Maharishi's Teachings on Sex and Gender Roles

When I learned TM in 1971, I was taught that TM did not require a change in lifestyle. Back then, Maharishi used to say that when a person started doing TM, their behavior automatically became better and better, therefore it was unnecessary for him to impose any rules of behavior on anyone. When I practiced TM only 20 minutes twice a day, what we were told was accurate - TM indeed did not require a change in belief or lifestyle.

But I discovered that when a person got more deeply involved in the TM organization, there were plenty of rules that Maharishi instituted. There were rules about sex and gender roles, and as the years went by, his rules became more and more anti-sex and anti-female.

So, I invite you to take a second trip with me down memory lane. (My first trip down memory lane was my essay "Acting Funny Around Money", published in TMFree on March 21, 2009.) This time, I'm recalling Maharishi's rules around sex and gender roles from 1971 to 1981 (the years I was in the TM movement), as well as how these rules played out in the lives and beliefs of his followers.

I'm writing this all from memory, so I'm sure some dates and incidents will be inaccurate. If you want, please correct my mistakes in the "Comments" section below. Also, if you'd like, share some of your own memories of sex and gender roles in Maharishi's universe, and how it affected the people who followed him. Or if you were involved in the TM organization after 1981, share with us what the new rules were. Some of your memories may be very personal, so be sure to only reveal as much as you're comfortable revealing. Or use a pseudonym - and if you do so, double check to make sure the "Comments" page is not pulling up and publishing your real name along with your anonymous name.

So here are my memories on Maharishi's changing rules on sex and gender roles.

1955 Publication of "Beacon Light of the Himalayas" by our Maharishi. Regarding Guru Dev, Maharishi wrote that Guru Dev sought as his guru someone of the highest calibre - therefore, naturally they would be a lifelong celibate.

1968? Rumor that Maharishi made sexual advances to Mia Farrow in his ashram in India.

1970? At the TM Teacher Training Course in California, USA, there was co-ed skinny dipping. (So I heard.)

1971 I was instructed in TM. "Requires no change in lifestyle. Person spontaneously acts better, more in accord with the laws of nature." (Paraphrased.)

1972 Humboldt State College, Arcata, California, USA, one month summer course. Maharishi asked the attendees if we could manage to refrain from having sex for just one month, during the course? [This was during the height of the "sexual revolution."] (Some of us didn't refrain, even so.)

1972 Humboldt. Questioner: "Maharishi, what is the purpose of sex?" Maharishi (looking uncomfortable): "Ask your doctor."

1972 Humboldt. Questioner: "Maharishi, what is the value of celibacy?" Maharishi: "Keeps the body a little cleaner, a little fresher."

1972 Humboldt. Questioner: "Jerry, [Jerry Jarvis, U.S. national director of Students International Meditation Society) does Maharishi have, like, a girlfriend or something?" Jerry: "Maharishi is a monk. He likes everybody."

1974? TM Teacher Training Course, January-May, 1974, La Antilla, Spain. Maharishi: "I'm almost scared to say it, but what this movement needs is a few good celibates."

1974 La Antilla. Questioner: "Max, [Max Fleischer (sp.?), director of the Teacher Training Course], if we find our sexual desires are overwhelming while we're on TTC, is it okay to act on them?" Max: "If you find that they're getting in the way of your being one-pointedly on the program, then take care of it, so that you can get back to your studies." (Note: And alternately, some people found that while they were rounding they had virtually no sexual urges.)

1974 La Antilla. Questioner: "Jerry [Jarvis] [or perhaps it was Max], is homosexuality bad for ones evolution?" Answer: You know, this is such a big, unknowable universe. Who's to say what is good or evil in the mind of the supreme Creative Intelligence as far as this little corner of the universe? [paraphrased.] Maharishi has said, 'It's interesting, but many people with this orientation - although Maharishi didn't use the word 'orientation' - have been very helpful to the movement.' "

1974 La Antilla. Maharishi: "I'm a monk. Seeing all these ladies in miniskirts embarrasses me...But I know they're the style, so it's okay to wear them back home." [paraphrased].

