Well, I guess this is one point of view: it's from Tom Ball's meditation asheville website.
The TM program's founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was a monk and never accepted monetary offerings for himself (or any gift other than, say, a flower). But he did create a non-profit teaching organization that needed funds to sustain itself—accomplished by establishing a standard tuition for the seven-step TM course. Asking the student to give something back for learning is not unusual. In the great traditions of meditation, there's a longstanding precedence of students paying a "fee" to learn. In the oldest and probably most venerated tradition of meditation on earth, the Vedic tradition, it has been the custom for thousands of years for the student to approach the teacher with a gift in exchange for learning. The purpose of this gift, traditionally called "dakshina" or "gurudakshina," is not to benefit the teacher but to show respect and demonstrate the student's readiness and receptivity.
