For years I believed that Maharishi was a lifelong celibate because that is what I was taught. I was surprised, really amazed when I first heard a TM teacher say she had heard he was sexually active. I knew her pretty well and she insisted it was true. When I asked her how she knew she told me her sister and brother in law, both TM teachers and Governors had assured her it was true. They had worked on national staff for some years and yet it was not first hand information. They had gotten it from a reliable source who had gotten it from the person who had it through direct experience.
Third hand info was not too impressive at the time. I did run the information by another TM teacher who knew both myself and the person who told me and they didnât believe it, nor could they believe that Susie had come to believe it. So the issue was a non-issue for me until I turned up here on FFL. A brief exchange with Rick made me feel there really might be something to the allegations so I looked further, reading everything I could from and about the women involved which made me about fifty percent convinced it was true. Even though I had come to believe Maharishi was not enlightened, and that he was extremely fond of making promises in exchange for cash, I still could not quite come to believe that he had lied about that very fundamental aspect of his lifestyle. What did convince me were the similar stories from the former skin boys like Mark Landau and Billy Clayton that I came across on the internet, especially the recent BATGAP video interview with Mark Landau. Now that got me to thinking why would M preach celibacy to everyone else if he was not practicing it himself. And I came up with a couple conclusions. First, it was not cool in those days to be a guru and be sexually active, or perhaps more to the point it wasnât cool to be a guru, be sexually active and have people in general know that was the case. M had to maintain the facade that he was celibate to keep people coming to him believing he was a spiritual master. Being a spiritual master and fucking just didnât go together in those days. This became particularly important when he announced he wanted TM teachers to dress and behave conservatively so TM would appeal to the âresponsible members of societyâ meaning older, financially established people who could and would support M financially. If they had known he was dipping the wick they would never have supported him. In addition I believe he wanted to cut down on the competition. From the stories his personal secretaries have told, he would often select women from amongst those on teacher training courses or his staff â" if they were being sexually active, they would be leery of cheating on their spouses or boyfriends and celibacy certainly would lead the ladies to be already horny, thus making it easier for him to get in their pants.
