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Thursday, Jan 31, 2008
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The guru goes silent

Maharishi relinquishes day-to-day control of his movement

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in a 2006 photograph

THE HAGUE: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who soared to worldwide fame as a meditation guru to the Beatles, has retreated into near silence and turned over the day-to-day running of his global network to senior aides, a close adviser has said.

The Maharishi began teaching Transcendental Meditation more than 50 years ago and claims some six million people have become its practitioners.

But it was not until the Beatles visited his ashram in India in 1968 as they struggled to come to terms with the death of their manager Brian Epstein that the guru became an icon of the counterculture movement of the late-1960s. Other stars who followed his teachings included Donovan, Mia Farrow and the Beach Boys.

The attention his famous followers focussed on the Maharishi’s movement turned it into a global phenomenon with outposts in some 130 countries. For the last 17 years he has run it from a Franciscan monastery in a secluded forest near Vlodrop, an eastern Dutch village near the German border. Often he spends hours on end speaking by video links to followers around the globe.

Transcendental Meditation, or TM, is a 20-minute twice daily routine in which the meditator silently focusses on a mantra to induce relaxation and “dive into a state of pure consciousness.”

Many scientists agree that TM can ease stress, high blood pressure, pain and insomnia. But some argue it is no more effective than many other mind-body relaxation techniques.

“He had been involved very dynamically administratively in his worldwide movement for over 50 years, so it’s quite a significant change to see him dive back purely into knowledge and let other people take care of the administration,” adviser John Hagelin, an American physicist, said.

The silver-bearded Maharishi is thought to be 91 and is losing the strength to keep up his punishing administrative workload. “He is not as young as he once was,” said Mr. Hagelin. “I think he probably has a more limited reserve of physical energy to draw upon. He was working... 20 hours a day for years.” — AP

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