--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote:
<snip>
> While honorifics like 'His Holiness' may be added out
> of devotion to one's guru, in Mahesh's instance we
> definitely know this was not the case.
We do?
> It's important to distinguish between honorifics, like
> 'His Holiness', and order or ordination names, titles
> indicating attainment and titles indicating a certain
> skill ("yogi").
"Maharishi" appears to be an honorific. It's certainly
not an order or ordination name, nor one referring to
lineage. It seems to be, as I suggested earlier, a title
accorded by followers to "freelancers," teachers who have
struck out on their own and delineated a new path. That's
how Ramana Maharshi acquired the honorific, after all.
> In Mahesh's instance, he had the problem of being in
> the Shank. Order as an assistant and wanting to launch
> himself into the guru biz. What's a non-twice-born Hindu
> to do? After all he could not become a swami. You have
> someone confer a title on you or you make up one
> yourself. Usually the one conferring the title is the
> guru. And we do know SBS never conferred any titles on
> Mahesh.
>
> I guess the important here is if someone was dishonest
> from the get go, what does that tell us?
We still have the problem of Ramana Maharshi, though,
don't we? Do you want to maintain he was dishonest?
