Followers split as 95-year-old guru ends meditation teaching in 'scorpion nation

Mahesh Yogi, 95, disgusted with UK



London: His devotees call him “His Holiness”, his detractors “the giggling guru”, because of his habit of laughing at press conferences.

Ninety-five year old guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of transcendental meditation (TM), a yogic philosophy that spread like wildfire across the world after the Beatles embraced it some 40 years ago, is sick up to his gills with Britain.

The maharishi is disgusted at Tony Blair’s support for the Iraq war and at the British electorate’s failure to throw out the PM. He says there is no point continuing to waste the “beautiful nectar” of TM on a “scorpion nation”.

Last week, the Maharishi, speaking at one of his regular broadcasts on a private satellite channel from his monastery in Vlodrop in the Netherlands, called upon his followers in Britain to stop teaching meditation and levitation, the yogic effect or flying to a higher plane.

“The good effects of transcendental meditation — increased creativity and long life — should not be given to a dangerous country that is constantly busy destroying the world,” the guru advised.

“TM is a gift from me to those who want to create peace and harmony in the world.”

However, he has exhorted his followers at Skelmersdale in Lancashire (UK), to beam peace-loving thoughts to the British electorate with the objective of unseating the Labour government.

The maharishi’s disillusionment with the British government pre-date the 7/7 and 20/7 bombings stems out of the failure of his thought experiment, expressed through the Natural Law Party, that fielded 300 candidates in the 1992 general election to win support for his “age of enlightenment.”

Beatle George Harrison launched the party’s campaign at a benefit concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, but all candidates lost their deposits.

Last year, the maharishi initiated a similar thought experiment in the US with the aim of defeating George W Bush, as a protest against his war on Iraq.

Since last year, the maharishi has been dispatching yogic “flyers” to India, the US, China and Brazil in an attempt to foster global peace by building what he terms “a coherent world philosophy.”

The maharishi’s decision to withdraw from Britain has disappointed and divided his followers.

“It has had quite a deep impact on our organisation,” says Geoffrey Clements, who chairs the maharishi’s UK charity and was a Natural Law Party candidate.

“But the maharishi explained to us that the poison in this country was so concentrated that he felt it was no use our continuing to nurture creativity and intelligence here.”


http://ww1.mid-day.com/news/world/2005/august/116823.htm

 

Isnt transcendental meditation (TM) the one which charges thousands of dollars for a mantra. Ive been on a forum where someone has very bad effects from using TM. They used him as a guinea pig and now has all sorts of kundalini/energy problems.

He has one heck of ego to think he can change the minds of a country. And when he cant he throws his dummy out like a big baby. Why does he think he knows whats best for the world, maybe the events in Iraq have a perfect purpose.

 

Whilst I share the Maharishi's contempt for Blair and Co, it is nonsense to say the British electorate should have un-seated them at the last election. The Tory opposition are even worse - they were even more gung-ho about the war, and in their unstinting bowing and scraping to the 'yankee dollar' men in Washington. So if we'd all voted against Blair, things now would be worse, not better. The Maharishi in his supposed wisdom should see all this clearly.

Britain is only really a follower of America. Something which is regrettable in the extreme in my opinion. It is not Britain alone that is making such a mess of the world - it is global capitalism, and the US and UK governments are meeerly it's intruments.

As to the value of what the Maharishi and his followers are bringing to the Uk, that remains to be seen, Certainly, their own 'Natural Law' political party is a bit of a joke.

And I don't think we really need any help to be creative - don't forget, if it wasn't for the Beatles, the Maharishi would not be nearly so well known, or indeed rich as he is to-day. And obviously, their creativity had nothing to do with TM followers in skelm. or anywhere else.

 

Yes, they charge for a 'secret mantra'. Some 'advanced' practitioners also bounce up and down on matresses and call it levitation, or 'yogic flying'.

