Comment below: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > If people think they are going to get enlightened by > > living in SV houses they are complete fools. Why MMY > > is shilling SV is beyond me. Realization has > > absolutely nothing to do with the shape or the > > orientation of the house you live in. Some effect on > > "energy"? Sure, why not, but enlightenment? No way. > > Enlightenment dependent on the shape and orientation > > of the house you live in! It's a joke! MMY is making a > > funny. > > MMY is making an ass of himself and a mockery > of his teacher. He needs to do what Guru Dev > first told him to do and go spend some time > in a non-SV cave meditating. > > As far as I can tell, the whole SV phenomenon > is *exactly* the "cart before the horse" > "tragedy of knowledge" phenomenon he used to > speak of in the early days when the knowledge > was still familiar to him. It's the kind of > desperate gesture one invents when enlighten- > ment hasn't appeared as promised after decades > of practice. Snip to End **
Without addressing many of the other reasons that have been advanced regarding why Maharishi has trumpeted all these other "vedic" technologies over the past couple of decades and, besides lip service, almost entirely ignored promoting meditation, I would posit another. It might not be the most plausible but it does, for me at least, allow some degree of reconciliation between the Maharishi I had personal exposure to in the 70's and the intentions (as I understood them) behind his schemes then and some possible intentions driving his schemes now. (Even though I realize that ultimately it makes no difference if I can reconcile anything aboout Maharishi. That's not my goal; only these are ideas that keep knocking about.) It seems not unlikely that the "need" for deep-meditation and transcendence felt by so many of us in the 60s, 70's and 80's was largely satisfied by TM and a number of other spiritual techniques promulgated during that time. Basically, there was a limited world "market" for effective sadhana, but a much larger "market" for products and services that promote or "point to" the eventual need for personal sadhana. Since Maharishi acts like a businessman in the way he addresses his organization, it seems entirely reasonable that the branching out into areas of life that are of more quotidian concern and contextualizing them within Maharishi's "vedic" tradition that upholds the basic premise of Absolute and relative and attempts to establish the proper relationship between the two in the life of the individual is just a natural "business-like" way of addressing the drying-up of demand for transcendence, while at the same time promoting a point of view that, if followed, eventually leads the individual to the need for transcendence. Like nesting dolls that share the basic shape and configuration in a fractal-like design relationship, they reflect and support the particular and the whole simultaneously and seamlessly. It's not dissimilar in theory to everyday life in India where even today everything is marketed and sold with (and by) the images of the Gods and most people walk around with their spiritual third-eye marked with vermillion and roadside shrines to Ganesh and Hanuman and Devi, decorated with the wares of the garland sellers, are ubiquitous. In that context, everywhere you look, your attention is being directed towards a higher reality, a more sublime vision, a more cosmic POV. And, not surprisingly, because Maharishi comes out of that same cultural milieu I believe it's likely that he saw/sees his mission as "growing" beyond teaching meditation and rising to help establish a larger social context where meditation is honored (or at least understood) because it is seen as the natural core (or apex) of the activity of a life well-lived. It's like the spiritual "pyramid" of life, with so many servings of Stapathya Ved, so many servings of Ayur Ved, Jyotish, etc. And, certainly, the branching out and branding of the everday essentials does provide an income stream as well. The fact that, although Maharishi has been "successful" in his business, he has not really been a good businessman -- making all sorts of plans and schemes and investing time and energy into them, only to drop them shortly thereafter and not following up on successes achieved -- suggests that he is still, to some extent (primarily? partially?), motivated by what he and his organization still characterize as the greater good of World Peace that really isn't driven by market concerns. Marek ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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/
