WANTED

Dear Readers

I learned TM in 1968. At that time, there was a lot of talk about Mahesh going back to India and retiring into silence. There had been a newspaper article in which he declared his mission to have been a failure and because of this, he would finish his present world tour and then return to India to retire into silence in the Himalayas. And then! — he encountered the Beatles and that was the end of his retirement plans. Suddenly he had hit the Jackpot of all jackpots! And, of course, the rest is history.

Does anyone have a copy of the newspaper story in which he admitted failure and said he was calling it quits? Does anyone have any idea or memory of when this article appeared or in which newspaper or magazine?

A little historical reminiscence: on my TTC Mahesh lamented that, in what we would now consider “the old days”, he would teach a lot of people, get a centre set up and the next year there would be no one meditating there. It is obvious from this remark that he understood very clearly that TM was not what he claimed and certainly did not do what he claimed. Soon, he was advertising CC in 3 to 5 years! And, as the saying goes: so it begins! But it was association with the Beatles that made him into what he became and made TM and eventually “meditation” a trendy concept.

Many people, meditators, teachers and “sidhas” came to recognize that TM simply does not perform according to Mahesh’s prescription. Mahesh, very early in his teaching career, had to have recognized that TM simply could not  live up to his hype. But Mahesh was one clever dude (!) and could have sold blankets at the equator or air conditioners to the Innuit! Mahesh was a brilliant salesman (salesyogi ?). So it must have taken a lot of reality, a lot of bitter disappointment for him to have admitted failure in the 60’s.

I think it would be beneficial for so many of us to have access to that newspaper (magazine?) article. Being able to read Mahesh’s own admission of failure would certainly put out so many of the fires of doubt and guilt for those of us who gave so much and accomplished so little in our efforts to bring Mahesh’s narcissistically Promethean imagination to fruition.

If you have the article, would it be possible for you to scan it and e-mail it to Mike or Gina or Laurie or me? You will find our contact information in the right hand column. We will get the required permissions from the publisher to re-print it on the Blog. Or, if you have the article, would you please e-mail the date and source to one of us so that we can share this with everyone on the Blog?

Thanks.

S