1974 La Antilla. Rumors that on a previous TTC, some single women got pregnant, and asked Maharishi if abortion was bad for their "evolution." Rumor had it that he replied that the soul doesn't enter the fetus until the third month, so before that, it's okay to have an abortion.

1974 La Antilla. We are told that women have "more delicate nervous systems" than men - that they take on stress more easily and they throw it off more easily.

1974 La Antilla. TTC Teacher: "At the initiation ceremony, female teachers should make sure they wear blouses that cover their shoulders."

1974? "M" group started. (Male celibates.)

1974 A TM teacher shares with me the rumor that Maharishi made sexual advances to female TM teachers, and that those teachers have since stopped teaching TM and stopped doing TM. She and I don't believe the rumor. "Maharishi? That's impossible. Probably he is just so full of cosmic love, and they misinterpreted it." We can understand if someone gives up teaching TM, but we are horrified that they would stop meditating.

1975 Academy for the Science of Creative Intelligence, Livingston Manor, New York, USA. Director of Housing: "We don't have enough bedrooms for all the staff. Perhaps if you're engaged, you and your girlfriend could double up."

1975: Livingston Manor. Director: "There are two types of life: single life and married life. When you live here, please think of yourself as being a guest in Maharishi's home, and don't do anything that would offend him." [i.e. Celibacy is the only approved behavior for non-married people.]

1975? Teacher Training Courses and Advanced Training Courses for TM teachers start being sex-segregated. Courses become "Men's courses, "Ladies' courses" and "Couples' courses." Women are officially referred to as "Ladies" i.e. "Ladies' courses," "Ladies' dining hall," "ladies' dorms," etc.

1975: Questioner: "Charlie, [Lutes, the elder statesman of the spiritual branch of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, Maharishi's first Western organization] is it wrong to have sex if you're not married?" Charlie: "What, do we have some guilty consciences here? It should be done in love and kindness and respect. 'Everything in moderation,' isn't that what the Greek philosophers taught? Don't strain. If you really want to do it, don't force yourself not to. If you don't want to do it, don't force yourself to. No, I don't believe you need to perform a specific ceremony first (wedding) in order to make it morally okay to engage in this experience." [paraphrase]

1976 Livingston Manor, New York, USA. Rumors that our boss was a "bramichariya," a celibate for Maharishi. Rumors that someone found him in bed with a woman.

1976 Livingston Manor. Maharishi visits the video studio here. One of the camera people is a woman. Maharishi is shocked and asks, "You allow a lady to handle the cameras?" She is taken off cameras and put in charge of make-up.

1976 Livingston Manor. Told to me by a TM teacher: "Maharishi says that if you have sex and you're not married, it's absolutely the worst thing you can do for your evolution. When you have sex, you exchange karma with that person." Me: "What if you've already blown it?" He: "Ur, then stop immediately!"

1976 A woman on staff at South Fallsburg, New York, USA, confides to me that when there is a men-only one-and-a-half month ATR at South Fallsburg, the men ogle the female staff so mercilessly that the female staff have taken to wearing baggy sweaters in public.

1976 First rumor heard of "celibate marriages." Apparently encouraged by Maharishi for faster spiritual growth.

1977? TM-Sidhis "flying" halls are made sex-segregated.

1977? Staff woman expelled from Livingston Manor for having a man sleep over in her cabin. Rumor is that a man was not expelled for having woman visitor sleep over.

1977 TM teacher tells me, "Don't tell the TM Center that my fiance slept over my house, or they'll kick me out and blacklist me!"

1977? Women who have been instructed in the TM-Sidhas are told to "rest" (stay at home in bed) for the first three days of their menstrual period.

1978? Livingston Manor. All women and all gay men are told to leave, turning this into a celibate male facility.

1978? Sex-segregated groups sent to "trouble spots" around the world to levitate for peace.

1978? Female groups are not sent to trouble spots that are most rustic or dangerous.

1978? Female higher-ups start wearing saris. But not in the traditional Indian manner, where upper chest, arms, and midriff are visible. TM women cover all these areas with their saris.

