Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; Was Meditation Guru to the Beatles Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; Was Meditation Guru to the Beatles PHOTOS Previous Next John Lennon, from left, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison with the Maharishi in 1967. The Beatles had gone to Wales to meditate with the Indian guru, whom they helped turn into a pop culture phenomenon. (Associated Press) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the International Meditation Society and "The City of Nations" in Kashmir, is seen in London, England, in this Aug. 24, 1967 file photo. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru to the Beatles and millions of meditators, died late Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008 at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. The Maharishi was believed to be 91. (AP) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, one of India's spiritual teachers, sits with actress Mia Farrow at Kennedy Airport in New York in this Jan. 23, 1968, file photo.

(AP) TOOLBOX Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 7, 2008 The man who introduced transcendental meditation to the West, who briefly became a guru to the Beatles and other pop musicians and who built a multimillion-dollar global business based on teaching people how to pause and close their eyes twice a day, died Feb. 5 at his home in Vlodrop, Netherlands. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was thought to be 91. The Maharishi, a Hindi title that means "great seer," had announced last month that he would withdraw from day-to-day administrative duties to complete his commentaries on the Veda, the ancient Indian texts that underpin his movement. No cause of death was reported. The spare, self-effacing leader, once known as the "Giggling Guru," appeared on newsmagazine covers and on Merv Griffin's talk show in the 1960s and 1970s. In recent years, he had confined himself to two rooms in his Dutch log house, accessible only to a small group of aides, and he communicated primarily by videoconference. A bald head replaced his long hair, although his profuse beard remained.

He still exercised global influence, derived from the 6 million people his organization said have been trained in transcendental meditation, a technique of quiet "restful alertness" based on quietly repeating a Sanskrit word. Advocates say the practice can lead to clearer thinking, improved health, increased creativity and ultimately, enlightenment. If enough people practiced it, the Maharishi said, world peace would follow. His course cost $2,500. The Maharishi began promoting the technique in the United States in 1959, but it wasn't until the Beatles met him in 1967 that he became widely known. The four members of the world's best-known band renounced illicit drugs and, along with singer Mike Love of the Beach Boys, folk singer Donovan, actress Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence, moved to his ashram in India the following year to study. The venture ended badly. None of the Beatles completed the three-month course, and they circulated unproven allegations of sexual improprieties by the Maharishi, who said he was celibate. Others said the Beatles resumed drug use at the ashram.

John Lennon wrote many songs while he was there, but it was his bitter "Sexy Sadie" that described his ultimate opinion: "Sexy Sadie what have you done/You made a fool of everyone." "We made a mistake," Paul McCartney later said. "We thought there was more to him than there was. He's human. We thought at first that he wasn't." The exposure brought the Maharishi fame that waned after the 1970s but never really vanished. Five years ago, declaring that he was tired of waiting for governments to bring about peace, he asked his many well-wishers to take on the task. They were to gather near the trouble spots around the world and meditate. "Problems will disappear as darkness disappears with the onset of light," he promised. Part of the problem with the long-promised, long-delayed advent of world peace was that the government capitals were in the wrong places, he said. For example, the White House should face east for optimal harmony, and in fact the entire federal government should move to Smith Center, Kan., near the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states and the nation's center of energy, he said.

That idea rather alarmed the town of 1,800, as did the movement's purchase of 1,100 acres of prime farmland in 2006 with plans to build a "World Center of Peace" and import hundreds of residents. CONTINUED 1 Beatles' guru dies in Netherlands - USATODAY.com Enlarge By AP The Beatles, left to right, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison join the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as they arrive by train at Bangor, Wales, United Kingdom, for a weekend of meditation in August 1967. Beatles' guru dies in Netherlands Updated E-mail | Print | THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died Tuesday at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was thought to be 91 years old. "He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.," said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement that the Maharishi founded.

Roth said his death appeared to be due to "natural causes, his age." Once dismissed as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control that Maharishi taught, called transcendental meditation, gradually gained medical respectability over the years. Maharishi began teaching TM in 1955 and brought the technique to the United States in 1959. But the movement really took off after the Beatles visited his ashram in India in 1968, although he had a famous falling out with the rock stars when he discovered them using drugs at his Himalayan retreat. With the help of celebrity endorsements, Maharishi — a Hindi-language title for Great Seer — parlayed his interpretations of ancient scripture into a multimillion-dollar global empire. 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. Just last month, the Maharishi retreated into silence at his home in the grounds of a former Franciscan monastery close to the German border, 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. Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced. Maharishi's roster of famous meditators ran from The Rolling Stones to Clint Eastwood and new age preacher Deepak Chopra. Director 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 transcendental meditation. Some 5 million people have 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 1971, 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.

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, could 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, also in India, before becoming secretary to a well known Hindu holy man. After the death of his teacher, Maharishi went into a nomadic two-year retreat of silence in the Himalayan foothills of northern India. With his background in physics, he brought his message to the West in a language that mixed the occult and science that became the buzz of college campuses. He described TM as "the unified field of all the laws of nature." 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, and he spent more time at his ashram in Rishikesh in the Himalayan foothills to run his global affairs. In 1990 he moved onto the wooded grounds of a historic Franciscan monastery in the southern Dutch village of 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 day-long 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." Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Posted Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru to Beatles, dies - Telegraph Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru to Beatles, dies Maharishi Mahesh Yogi [centre] parlayed his interpretations of ancient scripture into a multimillion-dollar global empire By Ben Rooney 12:35AM GMT 06 Feb 2008 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru to the Beatles and millions of meditators, has died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said.

Obituary "He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.," said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement which the Maharishi founded and which introduced the West to a Hindu practice of mind control, once dismissed as hippie mysticism but which gradually gained medical respectability. Mr Roth said the cause of death was yet to be established but it appeared to be "natural causes, his age." The Maharishi was believed to be 91. Related Articles Beatles spiritual guru 'never made a pass at Mia Farrow' 19 Feb 2006 The most celebrated and famous of the 1960s spiritual gurus, the Maharishi drew in many high profile celebrities to his Transcendental Meditation movement. These included the Beach Boys, singer-songwriter Donovan, Clint Eastwood and avant-garde film maker, David Lynch. But the most high profile followers were the Beatles, who spent time on a retreat in India in the late 1960s. However the relationship soured and, with the exception of the late George Harrison, the group became disillusioned with the Maharishi and following a widely-publicised spat, left. Only Harrison maintained an interest in meditation.

