--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "boo_lives" <boo_lives@> > wrote: > <snip> > > there's a PhD dissertation on the history of the tm mov't that's > > online (and I don't remember where I put the link) that states that > > MMY accompanied an aunt to the south of india on that first trip to > > rameswaram. the guy seems to have done his research and came up > > with that fact, which means a whole mythology about the inspiration > > for that trip may have come up after the fact. has anyone else > > heard about MMY taking a family member with him to rameswaram. > > No, the "mythology" is right there in the > dissertation, along with the ailing aunt. > > From the dissertation by Jay Randolph Coplin: > > After about one year of ascetic seclusion at Uttarkashi, in a place > called "valley of the saints," Maharishi Mahesh Yogi accompanied his > ailing aunt from Calcutta to a medical facility at Madanapalle in the > southern state of Andhra Pradesh. By his own admission, he was > responding not only to the request of his relative but more directly > to an irrepressible impulse to "go south" and visit the temples of > pilgrimage at Kanchi, Rameshwaram, and Kanya Kumari. > > http://members.aol.com/drcoplin/SRMemergence.html > > So he apparently dropped her off at Madanapalle > and continued south.
And came back. He was all in all in Madanapalle 2-4 month, not continously, but in at least two intervalls. I think I have narrated here the story, that I met a man, now 83 or so, who met and was initiated by Maharishi there. He also mentioned that the Maharaja of Cochin was Maharishis devotee. There is a building there called Maharishi Mandir. I made photos of it, if you want i can upload them. Narayan Ayer still met Maharishi in 1984 when he was last in India. Madanapalle is slightely higher than Bangalore and therefore cooler. At the time Maharishi was there it had a population of 10.000 people, now it must be 100 or 200.000. Madanapalle is known for its hospitals for treating tuberculosis. Nowadays its about 1 1/2 hours from Bangalore by car, and 4 hours from Madras. Narayan Ayer also told a story were M. initiated about 200 people after he returned the last time, still before going o the west. He also took planes within India already. Kanya Kumari, apart from being an important shakti peetha, is also the place where Vivekananda had his vision of rejuvanating the Swami order and going to the west. There is a Vivekanada island there. The story is well known and Maharishi must have been inspired by it. Narayan Ayer mentioned Vivekananda and how Maharsihi was wondering if his white dress (instead of the Swami orange) would make him accepted in the west.
