Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced transcendental meditation to the West and gained fame in the 1960s as the spiritual guru to the Beatles, died on Tuesday at his home and headquarters in Vlodrop, the Netherlands. He is believed to have been in his 90s.
Steven Yellin, a spokesman for the organization, confirmed the Maharishi's death but did not give a cause.
On Jan. 11, the Maharishi announced that his public work was finished and that he would use his remaining time to complete a long-running series of published commentaries on the Veda, the oldest sacred Hindu text.
The Maharishi was both an entrepreneur and a monk, a spiritual man who sought a world stage from which to espouse the joys of inner happiness.
His critics called his organization a cult business enterprise. And in the press, in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often dismissed as a hippie mystic, the "Giggling Guru," recognizable in the familiar image of him laughing, sitting cross-legged in a lotus position on a deerskin, wearing a white silk dhoti with a garland of flowers around his neck beneath.
In Hindi, maha means great, and rishi means seer. "Maharishi" is a title traditionally bestowed on Brahmins.
Critics of the yogi say he presented himself with the name, which he was ineligible for because he was from a lower caste.
The Maharishi originated the transcendental meditation movement in 1957 and brought it to the US in 1959. Known as TM, a trademarked name, the technique consists of closing one's eyes twice a day for 20 minutes while silently repeating a mantra to gain deep relaxation, eliminate stress, promote good health and attain clear thinking and inner fulfillment. Classes today cost US$2,500 for a five-day session.
Mahesh Prasad Varma was born in northern India into a family of scribes. Called Mahesh, he studied physics at Allahabad University, and for the next 13 years, became a student and secretary to a holy man, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati.
After the death of his master in 1953, Mahesh went into seclusion in the Himalayan foothills.
He emerged two years later and began teaching a system of belief, which grew into the worldwide TM movement.
Since 1990, the Maharishi had lived in Vlodrop with about 50 of his adherents, including his "minister of science and technology," John Hagelin, a Harvard-educated physicist, who is expected to oversee the organization in the US.
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a