DM Register Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: The late guru rattled, then transformed, Iowa town
http://www.desmoinesregister.com:80/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20080207/NEWS/802070378 Text: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who gained international fame as the guru to the Beatles, will be remembered in Fairfield and Jefferson County for the university he founded, the town whose creation he inspired, and the economic and cultural revival his advocates sparked. An estimated one-quarter of Fairfield's 10,000 residents practice Transcendental Meditation, the relaxation technique the Maharishi introduced to the United States in 1959. They have influenced everything from the region's architecture to the number of lunch options in Fairfield, which claims to have more restaurants per person than San Francisco. "He had a direct impact on a significant portion of our population," said Brent Willett, executive director of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce. Word of the Maharishi's death in the Netherlands - he was believed to be 91 - spread quickly Tuesday night on the 272-acre campus of the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield. Hundreds of people gathered in the Maharishi Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge for a brief and impromptu memorial. "The mood is the same as if a parent passed away, or any loved one," said Craig Pearson, the university's executive vice president. In 1974, when representatives of the Maharishi expressed interest in buying the bankrupt Parsons College property, he was primarily known as the flower-wearing, scraggly-haired spiritual guru who had taught Transcendental Meditation to the Beatles in the late 1960s. But when the sale was completed and students began arriving in the fall of 1974 for the opening of what was then called Maharishi International University, life in Fairfield was greatly changed. "He has created a truly vital teaching center and a sort of permanent foundation for the promulgation of his teachings," said Jim Belilove, who was on the committee that chose to move the university from Santa Barbara, Calif., to Fairfield. "And there's a vital community of thousands who would not be in Iowa otherwise." Many of them, like Belilove, created niche businesses in town. His Creative Edge Master Shop produces architectural specialities, like the marble floors in casinos. "From the time the Maharishi arrived with the university to this date, I'd say the biggest thing has been the economic impact," said David Neff, vice president of Iowa State Bank and Trust Co. of Fairfield and a Parsons College graduate. "People wanted to live here, but they didn't have employment, so they started businesses." Ed Malloy, Fairfield's mayor, is one of them. He moved to the Iowa community 28 years ago and now owns Danaher Oil Co. Malloy said the suspicion with which many Fairfield residents initially greeted the Maharishi students - and their eyebrow-raising claims of being able to "fly" and solve the world's problems - has abated. Malloy and Neff pointed to the December opening of the $7 million Fairfield Arts & Convention Center and the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts as a cooperative venture between traditional town interests and the Maharishi's adherents. "There's a good feeling here," Malloy said. "A lot of the skepticism was almost a fear that this whole experiment wouldn't last or take hold, but it has." The university - the name was changed in 1995 to Maharishi University of Management - now draws about 1,100 students from 68 countries, with 375 employees, including 70 full-time faculty members. The board of trustees includes movie director David Lynch. Another school, the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, has about 225 students in preschool through 12th grade. In 2001, the Maharishi's followers incorporated their own town, called Maharishi Vedic City, about two miles north of Fairfield. Sales of nonorganic food are banned there, and buildings are designed to follow principles the Maharishi established, such as facing east and featuring a golden roof ornament. About 700 people live there. "Maharishi isn't just the name of something," said Kent Boyum, the town's director of government relations and economic development. "We actually do know him. It's like a parent. It's a loss." The Maharishi visited Fairfield four times, most recently for 10 days at the end of 1983 and start of 1984. Pearson said he doesn't expect anything to change with the university founder's passing. "People are inspired by the prospect of carrying on his work," he said.
