Friday, December 11, 2009

If Transcendental Meditation's Founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Came Back for One Day

I have a fantasy. What if Maharishi came back from the dead for 24 hours? And what if, for those 24 hours, you could ask him anything you wanted? And best of all - for those 24 hours, he would answer every question with absolute honestly? What would you ask him?

Do you have a burning question about TM, the TM organization, or Maharishi that you have been wondering about for years, or decades? I invite readers to pose their questions for Maharishi here. Unfortunately, since Maharishi is dead, he will not be answering us. But together, the readers on this blog have acquired great wisdom and insight, so maybe we can make some headway in uncovering some answers. Therefore I invite readers to this blog to pose questions, and then I invite other commenters to read the questions, and if you have an insight that might answer the question, to write your answer here. I'm not asking for the "perfect" answer, just your best guess. Remember, the guiding principle for your best-guess answer is: "If Maharishi were to tell the truth, what would he say?"

To start the ball rolling, I will ask a few questions of my own.

1: Were you really a monk/disciple/yoga student under Guru Dev, or were you just his secretary?

2. If you were his disciple, were you really his favorite?

3. Did Guru Dev really teach you the TM technique, and instruct you to teach it around the world? Or did you invent TM yourself? Or how did you come up with TM?

4. What was your real goal in teaching TM? Was it your first stated goal, the "spiritual regeneration" of humans? Or was it the goal you ended up with, to build a large empire of "Vedic" communities? Or was it to make a lot of money? Or all of the above?

5. You describe cosmic consciousness, God consciousness, unity consciousness, angels, gods, the universe, etc. with such assuredness, as if you have actually experienced these things first hand and are living in higher states. Is that true? It has also been said that you performed "miracles." Is that true? If all this is true, does it mean you are in constant touch with God, or that you are "enlightened," or that everything you do is life-supporting? What does it mean for us as your students? Does it mean we should obey you totally? Does it excuse you from having the same ethical principals as the rest of us try to live by? Why or why not?

6. Why did you perpetuate so many lies? Was it because you had contempt for the average person? Was it because you wanted wealth and power? Was it because you thought the spiritual ends justified the means? Or what?

7. Do you really believe that TM can lead a person to enlightenment? Or that TM plus the Sidhis, or plus Ayurveda, or plus Maharishi architecture (etc.) can lead a person to enlightenment? Do you really believe that "enlightenment" exists?

8. I don't understand where all the money comes from, or where it all goes. I mean, I know it comes from initiations, from ayurvedic treatments, from the spas, from the architecture, from big donations from rich people, from tuition to schools in the U.S. and in India, from factories, etc. And I know it goes to buy land, hotels, schools, pundit communities, and to start big projects that then don't get finished, etc. But then the schools charge admission, the hotels charge rentals, the communities cost money to build, the factories produce consumer products. So where does the money from that go? To more, bigger, better? And where does THAT money come from/go to? I hear the money is going to your extended family, but what are they doing with it? Are they just building more and more money-making ventures, like more factories, or living in palaces, or bribing the Indian government, or what? And what sort of things are they bribing for?

Well, there's my list. Readers, now it's your turn. Any questions you have always wanted to ask Maharishi, and get honest answers to? Any questions you might know the answers to?

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