Thousands throng Allahabad for Mahesh Yogi's funeral Monday, 11
February , 2008, 09:35 Allahabad: This quiet Uttar Pradesh town at
the confluence of the holy Ganga, the historic Yamuna and the mythological
Saraswati is suddenly hot on the global map as thousands of devotees from
across 100 countries have gathered here to see the place from where Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi began his journey as a physics student to become a world famous
spiritual leader. The guru of transcendental meditation (TM) passed away at
his retreat in the Netherlands on February 5, 2008. His body was brought to
Allahabad and kept in an embalmed state at the Maharishi Vidyapeeth, a Vedic
school that the seer founded at Arail, a quiet neighbourhood on the outer banks
of the Ganga at Prayag, nearly 15 km from Allahabad. It is perhaps one of the
most unlikely funerals that a world leader can have. On Sunday evening, Guru
Deva, as the seer was known to his devotees, sat in calm
repose on a podium bedecked with heaps of roses, night queens and marigolds as
nearly 20,000 devotees filed past him with folded hands. Some sprinkled rose
petals and some flung marigold wreaths at his feet and were rewarded with a
grin. Or was it just the imagination of the faithful? The Maharishi was
dressed in robes of shimmering white silk. A faint smile played on his lips and
his eyes were shut, like everyday, as a group of nine young priests chanted
mantras from the Vedas, the ancient Indian scriptures. The pathway to the
hall, where he sat in state, was lined with silk saffron flags and bright
lights. It was a party in progress with laughter, banter and exchange of news
about TM. For most of the foreign devotees, it was a reunion. "The Maharishi
has just completed his chores after a long journey of 50 years. In 1858, he had
addressed a gathering in Madras (now Chennai), where he unveiled his simple
meditation technique and outlined his vision for the future.
It received incredible response. That was the takeoff point for his movement,"
said Stan Lamothe, a senior member of the TM movement at Voldrop, the
Maharishi's retreat in the Netherlands. Stan, along with his friend Paul
Morehead, a teacher at the Maharishi University of Management at Fairfield in
Iowa in the US, kept smiling throughout. "Don't mistake this smile for
anything else. When I heard that the Maharishi had passed away, I was sad. But
then I went to see him at his abode and it was bliss. He had just taken break
and had passed on to the next world. There was nothing to cry about, he had
prepared the blueprint for the future," the slim man with a receding hairline
said. "I am so thrilled to be in India, there are so many faces that I can
recognise. It feels good to meet old friends again," said Morehead. The seer
had apparently drawn up a map for his foundation for the next 100 years almost
a year before his death, when he announced his retirement. He had
appointed a 48-member governing council and a five-member governing body led
by the Maharajadhiraja (his royal highness, king of kings) Ram aka Tony Nader,
a neuroscientist from Lebanon, to steer the TM movement globally and expand the
ambit of the organisation's activity. Nader or the Maharaja, as the Mahesh
Yogi had crowned him a year ago, had retreated into silence two years ago.
"That was the way the Maharishi wanted him to oversee the matters of the
organisation. He will conduct the affairs in silence, transmitting his thoughts
in transcendence to the five-member governing council," said Yugantar Saxena,
the publicity head of TM's India chapter and the operational head of the
Maharishi Television channel in the country. The Maharishi had also formed
the Brahmanand Swaraswati Trust before his death to fund the movement of the
organisation. The seer, who believed in Vedic monarchy of ancient India, had
formed a hierarchy of maharaja (the chief kings), 35 country
rajas (kings or the nation heads) and global ministers to lead the movement.
He named his transcendent kingdom the Global Country of World
Peace. All the 35 kings, attired in their white silk ceremonial robes and
golden crowns, assembled at Arail over the weekend and mingled freely with the
devotees in a rather "democratic spirit". India figured high in the
Maharishi's scheme of things. Led by the king, Harris Kaplan, in-charge of
India operations and the principal donor to the seer's peace and Vedic revival
programmes across the country, the Maharishi planned to form a permanent group
7,000 to 8,000 Vedic priests who would be trained in advance meditation
techniques. This group would act as a buffer in times of crisis, mitigate
tension and promote communal harmony and global peace through yagnas (ancient
rituals) and group meditation sessions. The project, said a senior member of
the movement, was gaining momentum with Kaplan giving it a definite
shape. Amid all the hype and fervour, Allahabad is ready to take the giant
spiritual leap into the future. "So what if Guru Deva's mortal remains are
consigned to flames, his spirit will always guide us," said Saxena. And
nothing better could be a better tribute to a man, who taught the world how to
tune inwards and listen to the voice of nature and consciousness, than a regal
cremation on Monday on the banks of the Ganges on the auspicious day of Basant
Panchami, when India invokes goddess Swaraswati, the deity of knowledge.
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