Yep, that Dr. Hagelin did not wear the gold foil hat and robe is extremely
interesting for TM-watchers. Also of note, some of the other TM-Raja who did
not but who were there in the crowd is noteworthy also as for who did not go
for the hazing of the meeting at this point. What was MAR thinking and those
other few guys doing that? It is a small group inside TM really. Our Mayor of
Vedic City coming in along with this entourage and sitting too in front of the
group looking like a news-reel incarnation of a white suited bloated Field
Marshal was a little haunting of something too. He and the Raja of the Raj were
the only ones now dressed in that white-creme suit special look. Overall it was
a good meeting with the meditating community but evidently it was not exactly
your normal meditator knowledge meeting. You had to be there to see it,
-Buck
sparaig writes: The Rajas are people who paid $1 million to become the
administrators of the TM organization at the highest level, or who managed to
get someone to pay that money for them.
As I understand it, a requirement to be a raja was not simply that you pay the
money but that you be willing to wear the funny hat.
Apparently that hat requirement has ben relaxed at least somewhat, but since
Tony abu Nader gets to rewrite the rules as he sees fit, that isn't all that a
big deal if he choses not to wear his crown in public appearances.
The fact that John Hagelin didn't wear HIS crown as Raja of North America is
more interesting, but again, Tony Nader gets to write the rules and it if is OK
with him...
Of course, John Hagelin might be an exception to the rule in several ways as
he can wear any of 4 hats (that I am aware of): Raja John Hagelin:
Professor/Director John Hagelin; President of the David Lynch Foundation, John
Hagelin; Chairman of the board of directors of the Maharishi Foundation, John
Hagelin.
The other guys seem happy or at least comfortable with wearing their hats in
public, but then again, most of them don't make many public appearances outside
TM organization functions while King Tony and Raja John are very much in the
public eye by comparison.
L
Share writes:
“The Rajas are just a weird offshoot of a main organization”.
So why the gold foil hats and robes, now? What were they thinking the other
night coming, sitting and leaving in their processional in and out of the
meeting in full WTF-regalia? Generally groups can both live and die by their
own specialness. The social-science field of altruistic evolution proly has a
lot to say about that. This TM group has been killing itself off over the long
years by cultivating extra-specialness within it. And, this cultivating
specialness of the Rajas now? Does a larger meditating community want to belong
to that or have that represent it? It all seems more like a hazing than
anything else. It was interesting to see who [which Raja] were not wearing the
gold crown and robe git-up at the meeting. That itself proly took some courage
to do.
-Buck
Yes, the Raja part of TM is such a small circle in TM and of the larger TM
community but people do wonder if they are going to keep doing it. When you
talk to meditators in the community there is a general disheartenment that
those guys wear that stuff representing the movement and the meditating
community here. Generally you ask people here if they are meditators and the
meditators respond saying, “yes, but not that.. .”, pointing in the general
direction of campus and Vedic City.
7Ray27 writes:
Hey Michael,
Most of what I know about the school comes from the annual publication I get
listing achievements and donors about and to MUM.. (and yes, I am listed as
making a small donation)
But as I understand it Craig Pearson is the administrative head of the school.
Now, whether he takes his orders from the Rajas, or Bevan, or if is able to
work independently, I don't know.
I do happen to know someone higher up in the school administration and talk to
him very infrequently. But the impression I get is that those administrators
handle to day to day running, without a lot of direct oversight or interference
from the rajas.
Of course, in the same publication, they also list the trustees of the
university. They are many, and very few (if any) are rajas, IIRC.
So, that may offer a different perspective than the one you are offering.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote :
an offshoot? What are you smoking? Let's see - the leader of the Movement,
King-Pin Tony CALLS himself not only a king but the BIG king, he wears robes
and a big ass gold crown - all the other leaders including Bevan are all robe
and crown wearers - these asses RUN the Movement - if the rajas aren't in
charge who is? The fact that you can't accept these guys have become the face
of the new Movement is indicative of just how deep your denial runs.
sundur@... mailto:steve.sundur@...> wrote:
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Student Housing and More I think
it's called the World Wide Web.
The
Rajas are just a weird offshoot of the main organization.
I'm not sure what direct connection the Rajas have
to academic life.
As
for due diligence during the time you were involved in the
organization and people looking at it now, it's sort of
like indicting the Collective Papers for being so low on
Amazon's Book list compared to the guy's book that
just came out about the murder of his fellow MUM student. A
lot has changed in thirty years.
The
world just doesn't turn exactly the way you want it to
Michael. You have to get used to that fact.
Despite your earnest efforts to defeat the
organization in every way you can, you may end up being
frustrated.
But
I'm sure you'll stay at it. It appears to be
quite a preoccupation for you.