The spiritualist and author Deepak Chopra, a former maharishi disciple and a friend of Harrison, has said that contrary to popular myth, the row was nothing to do with claims that the maharishi made sexual advances on Mia Farrow, the actress and friend of the band. Instead, he said, the maharishi had objected to the group taking drugs at his home in Rishikesh, northern India. Dr Chopra told the Sunday Telegraph: "What isn't generally known is that the maharishi had got fed up with the Beatles taking drugs while they were at his ashram [spiritual home]. "They were smoking ganja [cannabis] and taking LSD. He hadn't come across anything like that before and he took a strong view." Born between 1911 and 1919, the maharishi, whose real name was Mahesh Prasad Varma, was a physics graduate from Allahabad University before rejecting materiality and becoming a devotee of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati or "Guru Dev". In 1955 the maharishi began publicly teaching a traditional meditation technique which he later renamed Transcendental Meditation.

Within three years, the maharishi had begun the first of a number of worldwide tours which lead to his fame and global recognition. It is estimated that there are some 5 million practitioners of Transcendental Meditation worldwide. 'Beatles Guru' Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Dies Replace the (at) with the @ symbol 'Beatles Guru' Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Dies By Lily Koppel Source: New York Times Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced transcendental meditation to the West and gained fame in the 1960s as the spiritual guru to the Beatles, died Tuesday (February 5, 2008) at his home and headquarters in Vlodrop, the Netherlands. He is believed to have been in his 90s. Steven Yellin, a spokesman for the organization, confirmed the Maharishis death but did not give a cause. On Jan. 11, the Maharishi announced that his public work was finished and that he would use his remaining time to complete a long-running series of published commentaries on the Veda, the oldest sacred Hindu text.

The Maharishi was both an entrepreneur and a monk, a spiritual man who sought a world stage from which to espouse the joys of inner happiness. His critics called his organization a cult business enterprise. And in the press, in the 1960s and 70s, he was often dismissed as a hippie mystic, the Giggling Guru, recognizable in the familiar image of him laughing, sitting cross-legged in a lotus position on a deerskin, wearing a white silk dhoti with a garland of flowers around his neck beneath an oily, scraggly beard. In Hindi, maha means great, and rishi means seer. Maharishi is a title traditionally bestowed on Brahmins. Critics of the yogi say he presented himself with the name, which he was ineligible for because he was from a lower caste. The Maharishi originated the transcendental meditation movement in 1957 and brought it to the United States in 1959.

Known as TM, a trademark, the technique consists of closing ones eyes twice a day for 20 minutes while silently repeating a mantra to gain deep relaxation, eliminate stress, promote good health and attain clear thinking and inner fulfillment. Classes now cost $2,500 for a five-day session. The TM movement was a founding influence on what has grown into a multibillion-dollar self-help industry, and many people practice similar forms of meditation that have no connection to the Maharishis movement. Over the years since TM became popular, many scientists have found physical and mental benefits from mediation in general and transcendental meditation in particular, especially in reducing stress-related ailments. Since the techniques inception in 1955, the organization says, it has been used to train more than 40,000 teachers, taught more than five million people, opened thousands of teaching centers and founded hundreds of schools, colleges and universities. In the United States, the organization values its assets at about $300 million, with its base in Fairfield, Iowa, where it operates a university, the Maharishi University of Management.

In 2001, disciples of the movement incorporated their own town, Maharishi Vedic City, a few miles north of Fairfield. Last March, a branch of the organization, Global Financial Capital of New York, moved into new headquarters it bought in Lower Manhattan. The visibility and popularity of the organization can largely be attributed to the Beatles. In 1968, the band, with great publicity, began studying with the Maharishi at his Himalayan retreat, or ashram, in Rishikesh, in northern India. They went with their wives, the folk singer Donovan, the singer Mike Love, of the Beach Boys, the actress Mia Farrow and Ms. Farrows sister Prudence. They left in the wake of rumors of sexual improprieties by the Maharishi, an avowed celibate, though no sexual-misconduct suits were filed and some of the participants later denied that anything untoward had occurred. Nevertheless, public interest in the movement had been aroused in the West, and it continued to grow in the 1970s as the Maharishi took his movement around the world and as its techniques gained respectability in the medical world. Later in life, the Maharishi refused to discuss the Beatles.

Another one of his disciples was the Indian spiritualist Deepak Chopra, who was a friend of the former Beatle George Harrison and who promotes his own teachings based on traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine and meditation. The Maharishis movement began losing followers the late 1970s, as people were put off by the organizations promotion of a more advanced form of TM called Yogic Flying, in which practitioners try to summon a surge of energy to physically lift themselves off the ground. They have never gone beyond the initial stage of flying, described as frog hops. Mahesh Prasad Varma was born near the central Indian town of Jabalpur, into a scribe caste family. Called Mahesh, he studied physics at Allahabad University and for the next 13 years became a student and secretary to a holy man, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, who the young disciple Mahesh called Guru Dev. Right from the beginning the whole purpose was to breathe in his breath, the Maharishi wrote in his Thirty Years Around the World: Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, published in 1986. This was my ideal.

The whole purpose was just to assume myself with Guru Dev. After the death of his master in 1953, Mahesh went into seclusion in the Himalayan foothills. He emerged two years later and began teaching a system of belief, which grew into the worldwide TM movement. It would appear that Maharishi cobbled together his teaching after his master died, when he found himself unemployed and out-of-grace with the ashram, said Paul Mason, a critic of the Maharishi and the author of a biography, The Maharishi: The Biography of the Man Who Gave Transcendental Meditation to the World. He reinvented himself and became a maharishi and wanted to be seen as a messiah. Since 1990, the Maharishi had lived in Vlodrop with about 50 of his adherents, including his minister of science and technology, John Hagelin, a Harvard-educated physicist, who is expected to oversee the organization in the United States.

