"Heaven on Earth." Any second now.

To follow up on last week's News Brief article on the birthday celebrations for King Tony, er, (deep breath) "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam," the leader of the organization that teaches Transcendental Meditation, here is the first of two video excerpts that serve to illustrate the kinds of things that are said during these events, which are generally not all that accessible to the general public.

These comments were culled from a few hours' worth of video on the Maharishi Channel, and come after a lengthy period of Vedic performances and recitations, and a fair amount of rather incomprehensible speech-making by the leaders of the "Global Country of World Peace," as the leaders of the organization call it.

Here we have John Hagelin, in the full "raja" crown and costume, taking his turn of bestowing accolades on King Tony, as I call him. Perhaps some are used to seeing Hagelin in a suit selling TM in a Western setting, as he was during last month's New York "press conference" and gala with the David Lynch Foundation. This is not that. It's more a throwback to some bizarre royal court.

I've previously written about how the TM movement, internally, takes the form of a millenarian cult, that is, its existence is centered on some future drastic transformation of the world brought about by the group's anticipated actions or even its very existence. Here, Hagelin makes that kind of expectation among his peers very explicit. He also alludes to the leader's alleged immortality, a claim that's occasionally been made as a benefit of some of the TM movement's programs throughout the latter part of its history.

Transcript of Hagelin's remarks. Note that these are three short excerpts edited together in this video.

All of us and the whole global family are filled with feelings of loving wishes for Maharaja's absolute fulfillment on every level, and long life in immortality, and absolutely glorious achievements leading to the transformation of life on Earth.

...the first sovereign ruler of the Global Country of World Peace that administers the world, ultimately responsible for the purity and perpetuation of Maharishi's knowledge, and through that knowledge, the transformation and destiny of the whole human race.

...Maharishi chose Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam as the natural representative and natural leader of this precious movement which will in short order transform the world and realize the fulfillment of Maharishi's legacy.