Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (born January 12, 1917) is the founder of the Transcendental Meditation or TM Movement.
Maharishi is believed to have been born in the village of Chichli, near Gadawara, Jabalpur, India and graduated from Allahabad University with a degree in physics. He was secretary for thirteen years with Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath. In 1955, after spending two years in silence in Uttar Kashi, in the Himalayan foothills, he began teaching a basic meditation technique which he later dubbed "Transcendental Meditation". In 1957 he founded The Spiritual Regeneration Movement, the first of several organizations collectively known as the TM Movement, and began the first of many tours to teach the Transcendental Meditation technique around the world.
The Beatles were among his students. After some allegations of sexual abuse against the Maharishi, the Beatles left him, voicing their disappointment in some songs ("Sexy Sadie"). These allegations turned out to be unfounded [1] (http://www.itebooks.net/Book/author-book-expectation-first-humor-sales/), and single Beatle members, like George and Paul (Larry King Show,) have shown support to Maharishi in later years.
The Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation has been taught worldwide to over 5 million people. Over 600 research studies have been made at universities in over 30 countries. They claim that TM has positive health effects and leads to increasing harmony, increased creativity and better health. The value of TM is becoming increasingly recognized worldwide. For example, the National Institute of Health of USA has sponsored research on the effects of TM on stress with over 20 million USD (NIH only sponsors methods whose effects are confirmed by high quality research).
Maharishi has also developed programs, based on TM and the advanced TM-Sidhi program, with the purpose of promoting world peace. Over 50 research studies have confirmed that these programs are capable of reducing crime, violence, terrorism and war activities and promote peaceful and constructive tendencies, see http://www.permanentpeace.org/. Some of these studies have demonstrated global effects on war and terrorism. The studies indicate that the effect is immediate. Maharishi's main focus is presently (2005) to use these programs to create permanent world peace.
Maharishi has written a number of books on Vedic wisdom and the Vedas as the science of consciousness. He uses modern technology to spread his teachings—he has created the Maharishi Open University as an online teaching outlet, holds a weekly video press conference, and uses satellite and the Internet for his Maharishi Broadcasting. He has also started numerous centers of Consciousness Based Education including the Maharishi University of Management and the Maharishi School for the Age of Enlightenment.
Maharishi has also initiated a new type of currency, the RAAM. It it is part of a global project whose purpose is the eradication of poverty in the third world.
External links
About Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
- Page on Maharishi at popular TM portal (http://www.alltm.org/Maharishi.html)
- Larry King interview with Maharishi (http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0205/12/lklw.00.html) on 5/12/02
- The Beatles' experiences with Maharishi (http://classicrock.about.com/cs/maharishi/)
- The Maharishi: The Biography of the Man Who Gave Transcendental Meditation to the World (http://www.paulmason.info/)
Centers of Consciousness Based Education
- Maharishi University of Management (http://www.mum.edu/)
- Maharishi School for the Age of Enlightenment (http://www.msae.edu/)de:Maharishi Mahesh Yogi