<b>Maharishi Mahesh Yogi dies </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation,<b> died Tuesday at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was thought to be 91 years old</b>.
<b>"He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.," said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement that the Maharishi founded. He said his death appeared to be due to "natural causes, his age."</b>
Once dismissed as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control that Maharishi taught, called transcendental meditation, gradually gained medical respectability.
He began teaching TM in 1955 and brought the technique to the United States in 1959. But the movement really took off after the Beatles visited his ashram in India in 1968, although he had a famous falling out with the rock stars when he discovered them using drugs at his Himalayan retreat.
With the help of celebrity endorsements, Maharishi â a Hindi-language title for Great Seer â parlayed his interpretations of ancient scripture into a multi-million-dollar global empire.
After 50 years of teaching, Maharishi turned to larger themes, with grand designs to harness the power of group meditation to create world peace and to mobilize his devotees to banish poverty from the earth.
Maharishi's roster of famous meditators ran from The Rolling Stones to Clint Eastwood and new age preacher Deepak Chopra.
Director David Lynch, creator of dark and violent films, lectured at college campuses about the "ocean of tranquility" he found in more than 30 years of practicing transcendental meditation.
Some 5 million people devoted 20 minutes every morning and evening reciting a simple sound, or mantra, and delving into their consciousness.
"Don't fight darkness. Bring the light, and darkness will disappear," Maharishi said in a 2006 interview, repeating one of his own mantras.
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He started a big movement
Raju, Look at the folks who were behind the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Mostly all theoretical physicists. Wonder if they were trying to carry on where the Nazis left off?
Arun, Randheer do you recall a presentation last year?
http://www.shareguide.com/Hagelin.html
<b>Lebanese disciple named Mahesh Yogi's succes</b>sor<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tony Abu Ali Dan Nadar, a Lebanese disciple of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, has been named successor to the spiritual 'guru', who died at the age of 91 at his Transcendental Meditation headquarters in Netherlands last week.
Nadar, renamed Maharaja Dhiraaj Raja Ram, was presented before the local media in Allahabad on Sunday evening.
A 48-member council of administrators, nominated earlier by the Maharishi himself, elevated Ram to the highest chair of the Maharishi Global Country of World Peace.
These included the 35 'rajas' and 13 ministers named by the Maharishi to oversee the functioning of his organization, spread across 130 nations. All of them have been followers of Maharishi since three to four decades.
'Rajas' are 'in charge' of different countries and are easily discernable because of their distinct regalia, which included white brocade 'sherwani', golden medallion and a golden crown.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>David Lynch to attend Mahesh Yogi's funeral</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Leading Hollywood film-maker David Lynch is among the many foreign followers of spiritual guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who have arrived in Allahabad to attend the funeral of the global icon of transcendental meditation on Monday morning.
Lynch flew down in a private aircraft from Los Angeles to pay his last respects to the Maharishi, who died at his spiritual headquarters in Netherlands last week.
Hundreds of his foreign devotees thronged the sprawling 120-acre campus of the Vidyapeeth, created by Mahesh Yogi in the late eighties as his gift to his hometown where he did his schooling and acquired his MSc in Physics before turning an ascetic.
An especially raised platform made of brick and mortar was finished on Sunday for the cremation. The site overlooks 'sangam' -- the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the now invisible Saraswati rivers -- regarded by Hindus as the holiest of the holy spots for taking a blissful dip that would wash off one's lifetime sins.
Widely revered spiritualist <b>Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is expected to be among the celebrities who would attend the cremation ceremony</b>.
<b>Throughout Sunday, people kept pouring in at the institution to offer their last respects to the spiritual leader. Made to sit in an upright position with his eyes closed, the guru appeared to be in a sadhana </b>
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In December 2, 2005, Lynch told the Washington Post that he had been practicing Transcendental Meditation  twice a day, for 20 minutes each time, for 32 years.[27] He was initiated into TM on July 1, 1973, at 11:00 a.m., in a TM Center at Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles[28] by a teacher he thought "looked like Doris Day".[29] Since then he never missed a program. He advocates its use in bringing peace to the world. In July 2005, he launched the David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and Peace[30][31] to fund research about TM's positive effects, and he promotes the technique and his vision by an ongoing tour of college campuses that began in September 2005.[32] A streaming video of one of Lynch's public performances is available at his foundation's website.
Lynch is working for the establishment of seven "peace palaces," each with 8000 salaried people practicing advanced techniques of TM, "pumping peace for the world." He estimates the cost at $7 billion. As of December 2005, he had spent $400,000 of his own money and raised $1 million in donations from a handful of wealthy individuals and organizations.[27] In December 2006, the New York Times reported that he continued to have that goal.[30]
Lynch has written a book, Catching the Big Fish (Tarcher/Penguin 2006), which discusses the impact of TM on his creative process. He is donating all author's royalties to the David Lynch Foundation.