1979 On TM-Sidhis course, women are encouraged to wear high necks, long sleeves and over-the-knee dresses when Maharishi is around, and even when he isn't.

1979 Creating Coherence Course, MIU, Fairfield, Iowa, USA. Men and women have separate dorms, separate "flying halls," separate sitting areas in meetings, separate dining halls, separate work crews.

1979 Creating Coherence Course. Staff are divided into "men's work crews" and "ladies' work crews." Men can choose from construction, painting, office work, grounds, electrical work, etc.; and women can work in the office. My request for a physically active job is met with astonishment by the man in charge. He thought women are more "delicate" than men and would prefer an indoor, sitting job where they can wear pretty clothes and not sweat. I explain that when I am physically active, I "experience bliss." Dumbfounded, he agrees to start a "ladies' painting crew," which I become a member of.

1979 MIU. During "Forest Academy" (rounding semester), students are encouraged to keep their "metabolisms low" by no kissing, etc .

1979 Creating Coherence Course. Married course participants are instructed to have no public displays of affection. This even extends to no public hand-holding.

1979 Creating Coherence Course. Married couples are instructed to always be together, to do everything together, to sit together at meals, to always walk next to each other, etc.

1979 Creating Coherence Course. Married couples count as one person: on CCC issues, the Director of the Men's Course gets one vote, the Director of the Ladies' Course gets one vote, the husband and wife Co-Directors of the Couples' Course, Maharishi explains, "are of course one person," and get one vote.

1980? Creating Coherence Course. I tell a woman friend that I would love to be on the construction crew and learn how to build houses. She says, "Oh, no, you don't want to be under a house in the mud. I can see you in a beautiful dress with a flower in your hair."

1980? Formation of "Purusha" one-year (?) courses for celibate men and "Mother Divine" one-year (?) courses for celibate women.

1980 Less and less women are appearing in high-ranking positions in the TM organization.

1980 Maharishi tells us that although the TM-Sidhis program will give us immortality, only people who have been life-long celibates can be immortal. He tells us that those sidhas who have ever had sex will not be immortal, but we will live a long time.

1980? CCC. Some higher-up tells the men, "Decide if you are going to be celibate or not. Either make a decision to live that way or to not live that way, but then stick with it. Don't just go back and forth on it."

1980 Someone asked Maharishi what to do if they weren't getting along with their spouse. Maharishi replied, "Do you sleep in the same room?" (Unclear what this meant. Perhaps he meant if they had sex they would get along better?)

1980? CCC. Freezing cold winters in Iowa. I wear woolen pants, and flannel long johns over them. Our supervisors at work are male bramichariyas. Word comes down, "Please don't wear your long johns in public. We have celibates working here; it makes them uncomfortable."

1980 CCC. Money before everything. Women are told that if they work for Sidha Corp. International, they can only take off two, not three, paid days of "resting" during their menstrual period.

1980 CCC. The TM-Sidhis seem to have various effects on peoples' sexual responses. For instance, as soon as I learn to "fly," I cease having interest in men or in sex. I find, at age 28, I have sexual urges only once a month. I assume I am in touch with my natural cycles, and feel very proud of my spiritual evolution. I also have heard about one married woman, after she learned the TM-Sidhis, still enjoyed cuddling, but she recoiled from having sexual relations with her husband. Then, there is the 27-year old female friend of mine who confides to me that following the meditation/"flying" program, she sometimes finds herself so sexually aroused that she actually has to masturbate in the "flying" hall. Another single woman friend of mine on CCC became pregnant. (This must have taken a great deal of initiative, since the courses were sex-segregated.) (She went on to have an abortion.)

1981 MIU. Discussion amongst women about a women's rights club on campus. One woman says, condescendingly, "Those woman who talk about 'women's liberation'; well, we know what women's liberation is really about." We all nod smugly in agreement.