Late in life, the Maharishi tried to breathe new life into TM, establishing in 2000 his Global Country of World Peace, with the goals of preventing war, eradicating poverty and promoting environmental sustainability. One effort tried to reach young people across the United States with the support of celebrities like Donovan and the filmmaker David Lynch, who went on a speaking tour of colleges to promote the cause. The Maharishi also sought to rebuild the world according to Vedic principals. He called for the demolition of all toxic buildings and unhealthy urban environments, even the demolition of historic landmarks if they were not built according to Vedic architecture in harmony with Natural Law. The Maharishi contended that the White House was wrongly situated. He said that a more suitable location for the capital of the United States was the small town of Smith Center, Kan. In the last years of his life he rarely met with anyone, even his ministers, face-to-face, preferring to speak with followers almost exclusively by closed-circuit television. How to Meditate Deeper Than a Zen Monk!

It's true  this surprising peace of mind breakthrough allows you to synchronize your OWN brainwaves to create almost any state of mind or feeling you desire. Simply put on a pair of headphones, listen and enjoy a deep meditation effect in minutes. That's it - it couldn't be EASIER! 'Jai Guru Deva' - NASA Transmits The Spirit Of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Peace Across The Universe - Unique Cosmic Mission Launched 5 February 2008 - nlpwessex.org NASA Transmits The Spirit Of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Peace Across The Universe Unique Cosmic Mission Launched 5 February 2008 10 February 2008 "NASA will beam The Beatles' song, 'Across the Universe,' into deep space Monday in an unprecedented long distance dedication by the U.S. agency. NASA's Deep Space Network will transmit the song at 7:00 p.m. EST (0000 Feb. 5 GMT) on Feb. 4 in honor of several cosmic-themed anniversaries....

The transmission is aimed at the North Star, Polaris, 431 light-years away from Earth, travelling at a speed of 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kps). 'Across the Universe,' though credited to 'Lennon/McCartney,' was principally written by Beatle John Lennon, and the lyrics speak of 'limitless undying love which/shines around me like a million suns.'" NASA Takes The Beatles 'Across the Universe' Literally NASA began its transmission of the Beatles song 'Across the Universe' into outer space at 0000 Hrs GMT (also known as 'Co-ordinated Universal Time' ) on Tuesday 5 February 2008 from a facility in Spain. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the man who had inspired the Beatles to write the song 40 years earlier, died peacefully in Holland later that day.

"In one of those too-wierd-for-fiction coincidences, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru who famously introduced the Beatles and the Western world to transcendental meditation, and thus indirectly inspired the mantra-refrain of the song 'Across the Universe,' which NASA beamed out into space on Monday [Tuesday GMT and Central European Time ], died on Tuesday. He was 91 and had been living in a small town in Holland." NASA Says, Hello, Universe. Meet the Beatles. 'The Lede', New York Times Online, Update 5 February 2008 "The music will be digitalised and beamed through NASAs deep-space communications network on a 431-light-year journey to the North Star, Polaris, where it is scheduled to arrive in 2439. The song has an Indian connection since it was created at the time the Beatles were learning Transcendental Meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Which explains the salutation Jai Guru Dev, Om in the chorus of the song." NASA to beam a beatles number Economic Times (India), 4 February 2008 "Call it cosmic coincidence.

Close on the heels of NASA's announcement that the Beatles' song Across the Universe would be transmitted to the distant Polaris star system in the hope of making contact with intelligent, extraterrestrial life, came the news that the Indian mystic who inspired the Beatles to write the song had passed away ......Though his association with George Harrison, in particular, made him famous, the Maharishi's contribution in popularising Indian spiritualism across the world cannot be overstated. His theory of transcendental meditation has proved to be a treasure-trove of tips for management courses..... He moved into what he called consciousness-based education and set up several colleges and universities. Since TM became popular, there has been no shortage of scientists to study its techniques . Many of them have found that meditation does promote mental and physical well-being, and especially aids in reducing stress. He was both a businessman and a guru, a spiritual man who sought a world stage from where to advance the joys of inner happiness.

As the refrain from Across the Universe went, Jai Guru Deva, here and perhaps one day in Polaris." BRIEF CASE: Jai Guru Deva 19:00 Hrs Monday 4 February 2008 Eastern Standard Time (USA) (Holland and Spain Use Central European Time = GMT/Universal Time plus 1hr) "NASA said Friday it will beam The Beatles' tune 'Across the Universe' to the North Star next week.... The broadcast will start at 0000 GMT Tuesday and will travel toward the Little Dipper constellation's brightest star at the speed of light, or 307,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second, NASA said in a statement. The North Star is 431 light years from Earth, meaning that 'Across the Universe' will take as many years to reach it.....

For the February 4 celebration, NASA has invited people around the world to play 'Across the Universe' on their audio systems at the same time NASA beams its version into outer space." NASA beams Beatles tune 'Across the Universe' Guardian, 2 February 2008 "An intergalactic celebration of The Beatles is launched on Monday with the beaming of their peace anthem 'Across the Universe' into outer space. The man behind the idea, which marks the 40th anniversary of the recording of the song in 1968, is an avid Beatles fan who has persuaded U.S. space agency NASA to kick off the party and now hopes to convert alien life forms to The Beatles. 'At the moment we are sending up Morse code as a way of contacting aliens,' Martin Lewis told BBC radio. 'Maybe we should send them something a little more cheery.' If all goes according to plan, NASA will transmit the Beatles tune via its deep space network at Midnight British time." NASA beams Beatles' 'Across the Universe' to aliens Reuters, 4 February 2008 "Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the recording of the Beatles song Across the Universe.

To mark the event last night at midnight GMT, NASA beamed the song written by John Lennon into space toward Polaris, the North Star. It may be true that in space, nobody can hear you scream. But now they can hear John Lennon call out 'Jai Guru Deva Ohm' at 180,000 miles per-second." NASA and Blu-ray owners celebrate Across the Universe Day Gizmorepublic, 5 February 2008 "It is widely known that the Beatle's music is universal in its appeal. However, the legendary rock band's song reached where no song has gone before, 'Across the Universe'. Beatles have always been universally loved, but they are now becoming universal in every sense of the word. The band's hit single 'Across the Universe' was literally beamed across the Universe by NASA on February 4, 2008, to mark the 40th anniversary of the recording of the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of both NASA and it's first satellite -- Explorer I. At precisely 7 p.m., E.S.T. the song was beamed by the agency's Deep Space Network of antennas.

