# Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (January 12, 1918 – February 5, 2008) developed and introduced the Transcendental Meditation technique (also known as TM) and related programs and initiatives, including schools and universities with campuses in countries around the world

## Quotes

* Problems or successes, they all are the results of our own actions. Karma. The philosophy of action is that no one else is the giver of peace or happiness. One's own karma, one's own actions are responsible to come to bring either happiness or success or whatever... As you sow, so shall you reap. It's a very old proverb of mankind. As you sow, so shall you reap. Sometime you may have killed that man, and then sometime now he comes to kill you... What we have done, the result of that comes to us whenever it comes, either today, tomorrow, hundred years later, hundred lives later, whatever, whatever. And so, it's our own karma. That is why that philosophy in every religion: Killing is sin. Killing is sin in every religion. Whosoever sins, whoever is killed, it doesn't matter. It's a sin. And sin.. is a punishable offense. Because when you sin, when you've killed some man, what you are killing? You are killing the cosmic potential within the individual. Individual is cosmic. Individual potential of life is cosmic potential. Individual is divine deep inside. Transcendental experience awakens that divinity in man...When you kill a man like that you deprive him from getting to his human right.
** Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in CNN Larry King Weekend:Interview With Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, (2002)
* Our message is the same age-old message of life. We have taught in the world for half a century: “life is bliss, free from problems, it’s not necessary to suffer”.
       Quoted from: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Main Message - from Victory Day, October 21, 2007 Maharishi Channel
* Every education minister today has a chance of introducing in his education today some simple technique, some simple natural insights into the total reality of life, which the physical sciences have explored in terms of “Unified Field”, which the ancient Vedic wisdom has located in the Self referral consciousness of everyone.
       Quoted from: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Main Message - from Victory Day, October 21, 2007 Maharishi Channel
* And it’s completely not necessary for anyone to make mistake because everyone’s Self is Total Knowledge, Veda. Veda is Total Knowledge, and Veda is the nature of the Self, and bliss is the nature of the Self. And even in the outside world everyone wants to move in the direction of greater joy.
       Quoted from: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Main Message - from Victory Day, October 21, 2007 Maharishi Channel
* Wherever there is greater joy, there is the direction of everyone’s activity, because the innermost of everyone is really the lighted lamp of Total Knowledge, total organising power of knowledge, it’s all bliss, it’s not necessary for the people to suffer.
       Quoted from: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Main Message - from Victory Day, October 21, 2007 Maharishi Channel
* And now we are wanting everyone in every country through the education department of every government to unfold that inner content of life. It’s very simple to light the lamp is so easy. And yet that process of lighting the lamp is enough to eliminate the difficulties in the darkness.
       Quoted from: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Main Message - from Victory Day, October 21, 2007 Maharishi Channel
* It is possible for every man to go deep within and saturate his conscious mind with inner happiness with that unlimited intelligence that dwells at the source of thought.
       Quoted from: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - Lake Louise, Canada (1968) - MaharishiUniversity
* The principle of TM is simple, being is bliss in its nature, infinite happiness, mind is always moving in the direction of greater happiness. It is the experience of everyone: wherever the mind goes, it goes in the direction of greater happiness.
       Quoted from: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - Lake Louise, Canada (1968) - MaharishiUniversity
* And because the nature of inner being is bliss, infinite happiness, therefore the mind during TM takes that inward course in a most spontaneous manner.
       Quoted from: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - Lake Louise, Canada (1968) - MaharishiUniversity
* In this meditation we do not concentrate or control the mind. We let the mind follow its natural instinct toward greater happiness, and it goes within and it gains bliss consciousness in the being.
       Quoted from: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - Lake Louise, Canada (1968) - MaharishiUniversity
* Transcendental meditation is something that can be defined as a means to do what one wants to do in a better way, in a right way, for maximum results. It's a program that the mind begins to experience its own finer impressions, finer thoughts, and then finally transcends the finest thought. And that is the level of what they call self-referral pure consciousness, which is the ultimate reality of life, pure intelligence from where the creation emerges, from where the administration of life is maintained, from where physical expression of the universe has its basis.
       Quoted from: w:Larry King Weekend, Interview With Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (2002-05-12)
* That is why he took so many hundreds of years to be known.
       In reply to a comment that Jesus Christ didn't have a public relations team.
       Quoted in "Looking back" Juan Rodriguez, The Gazette. Montreal, Que.: February 19, 2011
* They [the Beatles] came backstage after one of my lectures, and they said to me: 'Even from an early age we have been seeking a highly spiritual existence. We tried drugs and that didn't work.' They are such practical and intelligent young boys that it took them only two days to find that Transcendental Meditation is the answer.
       Quoted from, Beatles Anthology, by The Beatles, Chronicle Books, 2000, page 261
* I lack only $1 billion to make the world a better world.
       Quoted from: w:Larry King Weekend, Interview With Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (2002-05-12)
* I believe in God. And I believe in the custody of God vested in kings. And I'm very happy to have your name as "King." It's the King!
       Quoted from: w:Larry King Weekend, Interview With Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (2002-05-12)
* They think democracy -- I used to say "damn the democracy", because it's not a stable government.
       Quoted from: w:Larry King Weekend, Interview With Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (2002-05-12)
* I am closing my performance.
       Quoted from: Foundation of the Brahmanand Saraswati Trust, four weeks before his death.(2008-01-11) Achievements 1957-2008