1981 Evolving men's consciousness in the Age of Enlightenment: I am chatting with a male course participant
who is on the construction crew. I say that I would love to learn construction. He says, "I don't think it's right for women to do construction, because then they get more muscled, and they're no longer so attractive to men." I've always regretted that I didn't ask him what he thought about the value of high income, aerobic exercise, fresh air, weight-bearing exercise, useful skills, etc. for women.

That's the end of my reminiscences. Now it's your turn!

Book Review. The Maharishi: The Biography of the Man Who Brought Transcendental Meditation to the World by Paul Mason

(Oops! I accidentally deleted this post today. So here it is again. Originally posted 10/11/2008.)

Over the years, many commentors and contributors to TM-Free Blog have recommended books that they have found relevant. I have recently read a few of those books, and thought you all might enjoy some book reviews.

The Maharishi: The Biography of the Man Who Brought Transcendental Meditation to the World, a 300-page book written by Paul Mason and published by Element Books Ltd. in 1994, provides an overview of Maharishi's life from the mid-1950's to about 1993. When I read this book, I was reminded of the saying, "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, the chances are good that it is a duck." Maharishi comes across as a simple, straightforward, not-too-deeply thinking salesperson intent on selling his product.

The book is rather moderate in tone, with a slightly jaundiced undertone, neither adoring or damning of Maharishi. The author matter-of-factly quotes Maharishi's many contradictory statements, leaving the readers to draw their own conclusions.

Of the many points Paul Mason covered, I found three to be of particular interest. The first
was Maharishi's "utter...isolat[ion] from comtemporary faiths and teachings," (p. 83.) Maharishi taught that all other gurus and teachers were misguided, and that he alone had the truth. Mason quotes Maharishi's writings from an uncompleted commentary to the Bhagavad Gita as follows, "Thus we find that all fields of religion and philosophy have been misunderstood for many centuries past."

Second, Mason shows that Maharishi's original intent was to spread a spiritual knowledge. In fact, his first organization was called the Spiritual Regeneration Movement. Quotes from Maharishi's early days give insight into his original teachings. For instance, "Between human species and these [gods are the]...finest levels of creation, the celestial level of life, gods. Huge numbers of...angels and gods," (p.162). By the early 1970's, however, Maharishi was saying, "In this scientific age we use scientific language," and spiritually-loaded language disappeared (for instance "God" was replaced with the term "Creative Intelligence") and his organizations were incorporated as educational non-profits. (Some time after the book was published, Maharishi did return to his religious roots and speak about more "spiritual" matters.)

An example of Maharishi's early comfort with revealing the spiritual basis of his teachings is in his pamphlet Beacon Light of the Himilayas, published about 1955. He wrote, "We do not select any sound like mike, flower, table...etc. For our practice we select only the suitable mantras of personal Gods. Such mantras fetch us the grace of personal Gods...."

Which leads to my third point, which is the ease with which Maharishi dissembled about the mantras, leaving me to wonder what else he lied about. In his early days, Maharishi stated, "Through long practice of usages of these mantras for different types of people, certain universal formulae have been obtained and using those formulae of judgment the selection of a proper mantra is brought about...." "[Mantras] are passed on from the master to the disciple in every generation and this is the teaching that concerns very fine levels of the whole creation...." "The tradition of masters is the most authentic place to take these suitable thoughts from. Authenticity from the tradition is the only measure which will give us some confidence about the absolute suitability of the mantra...." "One percent unsuitable effect [from the wrong mantra] will become million times greater...." After pages of this, Mason dryly drops the fact that the mantras are chosen by age.

Actually, Maharishi was not consistent in what mantras he gave to TM teachers. On one Teacher Training Course, he gave out one set of mantras to be chosen by age, on another course a different set of mantras to be chosen by age, on a third course a set to be chosen by age and sex, and so on.

Mason also includes anecdotes that leave the reader wondering what stories lie behind them. For instance someone mentions in passing that "Maharishi converses with the Heirarchy." What is "the Heirarchy"? A stranger in an airport in Europe accosts Maharishi with, "You're a fraud!" What did he mean? Jerry Jarvis, the onetime president of Maharishi's Students' International Meditation Society says, "Using the sutras [in the TM-Sidhis technique] is a strain on the nervous sytem and some people flip out." What had he seen?