And
really, if truth be told, it seems to have come on heels of
your other failed spiritual ventures. Perhaps all that
frustration got all balled up, and this is now the
result.
Just
sayin'
mjackson74
wrote :
You must be
living with your head in the sand Share - the TMO masks a
great deal of what it does from the outside observer
including those who are prospective students. I have told
the story of how I just a few months ago had a good talk
with a young man and his mother. The boy was intent on going
to MUM - they had been to visitors weekend and didn't
even know anything about the rajas! I had been in the TM
mindset for 10 years before I went to MIU and I had no idea
of the stupid crap I would have to put up with while on
staff - no one does unless they have been on staff or as a
student.
Share Long <sharelong60@...>
wrote:
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Student Housing and More
To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com";
<FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, April 20, 2014, 9:28 PM
salyavin, in this day and age, however could a person join
a
utopian cult without realizing it?! Sounds to me like
someone who didn't do their due diligence.
And if it's really as bad as the blogger claims,
wouldn't he have noticed the trailer park etc. when he
first arrived. Plenty of time to get money back or not
enroll at all. I doubt that the blog is telling his part in
all this.
The students at MUM now are very different than the
students
who were at MIU in 1975. Back then many were TM teachers
and
or had already been meditating for a few years.
Californians! Nowadays they're into David Lynch or
sustainable living or organic food or some combo or these
(-:
As for me, I'm no longer on the inside and haven't
been for almost 12 years, 7 of which I didn't even go
to
the Dome. Plus I have constant contact
with my non meditating family so I'm aware of how it
all looks to non meditators.
On Sunday, April 20,
2014 3:37 PM, salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com
mailto:no_re...@yahoogroups.com>
wrote:
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com,
<sharelong60@...> wrote :
Well salyavin, in all my years here,
we've only had one earthquake and it's epicenter
was
over in Illinois across the Mighty Mississip, a river which
supposedly has a fault line running down it.
I'll have to ask some
vastu dwellers about the homeowners insurance.
PS btw, speaking of good
questions, I think mine is a good question too: if this
blogger is so unhappy with MUM, why does he continue being
a
student there?!
As I said, he probably
has his money invested in it, be hard to change to another
one without losing any downpayments or even just getting on
another course at this stage without starting
again.
Maybe he's
got a lot of anger at finding out that he joined a
utopianist cult without realising it? I've never been
to
FF or MUM but I know how the movement works and let's
face it, the TMO is more than a bit weird. You may not
think
so as you are on the inside but the TM worldview is unusual
and takes some getting used to for anyone. If you
steadfastly refuse to adopt it then you will be unhappy. Is
it possible to just go to MUM and not notice what everyone
else believes?
Afterwords, out in the Dome entry area and on the sidewalks to the parking
areas as the meeting closed and people left: a big WTF reaction was, that they
actually came wearing the gold foil hats and robes and stuff. I can't say that
Alex's brother or some of those others following after Maharaja Adhiraj
Rajaraam also in full regalia did not necessarily look or seem particularly
ethereal in the cult outfit. Though that might have just been the bad light on
them. It did sort of look and feel like The Return of the King set for The Lord
of the Rings.
It was just a little narcissistic. However, Hagelin and our other movement
dignitaries seated on stage facing the crowd were dressed secular in suits and
such. Generally was dignity and was all more corporate than cult. Lots of good
people with high-mindedness and well-intentioned. Deserves only a watching and
of course transparency to see. It was a good meeting of the remaining
meditating community.
-Buck in the Dome.
This is all an interesting consideration about Transcendental Meditation. Very
much like Brahmananda Saraswati, our Guru Dev, meditators here
characteristically are very practical, down to earth and real in their
spirituality. You have read the discourses of Guru Dev, Maharishi's teacher?
People here are quite experienced spiritually. For instance meditators well
know that if there is no useful shakti in something presented as spiritual then
they will mostly go on to the next satsanga. Yes, there is a wide
disheartenment in the old community of TM teachers and meditators with the
specialness a Raja stick in TM. Even the TM.org is hiding the gold foil hats
and robes of the Rajas. What were they thinking coming in to that meeting in
full regalia? Certainly they considered it. That would have been a good
question to have asked of Maharaja Adhiraj Rajaraam [MAR], CEO and Teacher of
all of TM from the open Microphone at the meeting and heard an explaination of
their need to wear that stuff in public. Nablusoss, you seem to have been
around that more than anyone posting here. Maybe you can take a whack at the
reasoning that they would come to visit America dressed like that. I don't got
time towards to representing that POV on behalf of them here. Alex is related
to it, may be he has some insight about the 'why' of gold foil hats. It is a
question everyone asks about the meeting, “did they wear the hats?”. Notably,
John Hagelin did not wear that stuff. That proly took some guts.
-Buck .
