On Sep 27, 2011, at 12:24 PM, Bhairitu wrote:
The movie pretty much makes MMY out to be a charlatan or con artist.
That is really going to upset a few here. Some will like the idea that
he "invented TM in his garage" the Horatio Alger story. But in most
traditions they like sticking to the rules because down through the
centuries they've seen too many people going crazy when they strayed.
It's very much like the martial arts, you can only teach if you
achieve
a certain level.
An interesting detail from Swarupananda is that Mahesh never entered
into the guru-shishya relationship with Brahmananda. He was simply an
administrative aide. That's key in the whole "purity of the
tradition" schtick Mahesh liked to pretend about. How pure can the
line be if permission (upadesha) never existed in the first place?
And he again disputes the reality of Mahesh-as-yogi in that to his
knowledge he was never so trained - it's simply another alias he
assumed.
I don't know if you saw it, but Paul's website contains a more
complete interview with His Holiness Swami Swarupananda, Jagadguru of
Jyotir Math:
The lineage of Jyotish Peeth (also known as Jyotir Math and
Jyotirmath) has been contested by Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati,
(Shankaracharya of Dwarka since 1982). An outspoken critic of
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Swami Swaroopanand recently stated:-
"I was the desciple of Gurudev and had [been] taken into his fold
through a ceremony called Dand Sanyaas which Mahesh Yogi could not
get done as he was not a Brahman. Also Mahesh was his secretary and
he was not Gurudev's disciple in any way but was a part of the
administrative staff."
"So far as I know he did not know anything about yoga so I have no
idea how he became Yogi. But he was very smart and shrewd. He was
responsible for the controversy over Shankaracharya's here in
Jyotirmath. He wanted to put up here a Shankaracharya who would
listen to him. That was his motive behind dividing the Jyotirmath."
"After Gurudev's demise he spread the news that there is a will made
by Gurudev on his name and that claims him to be Gurudev‘s disciple..."
"The will named four people- the first name was Shantanand, second
DwarkaPrasad Shastri, third name was Vishnudevanand and fourth name
was Parmanand.
Now when the will was opened for reading it turned out that
Shantanand did not understand Sanskrit (!!!), he used to work for
Geeta press on the salary of 14 rupees per month and thus was not
capable enough, secondly, Dwarkaprasad Shastri, was a married man
with family, thirdly, Vishnudevanand, was not educated enough and
fourth, Parmanand, who was M.A., his big toe on the right leg was
amputed and a disabled [person] is not given Sanyaas, thus he was
nullified. Thus the four were rejected and Swami Krishnabodhashramji
was made Shankaracharya but Mahesh Yogi instigated Shantanand to
fight the court case. He was given a car and money and all other
assistance and help."
"Now Sita Saraf was in Kolkatta when Gurudev passed away and she
along with Mahesh played out a drama claiming that they asked Gurudev
to accept their lives but Gurudev refused and passed away. It was
also spread far and wide that when Gurudev’s soul was leaving his
body, Mahesh Yogi’s soul was also exiting but Gurudev pushed his soul
back because Mahesh had to complete Gurudev’s incomplete work for
which he had to go abroad!!!"
"Also, as per the will that was revealed, it stated clearly that the
order of succession was to be Shantanand, Dwarkaprasad Shastri,
Vishnudevanand and Parmanand. However all of them passed away in
exactly the reverse order! If Gurudev, who has the far sight to
forsee such events, had written the will, how could they all pass
away in exactly the reverse order??"
"Therefore, if this is so, that he was a 'siddha mahatma', why was
this in reverse order?"
- Swami Swaroopanand, speaking to film-maker David Sieveking, 22nd
May 2009
