--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote:
>Hey Vaj,
I would like to respond to your comment in this post about the "bought"
shankaracharyas. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am assumming that you
mean that the Shantinand-VishnuDevand-Vasudevananda line has been somehow
manipulated by Maharishi by money he has given them. I can not speak for
Shantinand or Vishnu Devanand but I do know that Vasudevanand was not "bought"
by Maharishi.
Deepak Chopra did a course in India back in 1998 or so and Vasudevanad was
invited and attended. Deepak told me that Maharishi did not want Vasudevanand
to attend, but he went away, saying to Maharishi, "You are a good yogi, but I
do what I want!". Deepak also told me that Maharishi does give Vasudevanand
some money, but it is very little. I have no idea about the finacial
arrangements now.
I am sure you will have your own spin on this story based on your knowledge and
experience of the Shankaracharyas, but I thought I would just put this out
there for you and everyone else.
>
> On May 29, 2009, at 10:59 PM, Marek Reavis wrote:
>
> > Jay Randolph Coplin, in his dissertation on the history of the SRM,
> > writes that in an interview with the then-Shankaracharya of Jyotir
> > Math, Vasudevananda (the successor to Guru Dev's successor,
> > Shantanand, and predecessor of the current Shankaracharya,
> > Vishnudevananda, in Shantanand's line) -- Vasudevananda told Coplin
> > that it was the Jyotir Math Peeth, itself, that bestowed the title
> > "Maharishi".
>
>
> Interesting, nothing I've read by Coplin recently includes that, nor
> does it appear to be mentioned in any official movement history. Being
> a hardcore TB, I consider Coplin a questionable source. It also seems
> questionable for a low caste person in the Shankaracharya. It also
> goes against the fact that some Shankaracharyas refused to call him
> Maharishi, instead referring to him simply as "Mahesh". I suspect this
> probably came from one of the "bought" Shankaracharyas. Given that the
> people I've met at the Shankaracharya considered MMY some sort of
> demon who was destined for hell, I have to question the utter
> disparity. With no independent source to verify this, I'd have to
> consider the assertion "TB tinkering" or just tinkering from the
> broken and embattled lineage of the north. Certainly the most
> reputable remaining Math, Srinigiri, doesn't recognize him. In fact
> the Shankaracharya of the south didn't even know who he was and
> commented that his mind seemed like a supermarket. None of the silence
> and bliss he loved to brag about.
>
> It would be interesting to see this manuscript. I've notice a number
> of questionable claims from Coplin on the web. It's curious that the
> manuscript can be found nowhere. Perhaps someone could post it to the
> files section?
>
