Dear Fairfield Lifers, In the past few days, someone posted a photo of Swami Muktananda hug- ging Maharishi. I was there at this famous meeting in 1976 between these two, and here's what I remember:
Swami Muktananda was traveling on tour throughout Europe with a large entourage of his followers. A meeting was arranged with Maha- rishi in the big meeting room in Seelisberg where Maharishi held even- ing knowledge meetings for the international staff - the beautiful gold meeting hall that you see in many videos. Muktananda and his entourage were the guests of honor that evening, and the meeting was, in essence, turned over to them as I remember. Maharishi was seated on the stage on the central couch, as usual. Swami Muktananda was seated on another couch to Maharishi's right (a place of great honor - the teacher often is on the right when he sits with a student, as in a TM initiation). Neither was higher or lower than the other. (Muktananda seemed quite happy with the seating arrangement, and didn't express verbally or physically any desire to change it - till the end - but we're getting ahead of the story!) The audience was the entire international staff, 108's, faculty, VIPs, etc. - plus the participants on my course (a year-long, ex- perimental course where Maharishi was giving us a lot of personal attention). He specifically invited our course to this special meeting - sent a bus all the way around Lake Lucerne and had us travel over an hour to get there, which messed up our routine and only happened on very special occasions (celebrations, special an- nouncements, guests, etc.). So Maharishi knew that something spe- cial was up - Swami Muktananda did not arrive as any kind of sur- prise. That evening to begin the meeting, Maharishi said some brief, but very uplifting and honoring remarks about Swami Muktananda. Maha- rishi then asked Swami Muktananda to speak, which he did, through his interpreter (a young woman), and during that talk he spoke highly of Maharishi. He also spoke quite forcefully about the ig- norance and superficiality of Western science when compared with deep, vedic knowledge. After he spoke, Swami Muktananda and his followers chanted the Guru Gita (which is a part of the Skanda Purana, and contains some significant components of the TM puja ceremony). During all of this, all throughout his talking or chanting, Swami Muktananda did what he does with his students - had them come sit right near him for a minute or two, and then sent them back to their seat in the audience and replaced them with another of his students, apparently giving them powerful darshan. Basically, Maharishi turned over the program for the evening to Swami Muktananda, and sat quietly, often with eyes closed, after his own opening words. He didn't interact on the surface (make remarks, do commentary, exchange looks, etc.). He seemed very deep within. To me, and a number of my friends on my course, it seemed like a kind of friendly, cosmic "contest" was developing: which of these two powerful saints was going to "make the other move". It was obvious, almost palpable, that there was a great flow of love, respect, and especially cosmic power, between these two. And the contrast was very clear - Swami Muktananda manifesting his power through activity (forceful speech, moving his disciples about, group chanting, animated gestures) and Maharishi manifest- ing his power through silence and non-movement. Almost like the polarity of Goddess Shakti and Lord Shiva, the two great polar opposite fields of life. The polarity of this silence and activity was intense. Obviously, something had to give. And, at a certain moment late in the even- ing, right in the middle of saying something to or about Maharishi, Swami Muktananda abruptly stopped talking, quickly got up, sat down right next to Maharishi on his couch, and hugged him. Everyone, the followers of both Masters, were shocked and amazed, and the room became very agitated! People were moving about, taking pic- tures of them, talking, etc. To the best of my knowledge, no one had ever sat down next to Maharishi on his couch, nor snuggled up against him, nor wrapped him in a hug! Maharishi didn't seem upset, and didn't look any more uncomfortable than you'd be if you'd been deep in silence and somebody bounced down onto the couch next to you and grabbed you. Maharishi didn't appear to try and pull away or get up. The two of them exchanged a few private words in the midst of this chaos, then both arose and exited the meeting hall together, leaving the room in turmoil. Some of Muktananda's followers, not aware of the normal etiquette, rushed for the door to follow their Master, clambering over chairs. The men from my course waited a few minutes for the chaos to set- tle down and the exits to clear, and then we eventually got back on our bus and rode an hour back to our quiet hotel on the other side of the lake. The consensus among us was that we'd just seem something cosmic and powerful. Some incredible tension (not of a negative nature) had been generated, and eventually burst into that final action by Swami Muktananda. When Maharishi came to visit with us the next day on our course, we asked him about what we'd seen. We said that it had looked like the meeting of an immovable object with an irresistible force, or something like that. Maharishi confirmed that. He said that it was a matter of which one of them was going to move to the other, and that we had seen activity magnetized to pounce on silence. He implied that silence was always the most irresistible, and with a twinkle in his eye he said that Swami Muktananda had ultimately succumbed to that irresistibility. There was the implication that something deep, something invincible, had been revealed to us in that exchange between these two great souls, something about the power of silent Being, and that's what he had invited us there to witness. Never having seen Maharishi touched, especially so enthusiastical- ly and explosively, we asked him something naive like "Wasn't it strange to have someone touching you like that - how do you main- tain your purity?" Maharishi replied: "I just stayed on my Self", which seemed to answer more than we had asked. Namaste, Michael PARA - THE CENTER FOR REALIZATION and THE RELATIONSHIP INSTITUTE Michael Dean Goodman Ph.D., D.D., Director Boca Raton (Palm Beach County) Florida 561-350-3930 (24 hours) * [EMAIL PROTECTED] Counseling * Private Educational Sessions * Spiritual Guidance * Satsang Classes * Workshops & Retreats * Group Presentations * Articles & Essays Clients and programs throughout the United States, Europe, and India Working in person or by phone Free initial consultation to discuss your needs and goals ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! 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