Thrilled about the ocassion, Sir Paul McCartney -- former Beatle member -- said,'Send my love to the aliens. All the best.' Across the Universe, was principally written by John Lennon. His widow, Yoko Ono said that the song's transmission is a significant event and is the beginning of the new age in which one would communicate with billions of planets across the universe." Beaming 'Across the Universe' Times Now TV (India), 6 February 2008 To Be Known As 'Across The Universe Day' "At 6 p.m. CST on my birthday, NASA successfully transmitted the Beatles song 'Across the Universe' into space, marking the first time in history for a radio song to be transmitted into deep space....Okay, this is where I get really excited. From now on, Feb. 4 will be known as 'Across the Universe Day.' I may be bringing back a defunct term when I say thats 'far out,' but I really dont care. This is something thats as timeless as the Beatles music itself." NASA's birthday present to me The Clanton Advertiser, Alabama, February 2008 "Feb.

4 has been declared 'Across The Universe Day' by Beatles fans to commemorate the anniversaries. As part of the celebration, the public around the world has been invited to participate in the event by simultaneously playing the song at the same time it is transmitted by NASA. Many of the senior NASA scientists and engineers involved in the effort are among the group's biggest fans. 'I've been a Beatles fan for 45 years  as long as the Deep Space Network has been around,' said Dr. Barry Geldzahler, the network's program executive at NASA Headquarters, Washington. 'What a joy, especially considering that 'Across the Universe' is my personal favorite Beatles song.'" NASA Beams Beatles' 'Across the Universe' Into Space The Beatles In Rishikesh "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian mystic who taught meditation to the West, inspired the anti-materialism of the late sixties and the music of the Beatles, gaining a hold over the era's most influential stars.

The Beatles -- John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr -- recorded 'The White Album' immediately after their much-publicized trip to the guru's Indian headquarters in 1968 and many of the songs on the album refer to their experiences there George Harrison led his fellow Beatles to the Maharishi and transcendental meditation after becoming interested in classical Indian music and learning to play the sitar. Harrison was the most permanently influenced by the Maharishi, and his music reflected that for the rest of his life -- his biggest smash 'My Sweet Lord' from 1970 encapsulates the world view that he adopted under the guru's guidance. Huddersfield University music lecturer Rupert Till said Lennon also owed his utopian ideals to the Maharishi.'Lennon said originally 'I want to play in a rock and roll band' and he wrote songs about girls and cars. Being in India changed his and everybody else's direction.' Lennon's 'Imagine,' a utopian and anti-war anthem, was voted Britain's favorite song of all time." Maharishi taught Beatles to give peace a chance The Beatles, Released 1970 'Obscured By Clouds' "....

[There was a] sarcastic song about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who died on Tuesday, that John Lennon wrote in 1968, not long after the Beatles abruptly left the maharishis ashram in Rishikesh, India, and declared themselves no longer his spiritual disciples. It wasnt released that way. In the end the other Beatles, particularly George Harrison, argued that whatever disagreements they had with the maharishi, his work demanded respect... Whatever shortcomings the Beatles interaction with the maharishi may have had, the experience  which lasted only eight months, from August 1967 to April 1968  seems to have opened a floodgate of creativity and got them out of what threatened to be a creative rut..... After Rishikesh the group found itself with more new songs than it knew what to do with.....In the years since Lennons death, in 1980, Harrison and Mr. McCartney reconsidered the accusations against the Maharishi. Mr. McCartney has noted that the rumors of sexual impropriety were raised by Alexis Mardas, a supposed inventor and charlatan who had become a Beatles insider.

'Magic Alex,' as he was known, had agendas of his own, and may have fabricated (or at least exaggerated) the story. (Mr. Mardas has never commented on the incident.) During the 1990s both Harrison and Mr. McCartney were suitably convinced of the maharishis innocence that they reconciled with him and offered apologies..... What is often overlooked, in recountings of this sorry tale, is the influence the maharishi  or at least the experience of going to Rishikesh to meditate for several weeks  had on the group. For one thing, he weaned them from LSD.....whatever other powers transcendental meditation had, under its influence they wrote like demons. The main body of evidence is the White Album, a two-disc collection of 30 songs, more than twice the number on any previous Beatles album. And that doesnt count two songs  George Harrisons 'Not Guilty' (which bears traces of bruised feelings over the maharishi incident) and 'Whats the New Mary Jane'  that were recorded during the White Album sessions but left unreleased until 'Anthology 3,' in 1996.

But that wasnt all. While in India they recorded an acoustic version of a song called 'Spiritual Regeneration,' a kind of theme song for the maharishis program. And in May 1968, a week before the White Album sessions began, the Beatles gathered at Harrisons house in Esher, England, to run through their Rishikesh songs and decide which to record formally. A tape of 27 songs from that session has made the collectors rounds, and there may be more on the master tape, which the Harrison family owns..... Harrison said in an interview near the end of his life that the Esher tape would make a great 'Beatles Unplugged' album. Apple should consider that. Meanwhile you have to wonder whether the Beatles future might have played out differently if Magic Alex hadnt been in Rishikesh to spread rumors about the Maharishi. Instead of unraveling, as they did during the White Album sessions and throughout 1969, maybe meditation would have made them so prolific and contented that theyd have continued together, releasing a double album every six months or so. Well, probably not.

But the maharishi, in 1968, was good for what ailed them." Meditation on the Man Who Saved the Beatles First Wife Cynthia's Account Of What Pulled John Lennon Out Of Rishikesh 'The Beatles, The Maharishi And Me' Sunday Times, 10 February 2008 "I was in London last week when I heard the Maharishi had died. I was surprised at how shocked I felt. He was part of my life for just a few short months in the late 1960s, but his influence on me has lasted. Its bizarre: I was never a follower, yet I have a beautiful photograph of the Maharishi holding a rose that I have kept with me ever since. It was Patti Boyd who introduced us to the Maharishi. George Harrison and Patti had become interested in Indian spiritual beliefs and went to a lecture in London, held by the spiritual regeneration movement. Later that year  1967  its leader, the Maharishi, came over from India to hold a conference in Bangor, north Wales.

