Maharishi Mahesh is no more. His life’s work is impressive. He leaves behind a wealth of research in the fields of meditation, Ayurveda, stress management and crime prevention.
Lifecycle
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was born on January 12, 1917 in India, in Chichli, Madhya Pradesh state. He died in the Netherlands on February 5, 2008.
The Maharishi (literally: great seer) was trained both scientifically and religiously, including with Swami Brahmananda Sarasvati (1870-1953), where he already apprenticed around 1939.
Scientific work
Maharishi Mahesh was one of the first to scientifically investigate the influence of meditation on the human mind, including through EEG.
Transcendental Meditation
Maharishi Mahesh’s life’s work is the Transcendental Meditation Technique (TM), with which he achieved world fame in the 1960s. It must be said that his success is partly due to the value of the TM, but is also largely due to the publicity the Beatles gave to his work.
Technology of TM
Although the TM movement is not very generous in publishing techniques, we can say that the basic technique consists of repeating an imposed mantra many times in a certain way. The mantra moves from a physical vibration to an inner one.
Your personal teacher should give you the personal mantra that suits you best.
You should practice for fifteen minutes twice a day.
An advanced program, the TM-Siddhi Program, is said to help develop psychic abilities such as levitation, although this is not its primary purpose.
Results
The daily practice of TM would have at least the following results:
- Inner peace
- Spiritual growth
- Combating stress
- Combating aggression
- Increase creativity
- Lowering blood pressure
- Encouraging ethics
The 2% program
The TM movement had calculated that if 2% of the population in a city were to practice TM every day, crime would drop drastically.
Schools, movements and institutions
- Maharishi Vedic University
- Maharishi University of Management
- Natural Law Party
Worldwide success of the movement
The world center of the movement was first in Switzerland, but was transferred to the Netherlands in the 1970s.
Among the more than 5 million followers of the TM movement we can quote the following well-known names:
- Beatles
- Beach Boys
- Celine Dion
- Nina Hagen
- David Lynch
- Christopher Reeve
- Clint Eastwood
Criticism
While many critics accept the effectiveness of the method, comments are often made on the cost to the candidates.