<img src='http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/afp/dv_to_getty_1718277_0.rp350x350.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<b> Maharishi Mahesh Yogi cremated with state honours</b>
Mon, Feb 11 03:22 PM
Allahabad, Feb 11 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the spiritual guru who introduced Transcendental Meditation in the West, was cremated here Monday with tens of thousands of his followers making a beeline to have a glimpse of his last rites.
The funeral pyre was lit at 12.40 p.m. by his nephew Girish Srivastava on a specially erected platform over a mound overlooking the Sangam - the holy confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythological Saraswati rivers - where a dip, according to Hindu belief, washes away a lifetime's sins.
Mahesh Yogi's relatives and disciples placed his body on a high pyre made of mango and sandalwood logs. One relative put Gangajal or holy Ganga water in his mouth. Other family members including his 97-year-old brother and a number of nephews placed sandalwood logs over the body that was smeared with sandalwood and vermilion paste.
His followers from far and wide - nearly every corner of the globe as well as different parts of India - closed their eyes amid chants of 'Jai Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Shree Ram' as the body of the Maharishi was carried in a procession from the assembly hall of the Maharishi Ved Vidyapeeth to the far end of the sprawling campus overlooking the Sangam.
Carrying the body in turns were members of the Maharishi's family together with students of the vidyapeeth, attired in white dhotis and vests. It took nearly an hour and a half to cover the one kilometre to the point where Mahesh Yogi's newly nominated successor Tony Abu Nadar and a team of ashram administrators were already seated in their hierarchical regalia, displaying the insignia conferred on them by the Maharishi.
They were dressed in white silk brocade robes, with long gold medallions round their necks and a golden crown on their heads. They included the 35 'rajas' and 13 ministers named by the Maharishi to oversee the functioning of his organization, spread across 130 nations.
Just as the pallbearers climbed atop the mound, a helicopter showered rose petals on the body.
Uniformed policemen lowered their guns as the last post was sounded as a mark of state honour to the departed spiritual guru.
Then came the turn of Tony Abu Nader, now renamed Maharajadhiraj Raja Ram, to bow at the feet of the Maharishi. The other rajas followed.
Renowned spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who had been a disciple of the Maharishi, rose with a wreath in hand and went round the special platform to offer obeisance to his guru.
Hollywood filmmaker David Lynch was in tow, to be followed by VIPs including central minister Subodh Kant Sahay, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Ashok Singhal, former Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker and state BJP chief Keshri Nath Tripathi, top local officials and others.
The Maharishi, whose followers at one point included the Beatles and who had become a counter-culture icon in the 1960s and 1970s, passed away Tuesday at his Dutch home.
Thousands attend Maharishi's funeral in India
ALLAHABAD (AP): Thousands of followers chanted hymns Monday as the body of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru celebrated for bringing meditation to the West, was cremated in India at one of Hinduism's holiest sites.
The funeral pyre was lit by relatives of the Maharishi, who died last week at his headquarters in the Netherlands. He was believed to be 91.
A helicopter circled the area, dropping thousands of rose petals as the Maharishi's body was brought to a hilltop overlooking the confluence of the sacred Ganges and Yamuna rivers in the northern city of Allahabad.
Police struggled to control a surge by thousands of Indian followers to the funeral site.
The Maharishi won international prominence for himself and his meditation techniques when the Beatles attended one of his lectures in Wales in 1967 and visited his ashram in India in 1968.
He brought the ancient Hindu practice of mind control, which he called transcendental meditation, or just TM, to the West, creating a global movement with more than 5 million practitioners.
About 2,000 followers from around the world came to India for his funeral.
``He was such a great teacher, he opened the fullness of life to me. He allowed me to experience the eternity and infinity within myself,'' said Royal Lillge, 58, from Boise, Idaho, a TM teacher since 1970.
While the Maharishi gained medical respectability for meditation _ with scores of studies showing that meditation reduces stress, lowers blood pressure and improves concentration _ skeptics scoffed at his notion that group meditation could harness the power of the universe to end all conflicts and cure world hunger.
Nevertheless, a group of 48 ministers and rajas led by Maharaja Adhiraj Rajaram, who took over the Maharishi's leadership duties, vowed Sunday to continue to strive for those goals.
Rajaram announced that 48 schools or universities teaching TM and ``Yogic flying,'' showcased as the ultimate level of transcendence, would be built in 48 countries to continue the Maharishi's teachings as a memorial to him.
Rajaram's ``royal proclamation'' was read out by John Heglin, another senior leader in the movement, as Rajaram does not speak in public because he believes he can better lead by silence.
Even though the Maharishi was an iconic figure in the West, he remained virtually unknown to the majority of Indians.
His funeral Monday, attended by thousands of Indians, coincided with a separate annual pilgrimage by millions of pilgrims to the area, where according to Hindu mythology, gods and demons spilled nectar during a celestial war.
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