John went to hear him speak in London beforehand, with George, Patti, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher and Ringo Starr. 'Its fantastic stuff, Cyn, the meditations so simple and its life-chang-ing,' John told me. Like the others he had been bowled over by the Maharishis charisma and promises of nirvana. So off we went to the Bangor conference. George, Patti, her sister Jenny and Paul were all going. Ringo decided at the last minute that he would come too, and so did Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull. The Beatles had overdosed on everything that fame could bring. The Maharishi was antidrugs and had explained that through meditation you could reach a natural high as powerful as any drugs could induce. John loved this idea and was already talking about enlightenment, cosmic awareness and doing without drugs. So I was all for the Maharishis message: perhaps this was the change of direction John had been looking for. We were staying in dormitories at a large training college, along with a couple of hundred other followers. Our room was basic, with bunk beds and simple chests of drawers. Mick and Marianne sauntered in looking bewildered.

'Hey John, whats hap-pening? Where do we go from here?'. 'Back to school,' John laughed. The introductory seminar was an incongruous mix of the Maharishis regular devotees joined by the psyche-delically clad pop star elite, all sitting crosslegged on the bare wooden floor. That afternoon the Beatles held a press conference renouncing the use of drugs, in keeping with the Maharishis teachings. Only a month earlier they, along with other pop stars, had taken a full-page ad in The Times stating that the law on mari-juana was unworkable and immoral. Now all that was turned on its head. The press were wildly excited. But the story had barely hit the news-stands when it was overtaken. As we were heading back to our room, a reporter told us that Brian Epstein, who had steered the Beatles for the past six years, had been found dead..... The Maharishis words helped us all to feel a little less bleak and as the weeks passed after we returned to London, John and I were brought closer by grief. John and George were also being drawn towards the Maharishi.

It was as though, with Brian gone, the four needed someone new to give them direction and the Maharishi was in the right place at the right time. John and George agreed to go to the ashram in Rishikesh, at the foot of the Himalayas in India, to study meditation. Patti and I would go too. Paul, Jane, Ringo and his wife Maureen were less convinced about the joys of meditation but decided to join us. The trip was planned for February 1968..... A couple of weeks before we were due to leave [Rishkesh], Magic Alex accused the Maharishi of behaving improperly with an American girl who was a fellow student. Without allowing the Maharishi an opportunity to defend himself, John and George chose to believe Alex and decided we must all leave. I was upset. I was surprised that John and George had both chosen to believe Alex. It was only when John and I talked later that he told me he had begun to feel disenchanted with the Maharishis behaviour. He felt that, for a spiritual man, the Maharishi had too much interest in public recognition, celebrities and money. I disagreed.

But by dawn the next morning Alex had organised taxis from the nearby village and we left on the journey back to Delhi. After eight weeks the dream was over. I hated leaving on a note of discord and mistrust. But John was running away and I had little choice but to run with him. My last glimpse of the Maharishi was of him sitting quietly, as if he had been betrayed. He was baffled that we were packing up and that hurt me. The journey home was long and grim. I was close to tears and John was paranoid, afraid that the Maharishi would take his revenge on us in some way. Alex had discovered that if we hurried we could make the night flight to London. I hated the rush, which seemed unnecessary, but with the others setting the pace we hit the road and just made the flight.. .In the first week [in Rishkesh] we [had] settled into a routine, meditating for several hours a day and going to lectures, then spending the rest of the time on our own pursuits. John had his guitar with him. I drew and wrote poetry. The Maharishi had a laugh like a tinkling bell. He had an aura.

I was as cynical as anyone to begin with, but I suppose Im a perpetual student. I felt he was someone I could learn from. Hed call us for two chats a day to talk about the spiritual life. I didnt follow the whole thing, just took what was necessary for me. I still meditate occasionally. I have my mantra, a personal word that we were all given, which was to be kept secret and to be repeated over and over. It works: eventually your brain does go to a different level. It empties your mind and gives you space to think.... [but] I was not having the second honeymoon I had hoped for. John was increasingly cold and aloof. He spoke to me very little and after a week or two he announced that he wanted to move into a separate room to give himself more space. What I didnt know was that each morning he rushed down to the post office to see if he had a letter from Yoko. She was writing to him almost daily. When I learnt this later I felt very hurt. There was I, trying to give John the space and understanding that he asked for, with no idea that Yoko was drawing him away from me and further into her orbit....

Given how often and uncannily we repeat the patterns of our parents, I should, perhaps, have been more prepared for John to leave his own marriage and five-year-old son. But I was too young, too inexperienced and too determinedly optimistic to take it seriously. I had thought our magical interlude with the Maharishi would be the making of our marriage  but in reality it just presaged the end." Cynthia Lennon - The Beatles, the Maharishi and me Last Performances 'Let It Be' "Jan. 30, 1969: The Beatles have their last performance as a group on the roof of the Apple building during the filming of 'Let It Be'." Imagine: The Fab Four live - 'Rain: The Beatles Experience' making three-day stop in Boston Eagle-Tribune, 27 January 2008 "On January 12 this year, his 91st birthday, he [Maharishi Mahesh Yogi] announced that his work in the world was over and he was going into silence. He didn't speak to a single soul after that day. And today, he has passed so elegantly. Maharishi began the spiritual renaissance.

He was one of the most significant figures of the century. Personally, I owe everything to him. Everything I have learnt, I have learnt from him. He has influenced some of the most important people of this century. The Maharishi had grandiose ideas  sometimes even impractical  but he was a great man. I remember taking George Harrison to meet him in 1993. George had gone to apologize for the bad behaviour of the Beatles back in 1969. Back then, the Beatles, especially John Lennon, had insinuated that the Maharishi was having an affair with Mia Farrow. When George apologised, the Maharishi said there was nothing to be sorry about. He said the Beatles were angels on Earth with their music and he could never be angry with them." Deepak Chopra Times of India, 7 February 2008 "Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr paid tribute to the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru who famously set the Beatles on the path to spiritual enlightenment. The Maharishi died at his home in the Netherlands on Tuesday. He was thought to be 91.

Sir Paul said: 'I was asked for my thoughts on the passing of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and I can only say that whilst I am deeply saddened by his passing, my memories of him will only be joyful ones.' He added: 'He was a great man who worked tirelessly for the people of the world and the cause of unity. I will never forget the dedication that he wrote inside a book he once gave me, which read 'radiate, bliss, consciousness', and that to me says it all. I will miss him but will always think of him with a smile.' Starr also released a statement paying his respects. He said: '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.' The Maharishi became famous in the 1960s through his relationship with the Beatles.