 

I personally do not look up to gurus who cultivate cults and sects

From America there originates a well know punch line
that helps us understand what people are seen like under capitalism

" A sucker is born every minute"

It seems in this world there is no dearth of suckers for capitalism and gurus

As capitalism makes animals out of men living under it the more they will turn to fake gurus to turn them back into men and some will even make you fly

 

I'm glad to hear it HH. Also from your new sig I see you are a supporter of human rights - that's really great.

 

Ridiculous.

 

Blackbillblake

Talking of mind influencing experiments

I remember Sri Aurobindo himself claimed to have influenced the outcome of the World War II and played a role in Hitler's defeat

and he also influenced the Indian Independence movement
and the fact that his birthday 15th August is also India's Independence day is no coincidence I think

Even though I have not directly read his writings where he says this some of his followers whom I interacted with
claimed he indeed influence it ?

What do you think of this ?

 

Dear Half a Hippie,


What I know about this comes from 'Sri Aurobindo on Himself' and various writings of the Mother.
Sri Aurobindo said that if the NAZIs won the war, it would lead to a world where it would be impssible to continue the work of conscious evolution. This has to be understood in the light of the whole of Sri A's thinking.
It's perhaps too complex to go into in detail here, but briefly, it has to do with Sri A's ideas about other planes of being.
These planes -spiritual, supramental, mental and vital exert a kind of pressure on this world. Sri A's idea is that the further evolution of mankind can only come if the forces of the supramental world descend here and take up the terrestial evolution. But on other planes there exist forces which have thier own agenda for earthly life - forces which are separated from the Divine. They seek to impose their own will, not the Divine will. The NAZIs, according to Sri A were 'vital beings' - beings or representatives of beings and forces of a specific plane of being seeking to dominate earthly life.
But the dominance of the vital force cannot help us to evolve further, or to bring this world to the perfection Aurobindo envisages.

So when the war came, Sri A said he was putting his yogic force on the side of the alies. He claimed that this had a significant impact on the outcome.
Sweet Mother also claims to have personally visited Hitler, in a subtle body of course, and posing as a vital being herself, told him to attack Russia just days before he did so.

Make of this what you will. I am undecided about it all. Certainly, I think if the Germans had won the war there would now be significantly less freedom. I don't think it would have helped us on our way to a Divine life on earth, which is the goal of Sri A's yoga.
Whether the actions of Aurobindo or Mother actually did have some effect, is another question. I think it is possible, but can't be 'proven' in any way.
If one thinks they didn't actually have any effect, then I suppose you'd have to say that Mother's experience and Sri A's attempts to influence the outcome were all on the level of personal, subjective consciousness.

I agree that it's no coincidence that Sri A's birthday is also Indian Independence day - one little snippet on that - on the day India became independent Sri A said he was pleased with his birthday present (independence) but that he would have preffered it in one package. (meaning he didn't like the partition into India and Pakistan).

 

Thanks for all that information
I think the answers to some of these
questions will only be answered in the distant future by
a greater understanding of our mind and science

Another Question
I think Shri Aurobindo mentioned he had facilitated the descent of a new consciousness on earth ?
Did he tell us what this was and how to harness this new consciousness ?

Forgive my half knowledge for I know its dangerous
but soon I hope to completely read and understand the works of Shri aurobindo
As of know I know only bits and pieces

 

This is a difficult question to answer briefly, but here goes..
According to Sri A there are various ascending and descening planes of being/consciousness. The main ones are

Physical
Vital
Mental
Higher mental (illumined mind, intuitive mind etc)
Overmental
Supramental

