Transcendental Meditation
Mahesh Prasad Varma was born in January 1918 in the state of Madhya
Pradesh, India. Soon after his graduation, he became a disciple of Swami
Brahmananda Saraswati 1942 who was the spiritual leader of the Jyothir Math
(Shrine) in the Himalayas. It was one of the four cardinal shrines (math)
established by Sage Adi Shankaracharya who was the philosopher and saint in the
eighth century AD who propagated the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, the
doctrine of non-dualism. Mahesh Prasad’s life began when he learned the secrets
of swift and deep meditation practices from his Mentor. He continued there up
to 1953 until the sad demise of his mentor. In 1955, he decided to fulfil the
cherished dreams of his Guru for the well-being of the entire world. Maharishi
began to introduce Transcendental Deep Meditation based on the teachings of his
mentor. It is the teaching of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that every individual is
cosmic and divine. The personal possibility of life is the cosmic possibility.
The transcendental experience arouses divinity and the right to live as an
enlightened human being. Later he modified Transcendental Deep Meditation into
Transcendental Meditation, and he began to tour all over India. He taught about
the cosmic possibility of every individual human being which is already present
with us. Transcendental meditation is a special and silent meditation practice,
and it is another form of Mantra meditation practice that is found in the Hindu
scriptures of Upanishads.
Later
he diverted his attention from India to the rest of the world for promoting and
disseminating transcendental meditation. He started his global tour in 1958
from Burma (now Myanmar). It included all the east Asian countries especially
Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Finally, he reached Hawaii (USA) in 1959. Even though he had no money, he never
asked for any help from any people. He began his tumultuous
journey in the US and later to European Countries. The majority of the citizen have been impressed by his
teachings. His popularity started to increase day by day and people were
delighted and enthused by his speech. He pointed to the sorrows
and miseries dominating life everywhere, whether it is rich or poor nations.
Tensions, stress and pressure are mounting in all countries. He stressed that
“each one can go deep inside and fill his conscious mind with inner joy with
unlimited intellect that resides at the source of thought”. When it is blissful
in its nature, it is infinite bliss. The mind is always tending to move in the
direction of greater pleasure and that is the experience of all human beings.
Wherever the mind goes in the direction of greater bliss, the nature of the
inner being is infinite bliss, so the mind adopts that inner path more spontaneously
during transcendental meditation. "In this meditation, we do not concentrate or
restrain the mind, it allows the mind to follow its natural instinct to greater
happiness and it goes inward and attains bliss in essence". The TM technique involves the use of
a specific thought that suits us. This is a mantra or words we hear from a
teacher trained in transcendental meditation. The trained teachers give a
suitable mantra or word to the Yoga Practitioners. The Yoga Practitioner begins
to minimise that thought to experience the best state of that thought until he
experiences the thought of that sound and finds the source of the thought and
the conscious mind reaches the transcendental realm." Hence from the state of
gross thought to the subtler state of thought, to the state of the subtlest
state of thought". This is the path of transcendental meditation, the mind, the
conscious mind, reaching the blissful consciousness or the transcendental
conscience or the pure state of being. "In this state of mind, the mind is
filled with vitality, vigour, intellect and ecstasy". We sit and come out of it,
presenting and experiencing the world in a better way than ever before.
It
is stated that Maharishi Mahesh Yoga is reported to have taught innumerable
transcendental Meditation guides and teachers all over the world. Gave classes
and educated the Transcendental Meditation technique to crores of people and
established thousands of instruction centres. Tens of thousands of people have
studied and benefitted from the Transcendental meditation program. His projects
include schools and universities with campuses in many countries, in the
continents of Asia, North America and Europe. In the years
between the 60s and 70s, Maharishi became a renowned Spiritual master. He started the Transcendental Meditation program, which
suggested improving the trainers' mind-body connection through techniques such
as yogic flying. Maharishi’s Natural Law Party was founded in 1992 and has
campaigned for meditation in many countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. The
sage taught thousands of people worldwide from 1958 to 1965. As Maharishi
shifted to a more technical presentation, TM became more popular in the 1970s,
and his meditation style was practised by many famous people. During this time,
he recruited and provided the necessary training to Transcendental Meditation
teachers, and arranged the manpower for utilising the resource. He taught TM to
millions of people and the TM organisation around the world has grown to a
large size to train more and more practitioners and Yoga teachers.
Simultaneously, he also started educational programs, health products and
related services. In the year 2000, he moved to the Netherlands, formed
the Global Country of World Peace, a non-profit organisation, and appointed its
leaders. In 2008, the sage announced his retirement from all administrative
activities and remained silent until his demise three weeks later.
By practising this technique one can achieve physical and psychological benefits. Luminous awareness, stress avoidance, access to a higher state of consciousness, as well as reduced risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and many physiological disorders. This technique was neither religious nor non-religious. Sociologists and experts have expressed religious or secular views. Based on the available evidence, definite conclusions can be drawn about the effect of meditation as scintillating. TM is not strenuous and even people having some physical disability can also attend and gain benefits.