The group visited his ashram in India in 1968, where they studied his transcendental meditation techniques." Ex-Beatles pay tribute to Maharishi Metro, 8 February 2008 A transcript from the 'The Beatles Anthology,' about their time with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - Click Here "He (Ringo Star) also relaxes by using a skill he learned during his time as a Beatle: Transcendental Meditation, the mind-calming technique they were taught on their celebrated trip to India in 1968. Back then, Ringo seemed the least keen, returning to the UK after a fortnight, while his colleagues stay stretched into months; these days, however, he sounds newly enthusiastic. 'Even if Ive not meditated for months, I can do it,' he says. 'Its something I do a lot more now than I have been over the last 15 years. 'For me, meditation is a break from thinking. The benefits to me are quietening my mind and soul down. At the end of a day, I can end up just totally wacky, because Ive made mountains out of molehills.

With meditation, I can keep them as molehills. Interview with Ringo Star BBC Online, 15 November 2008 "The guru to the Beatles who introduced transcendental meditation to the West, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, died at his Dutch home overnight, aides said on Wednesday. He was said to be 91. The reclusive Indian mystic shot to international prominence when the Beatles -- John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr -- visited him in the foothills of the Himalayas in 1968 to learn his transcendental meditation techniques. Film footage of the four Beatles sitting cross-legged and dressed in white robes with garlands of flowers was beamed round the world. Beach Boy Mike Love, Donovan and U.S. actress Mia Farrow joined the sessions. 'His passing is profoundly sad. But I, for one, am among the millions who are grateful for what he shared with us,' said Love. 'We will miss you, but your great light will shine on.' After teaching other 1960s and 70s figures, the Maharishi with the flowing hair and white beard gained a worldwide following and more than 5 million people studied his methods.

He helped inspire the anti-materialism of the late 60s and the Beatles recorded 'The White Album' after their time with him in India, referring to their experiences in its songs. .... [he] periodically emerged to appeal for funds to promote world peace.... In 2002, he said he could combat world terrorism and war if he could raise $1 billion (500 million pounds) to train 40,000 expert meditators. The Maharishi set up universities and schools all over the world and his Natural Law Party.... Transcendental meditation, known as TM by its followers, involves reciting a mantra that practitioners say helps the mind stay calm even under pressure. It gradually gained medical respect over the decades as the Maharishi challenged Western scientists to investigate its health benefits . 'Maharishi brought the pure transcendental meditation back to the world, reuniting us with our own true self. As a poet I can find no words to describe how grateful I am to Maharishi for his gift,' said singer Donovan in a statement. Last month the Maharishi stepped down as head of his organisation and said he would be 'retiring into silence'.

" Beatles' Indian guru Maharishi Yogi dies Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's body arrives in Allahabad India 9 February after being flown from Holland , in readiness for last rights scheduled for Monday 11 February 10:00 am local time at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers. "The body of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, kept in a white coffin and surrounded by pundits chanting Vedic mantras, was on Saturday brought to the city that was once his home for last rites. The cremation would take place on Monday. The truck carrying the coffin entered the city followed by a carcade of over 50 vehicles from Varanasi.... Hollywood celebrity David Lynch and stress management guru Deepak Chopra are also scheduled to arrive in the city." Mahesh Yogi's mortal remains reach Allahabad Times of India, 10 February 2008 "Even though I last sat with Maharishi more than 10 years ago, he left an indelible impression, as he did on everyone. His extraordinary qualities are known to the world. Without him, it's fair to say, the West would not have learned to meditate.

During the Cold War era a reporter once challenged him by saying, 'If anything is possible, as you claim, can you go to the Soviet Union tomorrow with your message?' Without hesitation, Maharishi calmly replied, 'I could if I wanted to.' Eventually he did want to, and meditation arrived in Moscow several years before the Berlin Wall fell. In his belief that world peace depended entirely on rising consciousness, Maharishi was unshakable.... He was venerated by the venerable and considered holy by the holy. His capacity to explain Vedanta was unrivaled, and if he accomplished nothing else in his long life, his commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita insures his lasting name, because with acute analysis he cuts through to the heart of every verse.... Around 1990 I was commissioned to write a book about him; it turned out to be the only assignment I could never complete. Even after spending hundreds of days in his presence, one could not capture him, either on paper or in one's mind. The Gita is right to say that there are no visible signs of enlightenment, but I would go further. The enlightened person ceases to be a person and attains a connection to pure consciousness that erases all boundaries.

My deepest gratitude goes to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for showing me that this state of unity exists outside folk tales, temples, organized religion, and scripture itself. To live and breathe in unity consciousness is unfathomable, but in at least one case, I am sure it is real." Deepak Chopra The Transcendental Meditation Program Web Site (USA) "After more than 50 years of leading his Transcendental Meditation movement, the one-time Indian guru to the Beatles has retreated into near-silence and turned over daily management of his global network to aides. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is thought to be 91 and is losing the strength to keep up with his strenuous workload, which often involved hours of conversations with Transcendental Meditation outposts around the world. '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,' American physicist John Hagelin, an adviser to the Maharishi, said in a telephone interview from the movement's Dutch headquarters. 'He was working ... 20 hours a day for years,' Hagelin said.

At a meeting in the Netherlands early this month, the Maharishi told senior aides of his plan to absorb himself only in the ancient Indian texts that underpin his movement." Maharishi Retreats Into Meditation Associated Press, 29 January 2008 "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died Tuesday at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was thought to be 91 years old. 'He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.,' said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement that the Maharishi founded. He said his death appeared to be due to 'natural causes, his age.' ....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. Maharishi's roster of famous meditators ran from The Rolling Stones to Clint Eastwood and new age preacher Deepak Chopra.....[Donations and] 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 1971, 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. Supporters pointed to hundreds of scientific studies showing that meditation reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves concentration and raises results for students and businessmen.... In 1990 he moved onto the wooded grounds of a historic Franciscan monastery in the southern Dutch village of Vlodrop, about 125 miles southeast of Amsterdam.... 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.'' Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Dies Associated Press, 5 February 2008 "Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has described Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as a 'great saint' whose contribution to the world would be remembered forever. 'Maharishi was a great saint. He was highly skilled in managing world affairs and at equally dispassionate at the same time,' Ravi Shankar said, recalling the time he spent with Maharishi in his early days. 'Maharshi laid the foundation for a new world based on the knowledge of Vedas and spirituality. There was none like him and none shall ever be again. He remains unparalleled,' Ravi Shankar added. Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru most responsible for making meditation a household word and whom the Beatles once sought, died on Tuesday at his organisation's headquarters at Vlodrop in the Netherlands.