The idea is that up to now, seers and so on have been able to ascend to the level of the overmind. This overmind plane is the plane of the gods, but it is not the highest level of being. Above the overmind is the supramental world.
As well as an ascent of consciousness to higher levels, Sri A also speaks of a process of descent. The energies and consciousness of these higher planes can be brought down into this world, where they can have a transforming effect.
In previous ages, the great spiritual teachers, yogis and seers have brought down a certain amount from the overmind, but critically, the overmental energy is not sufficient to bring about a total transformation of this world.
Sri A said he had discovered a further level of being - supermind - which was also known to the old Vedic Rishis, or the 'supreme truth consciousness' - a mode of being high above the mental, where all the seeming contradictions such as oneness and diversity, individuality and impersonality are resolved. The supramental consciousness is not subject to error, or to any kind of debility. On this level, what is willed is done. There is no way we can come to understand the supramental from our mental perspective -

The overmental consciousness is not capable of abolishing what Sri A always calls the 'inconscience' of matter, no matter how profound the illumination, conditions here are left pretty much untouched at the level of the basic equation of unconscious matter etc. Even the body of the greatest seer will age and die. Even the presence of great beings like Krishna, Buddha, Jesus et al. has not brought about this fundamental transformation.
Aurobindo says that if the supramental consciousness could descend to this plane it could take up the process of terrestial evolution, and transform this world radically. Instead of this limited human existence lived out in a world of ignorance, a Divine life could come on earth. The basic ignorance could be abolished, the superconsciousness that is involved in seemingly unconscious or inconscient matter could fully emerge.
The Divine conscious-force would work in matter and in us. We would no longer be in a body which is basically ignorant and separated from the divine, or from it's own operations. We would attain total consciousness, and total power. But, we would no longer be 'us', subject to ignorance. Our limited consciousness would be replaced by a perfect and infallible divine conscious being.

Sri A said he was tring to fix this supramental energy or shakti in the field of earth consciousness, so that it could become available to future people. He never said he had definitely suceeded, but in 1956, Sweet Mother said she had established the supramental vibration in the earth consciousness.

How to get to the supramental level is beyond my competence to answer. Sri A says that there has to be a kind of graded ascent - first we have to rise up to levels of higher mind, and then to the overmind level. From that level, or those levels, to put it more correctly, we may be able to attain to supermind.
The general spiritual direction is recommended, and the processes of yoga, but what is called 'integral yoga'. The object of this yoga is not only personal illumination/nirvana but the transformation of this manifest world.
Thus, Sri A is against what he calls the 'world-rejecting' yogas that have existed in the past.The world is to be embraced, but on a higher level.

Without also saying quite a bit about Sri A's cosmology I don't know if this will make any sense.
If you want an easy to read book which is not too long and goes into much of this, I would highly recommend 'The Future Evolution of Man' by Sri A. This is a compilation drawn from the Life Divine, Synthesis of Yoga and the Human Cycle. Explains a lot of the main points very well.

Check this out - click on the thumbnail to go to the full size chart.

 

I ought to add that although I think Sri Aurobindo's system is great, and one can certainly learn an immense amount from his works, I do also see one or two contradictions and some problems.
As I've said before, I'm not actually a 'discilple' of Sri Aurobindo.
Things have changed since his departure in 1950. The precise form of the teaching might perhaps be framed slightly differently now.

In general, my own take on things is that there is a new consciousness now emerging or becoming available to human beings. This is indicated in the works of many teachers, both eastern and western. Most are talking about some big change or transformation of consciousness and of life here. Sri Aurobindo goes further than most in the magnitude of the changes he envisions.
He's the most interesting of modern Indian thinkers to my mind, and a highly illumined master of the first order.

 

Thanks a ton

Blackbillblake

All this information has just spurned me on to begin the study of sri aurobindo's work's
in earnest
Lets hope I soon get a basic understanding of his philosophy and thoughts

 

I think the leader of TM is just trying to be funny...

horray for his cosmic giggle!

 

RE: The maharishi is disgusted at Tony BlairÕs support for the Iraq war and at the British electorateÕs failure to throw out the PM. He says there is no point continuing to waste the Òbeautiful nectarÓ of TM on a Òscorpion nationÓ.

Translation: about to be done for tax evasion.