Maharishi Life

[Guest guest]

He died peacefully at about 7 p.m., " said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the

Transcendental

Meditation movement that Maharishi founded. He said his death appeared to be due

to

" natural causes, his age. "

 

Once dismissed as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control known as

transcendental meditation gradually gained medical respectability.

 

He began teaching TM in 1955 and brought the technique to the United States in

1959.

But the movement really took off after the Beatles attended one of his lectures

in 1967.

 

Maharishi retreated last month into silence at his home on the grounds of a

former

Franciscan monastery, saying he wanted to dedicate his remaining days to

studying the

ancient Indian texts that underpin his movement.

 

" He had been saying he had done what he set out to do, " Roth said late Tuesday.

 

With the help of celebrity endorsements, Maharishi -- a Hindi-language title for

Great

Seer -- parlayed his interpretations of ancient scripture into a

multi-million-dollar global

empire. His roster of famous meditators ran from Mike Love of the Beach Boys to

Clint

Eastwood and Deepak Chopra, a new age preacher.

 

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After 50 years of teaching, Maharishi turned to larger themes, with grand

designs to

harness the power of group meditation to create world peace and to mobilize his

devotees

to banish poverty from the earth.

 

His rise to fame came with his association with the Beatles, who first attended

one of his

lectures in August 1967 in Wales as they looked for a way of attaining higher

consciousness in the aftermath of that year's Summer of Love.

 

The Beatles were so charmed by the self-effacing guru that they agreed to stay

with at his

India compound, starting in February 1968, an astonishing choice for what was

then the

world's most celebrated music group.

 

But once there, Maharishi had a falling out with the rock stars after rumors

emerged that

he was making inappropriate advances on attendee Mia Farrow. John Lennon was so

angry

he wrote a bitter satire, " Sexy Sadie, " in which he vowed that Maharishi would

" get yours

yet. "

 

Maharishi insisted he had done nothing wrong and years later McCartney agreed

with him.

Deepak Chopra, a disciple of Maharishi's and a friend of George Harrison's, has

disputed

the Farrow story, saying instead that Maharishi had become unhappy with the

Beatles

because they were using drugs.

David Lynch, creator of dark and violent films, lectured at college

campuses about

the " ocean of tranquility " he found in more than 30 years of practicing TM.

 

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Lynch said it has aided him

" in every

aspect of life. "

 

He said he believed Maharishi has laid the groundwork for world peace, even if

that was

not immediately apparent from world affairs.

 

" The world appears in bad shape on the surface, but I compare it to a tree:

there are

yellow sickly leaves dropping off but Maharishi has brought nourishment to the

roots.

Hang on for a little while longer, it's coming. "

 

His followers say that some 5 million people devoted 20 minutes every morning

and

evening reciting a simple sound, or mantra, and delving into their

consciousness.

 

" Don't fight darkness. Bring the light, and darkness will disappear, " Maharishi

said in a

2006 interview, repeating one of his own mantras.

 

Donations and the $2,500 fee to learn TM financed the construction of Peace

Palaces, or

meditation centers, in dozens of cities around the world. It paid for hundreds

of new

schools in India.

 

In 1974, Maharishi founded a university in Fairfield, Iowa, that taught

meditation alongside

the arts and sciences to 700 students and served organic vegetarian food in its

cafeterias.

 

In 2001, his followers founded Maharishi Vedic City, a town of about 200 people

a few

miles north of Fairfield. The city requires the construction of buildings

according to design

principles set by Maharishi for harmony with nature.

 

Ed Malloy, a TM practitioner and mayor of Fairfield, said Maharishi's followers

in Iowa were

spending Tuesday evening meditating and holding a " celebration of gratitude for

everything he's given. "

 

Supporters pointed to hundreds of scientific studies showing that meditation

reduces

stress, lowers blood pressure, improves concentration and raises results for

students and

businessmen.

 

Skeptics ridiculed his plan to raise $10 trillion to end poverty by sponsoring

organic

farming in the world's poorest countries. They scoffed at his notion that

meditation

groups, acting like psychic shock troops, can end conflict.

 

" To resolve problems through negotiation is a very childish approach, " he said.

 

In 1986, two groups founded by his organization were sued in the U.S. by former

disciples

who accused it of fraud, negligence and intentionally inflicting emotional

damage. A jury,

however, refused to award punitive damages.

 

Over the years, Maharishi also was accused of fraud by former pupils who claim

he failed

to teach them to fly. " Yogic flying, " showcased as the ultimate level of

transcendence, was

never witnessed as anything more than TM followers sitting in the cross-legged

lotus

position and bouncing across spongy mats.

 

Maharishi was born Mahesh Srivastava in central India, reportedly on Jan. 12,

1917 --

though he refused to confirm the date or discuss his early life.

 

He studied physics at Allahabad University before becoming secretary to a well

known

Hindu holy man. After the death of his teacher, Maharishi brought his message to

the West

in a language that mixed the occult and science that became the buzz of college

campuses.

 

Maharishi's trademark flowing beard and long, graying hair appeared on the cover

of the

leading news magazines of the day. But aides say Maharishi became disillusioned

that TM

had become identified with the counterculture.

 

In 1990 he moved onto the wooded grounds of a monastery in Vlodrop, about 125

miles

southeast of Amsterdam.

 

Concerned about his fragile health, he secluded himself in two rooms of the

wooden

pavilion he built on the compound, speaking only by video to aides around the

world and

even to his closest advisers in the same building.

 

 

John Hagelin, a theoretical physicist who ran for the U.S. presidency three

times on the

Maharishi-backed Natural Law Party, said that from the Dutch location Maharishi

had

daylong access to followers in India, Europe and the Americas.

 

" He runs several shifts of us into the ground, " said Hagelin, Maharishi's

closest aid,

speaking in Vlodrop about his then-89-year-old mentor. " He is a fountainhead of

innovation and new ideas -- far too many than you can ever follow up.