He was 91." Maharishi was a great saint: Ravi Shankar IANS, 8 February 2008 "The body of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who popularised meditation across the world, will be flown in here from the Netherlands Saturday for his cremation. An entourage of over 500 of his disciples is slated to accompany the guru's body to attend his last rites in this city on the bank of the Ganga Monday. The Indian guru, who took yoga and transcendental meditation to the world outside India, died of natural causes Tuesday at his Dutch retreat of Vlodrop. He was thought to be 91. 'Since Allahabad airport does not have customs facility, the plane would first land at the international air terminal in Varanasi and then arrive here at about 9.30 a.m.,' a spokesman of the Maharishi Ved Vidyapeeth here told IANS. The Vidyapeeth was set up by the Maharishi as a part of his mission to promote Vedic teachings.

Spread across a huge campus on the outer banks of the Ganga, the Vidyapeeth has over 2,500 students pursuing a 'gurukul' type of education. The boarding and lodging on the campus is absolutely free. The Maharishi had studied at the K.P. Intermediate College here and later completed his Masters in Physics from the Allahabad University. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Ashok Singhal and retired High Court Justice Shambhu Nath Srivastava have urged President Pratibha Patil to accord state honours to the Maharishi. 'I have requested the president to accord a state funeral to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and I am hopeful that she would concede this request,' Singhal told reporters. 'Thousands of sadhus from different parts of the country will be converging in Allahabad to participate in the Maharishi's funeral,' he said.

Justice (retd) Srivatsava said: 'The Maharishi's body would be taken through the city streets in a procession and kept initially at the ashram of swami Vasudevanand in Alopi Bagh area on Saturday to enable people to pay their homage.' He added: 'The body will be shifted to the Vidyapeeth in the evening and would be thrown open to public again on Sunday.'" Mahesh Yogi's Body To Reach Allahabad For Cremation News Post India, 8 February 2008 "The dead body of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who passed away in Holland two days ago, was flow in to Varanasi today form where it is being taken to Allahabad for the last rites. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has demanded that state honours be accorded to the Spiritual leader. The Maharishi's body would arrive in Allahabad today by a special flight from Amsterdam via Varanasi, Mayor Chaudhary Jitendranath Singh informed. Singh has also formed a citizens' committee, comprising religious leaders, jurists and other renowned figures to oversee the arrangements for the last rites.

The body of the Maharishi will be taken in a grand procession to his ashram at Arail where it will be kept for 'darshan' until February 11 when his mortal remains will be consigned to flames, he said." Maharishi Yogi's body brought to India Obituary: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi | World news | The Guardian Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Share on Messenger Close Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, often known simply as "Maharishi" or "The Maharishi," achieved world renown as the Indian guru who inspired the Beatles and was said to have persuaded them to give up drugs. He has died has died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, and is believed to have been around 90. In the summer of 1967, the year of Flower Power and Sergeant Pepper, he made headlines when the four Beatles, with their wives and girlfriends, as well as Mick Jagger, Jane Asher and Marianne Faithful, followed the whiskered Swami from London to Bangor in Wales to sit very publicly at his feet imbibing his message of universal love and peace.

The Beatles announced that they had decided to abandon LSD: "We think we're finding new ways of getting there." Though disillusionment soon set in for everyone except George Harrison - John Lennon's song Sexy Sadie ("You made a fool of everyone") is said to refer to Maharishi - the guru's reputation continued to thrive. A gifted publicist, as well as a charismatic religious teacher of a more traditional kind, he carefully directed his teachings to suit changing fashions in the West. As the era of flower power and psychotropic revelation faded into the hard-nosed commercialism of the Reagan-Thatcher years, Maharishi's message became more focused. While he never abandoned his claim to be transforming humanity's consciousness in the direction of universal harmony and peace (he was happy to claim credit for ending the cold war), he built a highly successful empire out of selling the spiritual techniques practised by yogis and brahmins for millennia to companies as aids to stress management. With executives who learned to meditate, improving their performance and productivity, large corporations such as IBM and Toyota had no more qualms about sending staff on transcental meditation courses than they had about the development of other personal skills.

Known from his early days in India as the "giggling guru" because of his sparkling eyes and bubbling witticisms, Mahesh succeeded in making TM his personal trademark, netting for his organisation assets that came to be measured in billions. As is often the case with those who have entered the religious life in India, details about Maharishi's early life are sketchy. Various dates have been given for his birth (1911, 1917 and 1918), in the central Indian city of Jabalpur, in Madhya Pradesh, though the celebration of his 80th birthday in 1998 made 1918 official for his followers. He was born Mahesh Prasad Varma. His father was a member of the kshatriya, or warrior caste, and worked as a mid-level official in the department of forestry. After completing his secondary education, Maharishi attended Allahabad University, where he read mathematics and physics. It was here that he began to practise yoga with Swami Brahmananda Saraswati Maharaj (known by his more familiar name of Shri Guru Deva).

In April1941, while Maharishi was still at university, Guru Deva became the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, one of the four main leaders of the Hindu community. Maharishi wanted to abandon his studies to become the new Shankaracharya's disciple, but Guru Deva demanded that he graduate first. After leaving university, Maharishi spent more than a decade with Guru Deva at his retreat at Uttar Kashi in the Himalayas. A follower of Sankara, India's most famous religious teacher, Guru Deva belonged to the Advaita Vedanta tradition of philosophy which teaches that spiritual ignorance or illusion is caused by the superimposition of a false self onto the true self, considered to be ontologically identical with the absolute (brahman). Liberation (moksa) achieved through meditation enables one to distinguish between pure being and worldly phenomena. While true liberation may only be achieved by adepts who follow their masters in a rigorous programme of ascetic disciplines and spiritual techniques, Maharishi realised that some of these techniques could be used to beneficial effect outside the confines of the Advaita Vedanta tradition.

