tribute to maharishi mahesh yogi

amazed

Monday February 11, 2008
MYT 4:35:04 PM

Thousands line the path to Maharishi's funeral site in India

ALLAHABAD, India (AP): Thousands of followers lined the path Monday to a hilltop overlooking one of Hinduism's holiest sites where the body of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru celebrated for bringing meditation to the West, was to be cremated.

His devotees had decorated the platform on which his funeral pyre was to be lit with scarlet rose petals and marigold flowers and a pile of logs was kept to one side. Yellow and gold flags surrounded the area, which overlooks the confluence of the sacred Ganges and Yamuna rivers in Allahabad.

Maharishi, who died last week at his headquarters in the Netherlands, was believed to be 91.

He 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.

On Sunday, his body was seated on a throne in a lotus position as if in meditation and covered with a white robe. All day, people filed by, throwing scarlet petals at his feet and chanting mantras. His body was to continue lying in state until the cremation. 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 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 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 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 Maharishi was an iconic figure in the West, he remained virtually unknown to the majority of Indians.

While thousands of Indians waited for his funeral Monday, several hundred thousand more had gathered at the confluence of the sacred rivers on Sunday ahead of a separate annual Hindu pilgrimage.

Every year millions of pilgrims come to the site -- where according to Hindu mythology, gods and demons spilled nectar during a celestial war.


Aku mmg terkejut, baru aje baca news ni...  Aku dulu masa zaman teenagers aku (mcm hippies sikit) so, suka dgn lagak beatles late 60s dan mmg aku suka sgt pepper's lonely heart club band sbb lagu2 dia dipengaruhi dgn irama hindu dari maharishi yogi ni ler!!!  Dah ajal dia ye..

amazed

Beatles' guru Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi's body has been cremated




The leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement Maharashi
MaheshYogi during a visit to Helsinki in 1983. A spokesman for the
movementhas said that the one-time spiritual advisor to the Beatles,
has diedin his Dutch home.




The Beatles, from left to right, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, RingoStarr
and George Harrison, join the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, centre, asthey arrive
by train at Bangor, Wales, United Kingdom, to participatein a weekend
of meditation, on Aug. 26, 1967.





Teringat aku lagu revolution no.9.  Tak silap aku tu White Album Beatles!