouldn't have been officially bestowed certainly doesn't constitute a basis for the assumption that it must have been ego.
