There's no point flogging this horse to death. Saying something is the 'best' is merely an appeal to the ego, and a sales pitch. Obviously we all would like to think we were the best and we will be more content knowing we have 'the best.' There's not really much that's very deep than needs to read into this. I don't think most megalomaniacs use 'the best' as a sales pitch, for them, it's more like 'the only.'
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sal Sunshine Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2007 8:53 AM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Press invitation, written by Maharishi in October, 1952 On Mar 24, 2007, at 8:36 AM, authfriend wrote: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> It is also interesting that MMY twice invokes that his teacher is the highest, bestest, most fantastical saint in India. Competitive thing isn't he? Best in spirituality. That reminds me of people who claim to be the best in art. Or in politics, hmm? Thing is, it isn't exactly *unusual* for followers of a spiritual teacher or political or other kind of leader to believe that the teacher or leader is the "best" in their field. If you didn't think that, why would you be following them in the first place? Maybe because he was the one who happened to come your way at the right time. As in so many other things, timing is crucial to who most people follow and why. And I believe there's a big difference between thinking something might be the best, for you at least, and loudly trumpeting it, over and over (at least as per Curtis' description above). The former might be natural, the latter almost a form of aggression, really having not much to do with the teacher and everything to do with the student's own needs to put himself on a pedestal as much as the teacher. Sal
