On Jan 18, 2008, at 3:54 PM, BillyG. wrote:
It appears MMY will be going to the grave without revealing where the mantras came from, how they were formulated and if there is any traditional lineage, aka a Parampara (see below). Without this central knowledge we must assume TM, as taught, is something MMY thought up on his own, which is OK, (why doesn't he just spit it out???) but hardly qualifies as a tradition, apparently the tradition of TM has been lost, if not...where's the beef, the lineage, what did Guru Dev practice? Did he give TM to MMY? This should be part of the written record BEFORE MMY passes! :-( P.S. To me it is unconscionable to leave this central fact unknown!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parampara
Interesting thought train. I've always wondered the same thing. My urge to leave TM affiliations was to go and find the answers they weren't telling: with the Shankaracharya Order and various saints and pundits. And you get the answers--they're out there, for everyone. But I've come to trust only those teachers who are completely transparent with the "where's and why's".
I have been pleased what I've found in that arena. My root teacher, when he always taught, he would usually start off a friday evening. The teaching might go for just a weekend, sometimes a week or two. But the first night he always told us the story about where the teaching originated, how he came to it and then other lineage anecdotes and teaching stories sprinkled throughout. After that, it'd be hard to accept less.
I certainly expect they do, in fact, come from the Holy Shankaracharya Order, which often used tantric approaches towards and leading up to the Advaita Vedanta View. They are not from "the Ved" as many have been lead to believe. They are part and parcel of the indigenous religion of Bharat (India).
I did find the place where Guru Dev sent sadhaks to learn samaya Shri Vidya, and this is likely the source of the TM mantras IMO. If you're a savvy pilgrim and can find your way around Bengal, I'm sure a discerning person would find it. The principles of this style of mantra-sadhana were outlined in a huge work, called Japa-sutram, which was published just before M. started teaching. The parallels are remarkable--though written in the 50's it talks of seed, sprout and tree, often uses the language of physics and give the parallels between the YS, tantra-shasta/mantra-shastra and Rig-veda! It's like the seed-text of TM...at least the closest I've found.
The mantras of TM are especially important in a tantric approach to the Advaita View because they show different aspects of that View from the POV of the Cosmic Personalities of the devatas they represent. Japa-sutra explains all this stuff, in exhaustive detail for those interested in this science (vidya).