This is not a comprehensive biography. At least two things are missing: the private life of Maharishi, and his impact on the life of others. Regarding his private life, for instance, there is no mention of his attempt to lead the Ouspensky organization in Europe, his sexual relations with women on his staff, his heart attack and subsequent (non-ayurvedic) treatment by western medicine, or his contempt for those who put him on a pedastal. Regarding his impact on the lives of others, there is no mention of the hundreds, myself included, who uprooted themselves and moved to Fairfield, Iowa at his bequest, or the hundreds of people who gave years of their lives, thousands of dollars and sometimes their mental and physical health to Mahrishi's dream.

On the plus side, this is a quickly-moving, easy-to-read book for people looking for an introduction to the life, mind, and public face of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from aproximately 1954 to 1993.

The Deerskin, a personal story

One day in Fiuggi, I was up very early and went around to the meeting room Mahesh used. His deerskin was still on the couch. No one was around, so I sat on the deerskin, crossed my legs into the lotus position (Mahesh had bragged how Guru Dev sitting in the lotus position demonstrated what a great yogi he was) and I just sat there.

But having thrown caution to the wind, it didn't seem all that prudent to overdo a good thing. I got up and waited in the back of the room and soon it filled up. I wondered, would Mahesh go all cosmic and perceive that something was amiss. He hated being touched and appeared to be so sensitive that only the finest silk could touch his skin, only the finest shahtoosh shawl cold be worn.

Would he blow an aneurysm knowing something as gross as I had defiled his asan? Would he leap into the air like a cat on a hot tin roof?

I waited, wondering what would happen as he sat down.

He sat.

He asked what we had been talking about last time and proceeded to ramble on and on. At Estes Park he had lied about his revelations from the Rig Veda. Here was another lie: he wasn't quite so cosmic.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Big Lie, Part 1

Lying has been going on since humans first used language. However, only in modern times, aided by mass media, can someone tell a really big lie. What’s a big lie? It’s a lie that is so blatant, so outrageous, and so widespread that eventually, after the public keeps hearing it, they actually believe it to be true.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program, first used the big lie when he came to the West in 1959 and began teaching TM to Westerners. The lie he began to tell was that the mantras used in the technique were “meaningless sounds.” This is still the position of the TM organization. Many TM practitioners continue to believe this. However, the truth is quite different.

The mantras are either names of Vedic/Hindu deities or sounds that are closely associated with these deities. The evidence regarding the true nature of the mantras can be found in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s own writings. In 1955, prior to coming to the West, three of his lectures were included in a book published in India called Beacon Light of the Himalayas. In one of these lectures he states the following regarding the mantras:

“…we find that any sound can serve our purpose of training the mind to become sharp. But we do not select any sound like 'mike', flower, table, pen, wall etc. because such ordinary sounds can do nothing more than merely sharpening the mind; whereas there are some special sounds which have the additional efficacy of producing vibrations whose effects are found to be congenial to our way of life. This is the scientific reason why we do not select any word at random. For our practice we select only the suitable mantras of personal Gods. Such mantras fetch to us the grace of personal Gods and make us happier in every walk of life.”

Those with a scientific inclination who are supporters of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his teachings would argue that the origins of the technique are irrelevant. The technique clearly has positive, scientifically documented effects on the mind and body, and the technique works irrespective of one’s belief – the sounds themselves have a specific effect on the body’s neurophysiological functioning. Even if they do have meaning in India, a person practicing TM in the United States or elsewhere doesn’t have to know the meaning to get positive results from the practice. India just happens to be the place where the effects of these sounds were discovered.

This argument, however, falls flat when one considers that TM instruction requires being present at what is described by TM teachers as a “ceremony of gratitude” or puja, which is performed in Sanskrit “by the teacher, for the teacher.” If the mantras are supposed to have an effect that is universal and is not related to their Vedic/Hindu origins, then the sounds should have the same effect on neurophysiological functioning without the puja ceremony. However, the TM organization will not teach TM without the puja and will not allow research on TM to be conducted without a puja in order to test this hypothesis.

