--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Mason"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> If anyone wants to make a donation to the TMO they can, at any
time.
> I was instructed at Maharishi Ashram for free. I have since made
many
> donations to the movement.
>
> As far as I can gather there is no truth to the oft-repeated claim
> that it is traditional to charge for initiation into meditation,
> quite the contrary. It was MMY who introduced the fee ('fixed
> donation') almost as soon as he arrived in the States.
>
> On this very issue, Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati, a direct
> disciple of Gurudev was asked:-
> Q: Brahmananda Saraswati did not charge any fees when he used to
> initiate?
>
> SwaroopanandJi: This is a principle. A quotation from Goswami
> Tulsidas: "The guru who charges or takes money from his disciples
in
> return for initiation, steals disciples property and goes to
damnable
> hell."
> For that reason Guru Deva used to give 'upadesha' (initiation)
> without any fees. He used to say "If I accept any gift from the
> disciple (or fees), then his sins are transmitted to me." In India,
> dharma, yoga, knowledge, specialized knowledge can never be sold
for
> money. That is priceless. Anyone who puts a price on it insults
it.
> So, a mantra is also never given for money. Knowledge cannot be
sold
> for money. Therefore, the process that is being employed by Mahesh
is
> merely for the sake of making money, and this is entirely against
the
> canons of Indian culture and civilization.
*************
You have taken a statement from a sworn enemy of Maharishi to prove
your point, but it's not a point well-taken. If you were more
familiar with the traditional texts of Vedic literature, you would
not make the claim that money (or some other item of
value, "Gurudakshina") does not change hands between gurus and their
students. The most famous "preceptor's fee" was paid by Lord Krishna
to his guru: the guru, knowing who Krishna was, asked that his dead
son be restored to life, and Krishna complied:
http://www.urday.com/devaki.htm
The only adaption that Maharishi has made to the Gurudakshina is to
front-load it, a necessity in the world as it is now. MMY is
not "selling mantras," but offering a complete course of instruction
in the most practical and critical element of Vedic wisdom (TM, which
gives the ability to transcend limitations), just as was done for
many years in the Vedic civilization of India before the purity of
the teaching was lost and India fell into decay.
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