--- In [email protected], "peterklutz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In the ongoing battle at wikipedia certain editors have taken to the > practice of referring to MMY as simply Mahesh. > > Aside the fact that the only name MMY has been known by for the last > fifty or so years is MMY, I was under the impression that he has > actually been given this name in keeping with the tradition he comes > from. > > I.e. Mahesh was given the full name Maharishi Mahesh Yogi when his > peers/tradition over fifty years ago cognized him to be (1) a yogi > as well as (2) a great seer.
I'm unaware of any evidence that the title was bestowed on him by any official or quasi-official body of his peers, or under the auspices of his specific tradition. FWIW, according to the editor of The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, the title "Maharshi" (or "Maharishi") is traditionally given to "one who inaugurates a new spiritual path." Ramana Maharshi's editor says nothing about his own master having received the title from his peers; it appears to have been bestowed informally by his students. As I understand it, the same is the case for Maharishi. Those who attended his early lectures in India began calling him Maharishi, the newspaper accounts of the lectures picked it up, and it stuck. I can't confirm this, but I've never heard anything to counter it either; and if Ramana's editor is correct about what the title is given *for*, it would make sense--since what MMY was teaching was in many respects starkly different from more traditional teaching, as with Ramana. Plus which, those teachers who depart from traditional teaching are somewhat less likely to receive official titles from their peers. (Ramana Maharshi's followers customarily addressed him, in the third person, as Bhagavan, a designation of literal divinity, apparently with his consent. So there may be worse excesses than calling a teacher Great Seer.) In the context of a supposedly informational article on TM, even if it contains criticisms, it would be absurd to use "Mahesh" instead of "Maharishi." In that context, the use of "Mahesh" represents a personal derogatory opinion and has no place in a factual article. But perhaps it would mitigate the objections if "as he is called by his students" were inserted after the first use of "Maharishi" by itself. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Great things are happening at Yahoo! Groups. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/TISQkA/hOaOAA/yQLSAA/UlWolB/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/