The puja specifically mentions several Vedic/Hindu deities and includes an elaborate sequence of offerings to a picture of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s deceased teacher, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati. One cannot learn TM without being present at the puja and one must bring fruit, flowers, and a piece of cloth to be used as offerings in the puja. Also, TM teachers gesture for initiates to bow down in front of the picture at the end of the puja. So the puja is more than a ceremony of gratitude and it is not just for the teacher.

Why is the TM organization so insistent on performing this decidedly non-scientific ceremony in an ancient language if TM is so scientific? Without the puja, the mantras actually are just meaningless sounds. From a Vedic/Hindu perspective, TM doesn’t work without the puja since its performance is necessary to “activate” the mantras. As a result of the puja, the mantras become enlivened and connect the TM practitioner to Vedic/Hindu deities in non-physical realms.

One can only conclude from this that TM is exactly what Maharishi Mahesh Yogi said it was back in 1955 – a method of invoking the blessings of Vedic/Hindu deities for the TM initiate.

Since the vast majority of Westerners do not believe in the existence of Vedic/Hindu deities inhabiting non-physical realms, it is easy for the TM organization to maintain the fiction that the mantras are scientific and not religious, and it is easy for people who meditate to dismiss the whole thing as a quaint ritual. But, if one considers Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s status as a Hindu monk who comes from a religious tradition that venerates these deities and seeks to obtain their blessings, then it is absolutely clear that he has been lying about the true nature of the technique for almost 50 years.

One can ascribe several motivations to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for deciding to lie about the true nature of the mantras. If one ascribes noble motives, then it was because he recognized that he could not bring about a spiritual regeneration of the West by revealing the truth about the practice, since many, if not most Westerners would not be interested in meditating if they knew it was a form of Vedic/Hindu worship. A more cynical perspective would suggest that millions of dollars in revenues would have been lost if he had revealed the truth.

Regardless of motivation, one is compelled to ask a pivotal question. How many of the six million people that the TM organization claims have learned the technique would have still chosen to receive instruction if there had been full disclosure?

What if those about to learn the technique had been told that they would be learning an ancient method for invoking the blessings of Vedic/Hindu deities? What if they had been given a translation of the puja to which they were about to bring offerings? Despite the scientifically-verified benefits of TM, it is likely that a considerable percentage would have been uncomfortable enough with these Vedic/Hindu elements that they would have decided not to learn. The number who would have received instruction would have been considerably less than six million.

It is entirely reasonable to conclude that the success of the TM organization – its celebrity and professional endorsements, its international scope, its university, its scientific acceptability, its real estate holdings, its many business enterprises – could not have happened without Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s big lie.

What is especially fascinating about this particular lie is its longevity. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s big lie has prevailed for almost 50 years because it is an especially ingenious and insidious lie. It has lasted as long as it has because it relies upon the biases and limitations of the Western intellect. Westerners know little about Eastern spirituality and view reality primarily through the lens of science. It was easy for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to make the case that the technique was “scientific” because, as mentioned earlier, there aren’t very many Westerners who believe in the existence of Vedic/Hindu deities, but there are a lot who believe in science.

In recent years the TM organization has been attempting to reintroduce TM into educational settings under the guise of “Consciousness-Based” education. Students are being sold on the scientific benefits of TM with no knowledge of its origins. Unsuspecting parents are granting permission for their children to receive instruction because their local educators, who are also ignorant of the origins of the practice, are endorsing TM.

The TM organization has always been eager to promote the scientific literature on TM, but it has not been forthcoming about the origins of the technique. Truth in marketing demands that when people express an interest in TM, they should not only receive information about the scientific research, but they should also receive information about the puja and the origins of the mantras. Then, and only then, can they make an informed decision about whether they want to learn. Teaching TM without providing the full story is much like selling investments without providing information about risk, or manufacturing food products without listing the ingredients.

The fact that the TM organization is promoting TM for education, while deliberately choosing not to educate those they instruct about what they are actually teaching them, would appear to be the biggest lie of all.