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80 | 4 Transcendental Meditation On February 5, 2008, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi passed away at his home and headquarters in Vlodrop, the Netherlands, where he had lived since the late 1980s. He was believed to have been ninety-one years old. In the last years of his life he rarely met with anyone face-to-face, preferring to speak with followers by closed-circuit television. Maharishi’s body was shipped to Allahabad, about six hundred kilometers southwest of New Delhi. His relatives and disciples carried his body, propped up in a yogic posture, to a specially erected platform near the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers. Thousands of Maharishi’s followers filed past the platform, bowing as the sound of Hindu chanting filled the air and a helicopter showered rose petals from above. He was accorded a full state funeral by the president of India. The army held their rifles in a neutral position for the military salute in honor of Maharishi’s lifelong dedication to the creation of world peace. In traditional Hindu style, only men were allowed to attend during the cremation itself. His nephew lit the funeral pyre made of sandalwood logs, and Swami Vasudevananda Saraswati, Shankaracharya of the North, presided over the funeral. Meanwhile, at a TM enclave on Heavenly Mountain, near Boone, North Carolina, devotees watched the funeral pyre via satellite. One told me later, “I would watch and sob my heart out, doze a little, wake up, and start crying all over again.” Thus ended a fifty-year career begun in 1958, when Maharishi inaugurated the Spiritual Regeneration Movement. This was the first of many inaugurations with sonorous epithets during Maharishi’s long endeavor to bring peace and prosperity to the world. The tools he used in this venture changed over time, but his basic message remained the same: individuals, pursuing spiritual practices, will change the world. Shortly before his death, he declared that his work was done and nothing could stop the Golden Age from its full efflorescence. Maharishi passed his inexhaustible idealism to his followers who continue the work that he began. Transcendental Meditation | 81 Maharishi is succeeded by a Lebanese doctor of internal medicine and psychiatry, Tony Nader. Besides being a medical doctor, Dr. Nader holds a PhD in Brain and Cognitive Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology . The new leader is not called a master or a guru, but “His Excellency Maharaj-adhiraj Raja Ram, First Sovereign Ruler of the Global Country of World Peace.” Maharaj means “great king” and adhiraj means “primary king,” so his title could be translated “the great and foremost king of the kingdom of Ram.” Rama, or Ram, is the heroic king and incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu in the great epic Ramayana. Many Hindus believe that Rama Rajyam, or Ram Raj, was an era of Indian history in which morals prevailed. Maharishi and his close followers believe that they are helping to establish a new Ram Raj in which morality will reign as a result of many people practicing Transcendental Meditation. Dr. Nader was crowned king during a five-day coronation ceremony in October 2000, when he was declared to have reign over this new “Heaven on Earth” that Maharishi had predicted for so many years. Raj Nader wore long golden robes during the ceremony, which took place in the “throne room” of Maharishi’s home in the Netherlands. At the end of the ceremony, a royal procession included horse-drawn carriages, bagpipers, an elephant, and an airplane with a banner that read, “Glory to Nader Rama, Ruler of Global Country.” Nader Ram was also to have charge over the other rajas, which include the king of Chicago and the king of Atlanta, among others, and forty ministers of the cabinet of the Global Country of World Peace. According to the Global Country’s official website, this newly formed government provides “a parental and nourishing role in the family of nations.”1 Obviously the TM movement has traveled some distance since Maharishi inaugurated the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in 1958. Establishing a world government is just one example of Maharishi’s many innovations that attempt to bring ancient Indian knowledge and practice to a modern-day setting. Examination of his various plans to revive ancient medicine, architecture , government, and meditative techniques reveals a central theme: the integration of worldly and spiritual realms. He refers to this complex of projects as a revival of “Vedic science.” However, it may be more appropriate...

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