## About Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

* Whilst I am deeply saddened by his passing, my memories of him will only be joyful ones. He was a great man who worked tirelessly for the people of the world and the cause of unity.
       Quoted from: Sir Paul McCartney "Beatles pay tribute to late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi", AFP (February 7, 2008)
* One of the wise men I met in my life was the Maharishi. I always was impressed by his joy and I truly believe he knows where he is going.
       Quoted from: Ringo Starr "Beatles pay tribute to late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi", AFP (February 7, 2008)
* Well, actually, he does love laughing. He finds life amusing, but it's from a higher level that perhaps we don't have access to. He'd laugh at things and we'd be baffled. But he was a great speaker. Very wise.
       Quoted from: Patti Boyd (former wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton) "Patti Boyd: My Life As a Muse" Independent Minds
* Maharishi was a unique combination of an emperor and an ascetic, a perfect disciple and a Jagadguru, a modern scientist and a deep traditionalist
       Quoted from: Ravi Shankar, founder Art of Living Foundation
       Column on Rediff News website, India. (2008-02-11) Rediff News
* Mahesh Yogi, who gave himself the title Maharishi—“great sage”—had found a formula for instant meditation, which he promised would deliver samadhi, a holy state of expanded consciousness, without going to all the trouble of fasting and endless prayer. He converted Europeans by the thousands to “Transcendental Meditation” before arriving in the United States in 1968, bringing with him a fad for Indian clothes and Indian music. Many celebrities, including the Beatles and the Beach Boys, followed the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. But when the Beatles went to India to spend three months studying under the Maharishi, Ringo Starr, always said to be the least reflective of the quartet, returned with his wife, Maureen, to his suburban London mansion after ten days, unhappy with the great sage’s accommodations. “Maureen and I are a bit funny about our food, and we don’t like spicy things,” Ringo explained. The Maharishi was of limited appeal to poet and seasoned chanter Ginsberg because he opposed LSD and urged young people to accept the draft. Ginsberg continued to chant, oppose the war, and champion the rights of homosexuals and the use of hallucinogenic drugs.
** Mark Kurlansky, 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (2004), p. 130-131 ISBN 0-345-45581-9

## See also

* The Ageless Wisdom Teachings
* Spiritual teachers

## External links

* Transcendental Meditation/Maharishi official website
* Videos with full transcripts of lectures and speeches
* Transcripts of lectures and speeches
Modern Hindu writers 19th century to date :
| Religious writers | Mirra Alfassa • Anirvan • Aurobindo • Chinmoy • Eknath Easwaran • Nisargadatta Maharaj • Ramana Maharshi • Maharishi Mahesh Yogi • Narayana Guru • Sister Nivedita • Srila Prabhupada • Chinmayananda Saraswati • Dayananda Saraswati • Sivananda • Ravi Shankar • Shraddhanand • Vivekananda • Yogananda |
| Political writers | Advani • Deepak • Gandhi • Gautier • Gopal • Jain • Kishwar • Munshi • Radhakrishnan • Rai • Roy • Sarda • Sastri • Savarkar • Sen • Shourie • Shiva • Singh • Tilak • Upadhyaya • Vajpayee |
| Literary writers | Bankim • Gundappa • Iyengar • Rajagopalachari • Sethna • Tagore • Tripathi |
| Scholars | Altekar • Balagangadhara • Coomaraswamy • Daniélou • Danino • Dharampal • Feuerstein • Frawley • Goel • Jain • Kak • Kane • Mukherjee • Nakamura • Rambachan • Rosen • Malhotra • Sampath • Schweig • Swarup |
| Non-Hindus influenced by Hinduism | Besant • Blavatsky • Chopra • Crowley • Dass • Daumal • Deussen • Eliade • Eliot • Elst • Emerson • Ginsberg • Guénon • Harrison • Huxley • Isherwood • Krishnamurti • Lynch • Malraux • Miller • Montessori • Müller • Olcott • Oppenheimer • Roerich • Rolland • Schopenhauer • Schrödinger • Thoreau • Tolstoy • Voltaire • Watts • Wilber • Yeats |