Obituaries: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: 1917 - 2008 by Donna Oxley

Editor's note: We were saddened this week by the death of "the fool on the hill," Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. To be honest, our grief was brought on not so much by the fact that he was a pioneer in the movement to bring Eastern style meditation to the West, but because he was so much a part of our 60s counter-cultural history. We would like to imagine that the Maharishi and George Harrison are somewhere in Nirvanaland, blissfully meditating together.

On Wednesday, February 5, 2008, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died at the age of 91 (most qualified estimation, as Maharishi never did officially confirm his birth date). Born around January 12, 1917 in Jabalpur, India, Maharishi became a disciple of the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math in the Himalayas in his early twenties. This led him onto his creation and ongoing development of the world famous "Transcendental Meditation" technique and the "Maharishi Vedic Science" (his scientific commentary and translation of the ancient Vedic scriptures).

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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the front cover of
Time Magazine on October 13, 1975.

In 1968, Transcendental meditation - also known as "TM" - was made known to the western world by the Beatles, who not only began practicing this form of meditation but propagated it by visiting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at his ashram in India amongst a glare of publicity.

Following this, Maharishi, known to be slightly on the shrewd side, persuaded other big names such as the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Clint Eastwood, the director David Lynch and sixties pop star Donovan to practice TM and therefore propel it out onto the masses.

John Lennon, however, left the program claiming the Maharishi was materialistic, allegedly writing the song "Sexy Sadie" around these claims.

In the 1970s, Maharishi began his plans for the global colonization of TM teaching centers, proposing one for every million of the population. Today, courses cost around £1,280 (approx. 1,920 USD) in the UK for just four "90 minute" consecutive days of instruction, offering follow up over the first three to six months. That's quite a fee for six hours of instruction and only the possibility of follow up advice! I'm not sure the average person can condone spending around £210 per hour for meditation techniques... Still, TM is an ever popular choice and has gathered many devoted followers over the years.

David Lynch and sixties star Donovan have been recently promoting "conscious based education" in schools around America using the TM technique. Lynch is reported as explaining: "The technique of transcendental meditation has seen a drop in stabbings, violence, depressions, suicides and the use of illegal drugs in some of the worst schools in the U.S. you can imagine." Lynch also claims: "When I started meditating I had a real anger in me, and I would take this out on my first wife. Two weeks after I started meditating, this anger lifted."

Learning TM in an official teaching center consists of a short initiation ceremony where a mantra is assigned to the student, who is then instructed to use this to silently chant whenever meditating. From there the student begins to learn the art of releasing the mind of thoughts, feelings and fantasy by attempting to observe them as they arrive in the mind as though from a third party point of view and then return to chanting the mantra.

The aim of the program is to achieve inner peace by transcending those everyday thoughts and feelings that we are barraged with and maintain a higher state of awareness.

Some scientists have documented reports that prove the meditation to be beneficial to general health and well being by lowering stress, anxieties and illnesses. Statistics showed improved blood pressure, lower heart rates and breathing whilst achieving higher concentration and alertness.

©Copyright 2008 by AlternativeApproaches.com