Thanks for mention him. Will not forget meeting him in Graz His understanding of Hindi and music is certainly beyond Girish grasp (BTW the father in law of the woman who has accused him of exploitation had taught Girish music in a Jabalpur college and he was called a family friend)In a way this scene described in this novel somehow resonate with the related post I sent Share actually answering Buck’s inquiring.
Doesn’t it goes like this in this novel (but.. but.. do not forget to scroll down to the end of the quote in my second post) : « According to devout Hindus, a visit to Jothimath and the nearby temple of Badrinath on the border of Tibet are enough for spiritual release or moksha. In the great Hindu tradition of pilgrimage, millions of devotees come here every summer. The head monk of the Jothimath monastery is called Shankaracharya. He teaches meditation, too. It definitely releases your stress, so even non-believers cone here to learn meditation. For example, the famous Shankaracharv Swami Brahmananda. taught it to his own disciple Mahesh. The Brahmin swami was charismatic himself, but nowhere close to his non-Brahmin disciple. After the death of his guru, Mahesh took meditation out to the world. He modified its name to include his own: Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (the Sanskrit word is Maharshi "great sage."). "I learned TM from a disciple of the Maharishi. He never recommended meat-eating. But he was championing the Vedic culture..." "Everybody knows him as the guru of the Beatles. Even the Paharis know him. He lived for years in the monastery of Jothimath. and then he established the meditation colony between Rishikesh and Dehradun." "You mean the Shankaracharya Nagar?" "Yes, after his teacher's title. Only the Garhwal Maharajas founded new towns or nagars after their names: Srinagar. Kirtinagar, Narendra Nagar...It's amazing how the Maharishi got that kind of money!" "That's an interesting question." I said, because I saw one of his interviews. An American talk show host wondered about his big money. The Maharishi was quick to answer, "You can see. I have no pockets!" He spread his hands from his chest downward. He meant his dhoti. the plain long white cloth he had on his body. The entire audience laughed. The host saw no pockets on his clothing and did not ask again about money. "But he did have a lot of money," Shib Dutt said. "Usually most people need more money, especially if they have children. The Maharishi has no children. He is a monk. A monk who is a non-meat-eater, non-drinker, non-night-lifer, non-suitor-booster does not need that big money. He spent that money in propagating his TM. His wording. Transcendental Meditation for dhyana turned out good for publicity. Quite a smart move...I mean, meditation or dhyana is the seventh stage of the standard yoga, and the eighth and last is samadhi. The eighth definitely transcends the seventh. He mixed both under TM. Altogether, Maharishi was very good at the guru business. Rishikesh-Hardwar area has the biggest baba-bazaar of the world. Here you can shop around for big babas. Don t you think he beats all those holy men? " In my head, the same question was reverberating, so I asked him, "The Maharishi lived in Garhvval for so many years. He would have been the Shankaracharya at Jothimath." "No. He was denied that title. He w as not a Brahmin. His Kayasth caste disqualified him. He would have been a better Shankaracharya than either of those two quarreling Brahmin Shankaracharyas though." "Yes. I heard of the two Shankaracharv as who went to the Allahabad High Court to settle the claim." I said to show my familiarity with the court case. "The Maharishi could have claimed that position," Shib Dutt said, slapping his thigh for emphasis. "But then the Maharishi could have challenged the caste system. Some even believe that the Kayasth caste does not fit in the traditional varna system." "It is an irony that the Maharishi accepted the worthless caste system.The Gîta was his favorite scripture. He never challenged its support of the varna. He was a student of physics. Shouldn't he have debunked the claim of Krishna as the head of Nature as simply a myth created by the Brahmin men?" "It's not easv to overcome the male chauvinism of thousands of years. I understand what vou mean. Krishna is masculine and Prakriti is feminine.This feminine Nature does everything by His will. So it implies that the ultimate boss of any woman las to be a male. Krishna could have said. 'All of us. including me, are govcrncd by Nature's laws.' He didn't. His voice is male." ..... "Mahesh Yogi would have lost his popular appeal in India if he had questioned the Gita-chauvinism. He was a clever man. His opinions resonated very well. How could he fool people into believing that mass meditation with mantras causes world peace? Devotees in huge numbers have been praying for ages in temples. Many of them were killed when the fanatic invaders demolished the temples. That historical evidence did not diminish people's belief in mantras. Mahesh Yogi knew that very well. Meditation by mantra resonated. And it worked in his favor. He sold one mantra per customer of TM." I understood. »