Two years after the death of Guru Deva in 1955, he travelled south to Kerala, where he began to broadcast his message. On January 1 1958, at a conference in Madras, he announced the formation of a world-wide Spiritual Regeneration Movement aimed at the spiritual revival of humanity by spreading the teachings of Transcendental Meditation. Shortly afterwards, Maharishi left India for a round-the-world tour that took him to Burma, Malaya, Hong Kong and Honolulu. He spent most of 1959 in the US, where he worked on a three-year plan to introduce Transcendental Meditation to all the countries of the world. Further world tours followed in 1961 and 1962. In 1963, he finished his first major book, the Science of Being and Art of Living. He completed his English translation and commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita in 1965.

Although Maharishi's grandiose claims to be saving the world through Transcendental Meditation and other spiritual techniques such as levitation or "flying" attracted ridicule as well as curiosity, he was shrewdly aware that publicity, however negative, could be used to gain converts and to broaden his base of recruitment. While several scientific papers have been published demonstrating that meditation can relieve stress, and hence improve the quality of an individual's life, his claims that collective meditation by followers or sidhas can create a "spiritual force field" capable of bringing about such effects as a reduction in crime or a rise in the stock market have been treated much more sceptically. In 1972, he announced his world plan for reorganising society in such a way as to solve the basic problems of humankind. An umbrella organisation, the World Plan Executive Council, was formed to co-ordinate the various activities of his increasingly complex empire. One of the organisations spawned by his teachings, the Natural Law Party, regularly contests elections in several countries, including Britain.

In 1971, he opened the Maharishi International University in Los Angeles; it moved to Fairfield, Iowa, in 1974, where there are now some 300 businesses owned by his disciples, bringing new activity to an economically depressed region. His first European "university" opened in Switzerland in 1975. While rooted in the discourse of Sankara and his disciples, Maharishi took issue with interpretations of Hinduism that stress renunciation and asceticism over the call to this-worldly action. Far from leading to worldly renunciation, the call to Transcendental Meditation he saw was central to the message of the Bhavagad-Gita represented a "dynamic philosophy" intended to "inspire a disheartened man and strengthen a normal mind ...

he who practises Transcendental Meditation and becomes acquainted with the inner divine consciousness truly enjoys the greatest fruits of action in the world." · Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, born around 1918; died February 5 2008 Deepak Chopra remembers Maharishi Mahesh Yogi | Music | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close Maharishi Mahesh Yogi started out as one kind of cultural curiosity - a lone Hindu monk who aimed to teach meditation to the world - and ended up as a different kind of cultural curiosity: the one-time guru to the Beatles. He came remarkably close to fulfilling his original intent. Millions of westerners learned Transcendental Meditation (TM), and a new word, 'mantra', was added to the English language. He survived long after the departure of the Fab Four, who decamped almost as soon as they sniffed the thin air of Maharishi's Himalayan retreat (excluding George Harrison, who turned into a genuine seeker and quiet ally). Maharishi owed his survival to two things.

He was sincerely a guru, a 'dispeller of darkness', who had the good of the world at heart, despite the wags who turned TM into the McDonald's of meditation and the caricatures that morphed his white-bearded image into a pop cliché. Sincerity would have served him little if Maharishi hadn't also been a gifted teacher of India's ancient tradition of Vedanta. Many visitors who came to gawk went away moved by both qualities. Beginning in the mid-Eighties, I had the opportunity to know Maharishi as a friend. Whenever my medical practice permitted, I joined his inner circle. It wasn't necessary to be reverent in his presence. He made a point of not being seen as a religious figure but as a teacher of consciousness. Of the many memories I could offer, here is the most intense ... Maharishi had fallen mysteriously and gravely ill on a visit to India in 1991. My father, a prominent cardiologist in New Delhi, ordered him to be rushed to England for emergency care. Soon, I was standing outside the London Heart Hospital, watching an ambulance navigate the snarled traffic, sirens wailing.

Just before it arrived on the hospital's doorstep, one of the accompanying doctors ran up with the news that Maharishi had suddenly died. I rushed to the ambulance, picking up Maharishi's body - he was frail and light by this time - and carrying him in my arms through London traffic. I laid him on the floor inside the hospital's doors and called for a cardio assist. Within minutes he was revived and rushed to intensive care on a respirator and fitted with a pacemaker that took over his heartbeat. I became his primary caretaker during this crisis, tending to him personally at a private home outside London. It quickly became apparent that he was totally indifferent to his illness, and there was an astonishingly rapid recovery. The hospital expected lasting health problems, but there were apparently none. Within a few months Maharishi was back to his round-the-clock schedule - he rarely slept more than three or four hours a night. When I approached him one day to remind him to take his medications, he gave me a penetrating look. In it I read a message: 'Do you really think I am this body?' For me, that was a startling moment, a clue about what higher consciousness may actually be like.

As he saw himself, Maharishi knew that he had come tantalisingly close to changing the world, as close as any non-politician can who doesn't wage war. He held that humanity could be saved from destruction only by raising collective consciousness. In that sense he was the first person to talk about tipping points and critical mass. If enough people meditated and turned into peaceful citizens of the world, Maharishi believed, walls of ignorance and hatred would fall as decisively as the Berlin Wall. This was his core teaching in the post-Beatles phase of his long career before he died peacefully in seclusion in Holland, at the age of about 91, his following much shrunken, his optimism still intact. The Beatles' guru dies - NME NME 12:58 am - Feb 6, 2008 0shares 0shares Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was 91 The Beatles ‘ famed guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, died today (February 5). He was thought to be 91. The Maharishi, who was born Mahesh Prasad Varma in India, died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, apparently of natural causes.

“He died peacefully at about 7pm,” a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement told the Associated Press. Maharishi is best known for teaching The Beatles transcendental meditation, and introducing the practice to the west. It was originally viewed with scepticism but eventually gained worldwide acceptance. The Beatles helped further his teachings by touting the benefits of meditation after visiting his ashram in India in 1968, but they had a notorious falling-out with him after they were reportedly discovered doing drugs at his retreat. There were also rumours that the guru had made sexual advances to one of the band’s party. It’s often been reported that ‘Sexy Sadie’, the track written by John Lennon which appears on the band’s 1968 album ‘The Beatles’ (aka ‘The White Album’), is about the alleged incident. Maharishi also counted The Beach Boys ‘ Mike Love and actor Clint Eastwood among his pupils. After more than 50 years of teaching mediation and working toward world peace through mediation, Maharishi reportedly announced his retirement last month, saying, “My work is done.” –By our Los Angeles staff.

Question: Which Eastern guru to the Beatles died on 5 February 2008?
Answer: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi