Chapter Three
SRM as Cultural Revitalization Text
A nation or people lives and creates in the fullness of its power when it is sustained by a perpetual faith in itself and in an aesthetic and moral sense of its cultural life - when a nation does not merely strive to keep alive, but instead, lives for what is great in its own eyes and is pleased with its increasing success in actualizing genuine and enriching values. . . We, as well as the largest part of the population, have lost this faith which upheld us and our ancestors, and which also spread to nations which, like Japan, have only recently joined the European cultural endeavor. . . And thus we feel compelled to say: Something new must happen. It must take place within us and be carried out by us, as members of humanity who live in this world, forming the world and being formed by it. Shall we wait to see whether this culture will recover of itself, in the chance play of forces which create and destroy values? Shall we let the "decline of the West" happen to us as our fate?-Edmund Husserl "Renewal: Its Problem and Method"1
The examination of the social and historical context for the emergence of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in South India in the decade following Independence suggests two lines of interpretation. By attending primarily to the constitution of the social base, SRM can be seen as an ideology derived from Vedic and Hindu tradition and consistent with relations within the centuries-old social order favoring the upper castes. It is then a response to conflict of interests between brahmins (and upper caste Hindus, especially Nayars) and non-brahmins, who were actively pursuing restitution of advantages historically reserved to educated brahmins. While there is substantial evidence for this Marxian analysis in the status of early participants, further understanding of the meaning of their statements and knowledge of their motivations are both necessary to establish the kind of rational calculation of relative opportunity and advantage implicit in this approach.
Alternatively an emphasis on the immediate historical situation would show that India had only just freed herself from the domination of a foreign power from the West and was undergoing a period of relative instability and social and political agitation. This may account for the attractiveness of a set of ideas which justifies Indian cultural ideals and projects that pattern of beliefs as the solution to the spiritual predicament of not only India but the Western world as well. The presence of an ideology based in reconstituted traditionalism acts as a symbolic outlet for strain in the social system, a response to social dislocation (and the personal tension created by it). In the Durkheimian interpretation, restorative collective action occurs among social groups newly created or displaced by the struggle between the social forces of disintegration (differentiation rapid enough to threaten anomie) and integration (renewing commitment to shared beliefs). In this case SRM provided an ideology which sustained the morale of many upper caste South Indians at a time when their cultural foundations and established images of political order had been driven into a state of confusion and potential irrelevance.
According to Geertz, it is especially at the historical point when a political system begins to free itself from conventional morality and received tradition that the loss of orientation to civic rights and responsibilities most directly gives rise to ideological activity: .
The attainment of independence, the overthrow of established ruling classes, the popularization of legitimacy, the rationalization of public administration, the rise of modern elites, the spread of literacy and mass communications, and the propulsion willy-nilly of inexperienced governments into the midst of a precarious international order that even its older participants do not very well understand all make for a pervasive sense of disorientation, a disorientation in whose face received images of authority, responsibility, and civic purpose seem radically inadequate. The search for a new symbolic framework in terms of which to formulate, think about, and react to political problems, whether in the form of nationalism, Marxism, liberalism, populism, racism, Caesarism, ecclesiasticism, or some variety of reconstructed traditionalism (or, most commonly, a confused melange of several of these) is therefore tremendously intense.2
Geertz is, however, critical of both strain and interest theories of ideology for their absence of consideration of the processes of symbolic formulation - the link between the causes of ideology and its effects. Ideologies transform sentiment into significance and social reality because "they are, most distinctively, maps of problematic social reality and matrices for the creation of collective conscience".3Ideologies should be examined as systems of interacting symbols, of interworking meanings.
To understand the origins of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in India, it is necessary to explain its ideology not only forward, towards its social base, but backwards, towards cultural analysis of the structures of signification, the semiotic webs of significance. Culture is itself a context of public not private perceptions and its analysis locates "the imaginative universe within which their (social) acts are signs".4In the interpretation of culture, actions are symbolic and signify an importance to traditional representations.
Geertz's reference to "collective conscience" is an appropriate one in that it suggests Durkheim's attribution of religious origin to social cohesion, cultural continuity, and all conceptual categories. Although he noted that increased division of labor and social differentiation caused a general shift from mechanical to organic solidarity, Durkheim characterized this development by its effect on the "collective conscience," which declined in importance. As the shared set of beliefs, sentiments, and ideals, "collective conscience" is vital to a society based on mechanical solidarity (likeness) but less significant to one based on organic solidarity (functional interdependence). In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Durkheim established that all moral authority is religious in nature - that is, it is derived from a system of collective beliefs and practices that has a special authority, that are "sacred". Religion is the symbolic self-consciousness of society, and its enactments are processes of society becoming conscious of itself. Ideology, then, is a pattern of ideas which can be traced to certain fundamental symbols and sentiments. The moral authority that it maintains or establishes can be associated with elements sacred to the collectivity.
By "sacred" is meant objects claiming obligation and respect, that are separate and superior. As the form of solidarity shifts and the "collective conscience" influence becomes more vague and indeterminate, "there is a decreasing number of collective beliefs and sentiments which are both collective and strong enough to assume a religious character".5Thus upper caste participants at the early assemblies of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement decried the decline in respect for moral authority and symbols once taken to be inviolable among brahmins. Durkheim gives an explanation for the attempt at cultural revitalization embodied in a traditional ideology:
There is something eternal in religion which is destined to survive all the particular symbols in which religious thought has successively enveloped itself. There can be no society which does not feel the need of upholding and reaffirming, at regular intervals, the collective sentiments and ideas which give it its unity and individuality. Now this moral reconstruction cannot be achieved except by means of reunions, assemblies, and congregations, in which individuals, being brought together, reaffirm in common their common sentiments. From this source arise ceremonies which do not differ from properly religious ceremonies, either in their object, the results which they produce or the processes employed to attain these results.6
Shankaracharya Tradition
In the great tradition of Indian culture, cosmic creation begins (and in the cycle of creations, begins again and again) with Svayambhu- the "self-existent," unoriginated source of all that is. The macrocosm creates out of itself, deputizing its own creative principles in the service of its own expansion. This process is eternal and continuous. It is visually symbolized by Lord Vishnu gracefully reclining on the coiled form of Sesha("remainder") or Ananta("endless one"), the thousand-headed cosmic serpent whose coils symbolize the endless revolutions of Time. From the navel of Vishnu (or Narayana) grows a lotus upon whose flower sits the four-faced creator Brahma.
The aim of Indian religious thought, it may be said, is to harness this process of continuous creation either in the service of the social order, by mediating between the individual and the cosmos as is the case of the orthodox Sanskritic tradition, or in the interests of individual freedom and salvation by relating the individual directly to the cosmic order. In the former situation, reliance upon ritual results in total subjection to society, but in the latter case of the heterodox traditions, including Buddhism and Jainism, one is left totally free of society.
Freedom in Indian culture has always referred to the transcendent, in which socially prescribed ritual is denigrated and replaced by direct experience of the unmanifest cosmic energy and intelligence. As such, individuals are freed, and society ceases to function, at least in a hierarchical and segmented sense. Religious conversion in India is so often prompted by the desire to at once extricate oneself from the bindings of the caste order and positively associate with a path to personal salvation and social equality. Typically, new religions reject metaphysical categories and social constraints of orthodox Hinduism. Both Jainism and Buddhism appealed to the new class of influential merchants who resented traditional pretensions of the brahmins. Similarly, British colonialism brought its own form of destruction - secularism, which offered egalitarian access to expanding material means, exclusion of the traditional values of ritual, hierarchy, and asceticism, and its own path to freedom in the mundane realm.
Socio-historical evidence presented in the previous section included statements by early SRM members disparaging the growth of secularism and Western rationalism as it had led to political corruption and spiritual degradation. Maharishi's program of meditation was seen as a spiritual and social response to that predicament in that it placed primary emphasis on spiritual development as the basis of material growth and acknowledged India as the time-honored resource for restoration of balance in the world order. Similarly, it was not merely regional chauvinism which induced other SRM participants to declare Kerala as the land which has "produced the greatest philosopher of the world, Sree Shankara the great". The Maharaja of Cochin also stated:
The great Lord Adi Shri Sankaracharya having found the truth of Sanatana Dharma and having felt the deteriorating spirit of the nation, went out to broadcast the true message of philosophy and higher values of life.7
Responding to the incursions of Jainism and Buddhism, the philosopher Shankara led a revival of Sanskritic Hinduism, which resulted in the virtual elimination of Buddhism from the land of its birth and the institutionalization of an ascetic tradition which has survived to this day. In South India in particular, where the majority of Smarta Brahmins and Smarta temples are found in later times, brahmanical orthodoxy has been preserved largely by householders following the traditional system of varnashrama dharmaand Shankara's Advaita Vedantaphilosophy. For these brahmins, Vedic mantrasand rituals are used in their worship (puja), the purpose of which was not divine salvation but ritual performance of duty (dharma).8As brahmins (the highest varnaor social category) and householders (at the second stage or ashramaof their life cycle), they could expect to become sannyasisor ascetics at a later stage of life by renouncing their caste affiliations and mundane ties (family and occupation). Only then would they be able to begin the path of spiritual development leading to final release or transcendence advocated by Shankara - the path of knowledge, or gyana yoga.
The consensus among historians is that Shankara lived between 788 and 820 A.D.,9although the official dates given by his line of successors, also titled Shankaracharyas, places the start of their tradition some 2400 years ago.10In either case, the Indian culture into which he was born in the Keralan village of Kaladi had long held asceticism in high regard. The institution of four ashramas(stages of life) had crystallized before Buddha, as the Upanishads had extolled the householder ideal as adequate path to enlightenment. The precept of direct contact with the cosmic order through a path of individual asceticism was deeply rooted, but Buddha has been credited with being the first to organize monasteries, and to bring collective sociality to a collection of solitaries. Shankara set up the first Hindu monastic centers and established ten orders (Dasanami) of Shaiva ascetics some three or four hundred years later, after Buddhism had lost its practical appeal.
Despite his insistence that religious instruction be open to all and that the householder need not renounce his duties to achieve enlightenment, Shankara's teaching tradition gradually became associated with a path of knowledge accessible only to the recluse. Part of the reason is the high intellectual personality that Shankara established as model in the Advaita Vedanta system:
. . it can only be understood by those highly worshipped persons . . who are paramahamsa, wandering mendicants, who have reached the final stage and are totally devoted to the philosophy of the Vedanta and none others, who carry on this teaching.11
As a life-long celibate (naisthika brahmachari), Shankara attracted like-minded men as his closest disciples. The teaching tradition that he bequeathed to them began to interpret Vedanta as completely closed to householders, who are in the majority in society. To this situation Maharishi attributed India's "spiritual decadence" and moral downfall:
The idea of two paths became more predominant owing to the carelessness of the custodians of Shankara's teaching. Since they followed the recluse way of life, they were naturally concerned with thoughts of the separateness of the Divine from the world; and, with the continuance of this situation generation after generation, the aspect of knowledge began to dominate Shankara's tradition while the aspect of devotion gradually lost its importance. The teaching became one-sided and, deprived of its wholeness, eventually lost its universal appeal. It came to be regarded as mayavada, a philosophy of illusion, holding the world to be only illusory and emphasizing the detached way of life.12
When Maharishi began teaching during his South Indian tour in the mid-1950s, he arrived as an informal representative of the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, being a "great disciple of Shri Swami Brahmananda Saraswati (former Shankarcharya)."13As mentioned earlier, the first gatherings of SRM were held under the name of "Shri Shankaracharya Brahmananda Saraswati Adhyatmic Vikas Mandal," and Maharishi declared from the start that "our guiding light is the Divine Grace of Shri Guru Deva . . the most illustrious in the galaxy of the Jagad Guru Shankaracharyas."14That Maharishi was teaching on the basis of his discipleship under the former Shankaracharya and offering his knowledge to householders and all castes was seen by early SRM members as a special opportunity to derive theretofore elite culture - something from the preserve of tradition honored sannyasis.
Shankara was himself the disciple of a great yogi, Govinda Bhagavad-pada, who had learned Vedantafrom one Gaudapadacharya. The line of teachers and their students (sampradaya) traditionally extends even farther - back to Shukadeva, Vyasa, Vasishtha and Lord Narayana. Having led a disciplined, ascetic and secluded life with Govinda, Shankara recommended a monastic environment for his successors. In contrast to Buddhist asceticism, monasteries were closed to women, although Shankara admitted widowers and low caste shudrasas his students.15
He set up mathas(monasteries) throughout India and established four principal seats for his disciple-successors, known as Shankaracharyas. The administration of mathasand propagation of Vedantain the northern region of India was delegated first to a disciple named Trotakacharya, who became the first Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math in the Himalayas.16Following Trotakacharya, a long line of Shankaracharyas (recorded in the acharya parampara) undertook the administrative and teaching duties as well as the management of the nearby Badrinath Temple. The full account of the heads of the mathasis incomplete, and it appears that it fell into a state of desolation, lacking any organization or Shankaracharya, for a period of at least 165 years.17
In April, 1941, as a result of efforts by the Indian religious federation, supported by many princely states, and the persistent encouragement of his devotees, Swami Brahmanand Saraswati (Maharishi's master) was installed as Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, reinstating the northern seat.18During his twelve years as Shankaracharya, Brahmanand travelled widely throughout India, speaking to large crowds on Advaita Vedantaand by all accounts representing the high ideal of Shankara with wisdom, purity and grace. He was profoundly praised by leading political and social leaders, including Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the eminent philosopher, who addressed him as "Vedanta Incarnate" at the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the Institute of Indian Philosophers at Calcutta (December 1950).19As Shankaracharya, Brahmanandaji (as he is referenced by the current Shankaracharya) undertook the restoration of the physical matha and succeeded in building one of the more impressive monastic facilities. This was despite the fact that he refused any financial contributions, in adherence to the sannyasi tradition..20
All the Shankaracharyas (Jyotir Math, Sringeri, Puri, Kanchi, and Dwaraka) are respected religious leaders who follow very similar purposes and daily routines. They rarely enter political life21but rather restrict their efforts to temple life, social service, and revitalizing Indian education (especially Sanskrit and Vedic study). Traditionally, they are detached and wandering ascetics and generally spend little time in any one place, including the mathas. The danda, or staff, which they carry is both a sign of authority and itinerancy, referencing Shankara. Also following Adi-Shankaracharya (meaning the first Shankaracharya), their relations with their students follow the classical guru-shishya(master-disciple) pattern, based on a very high eligibility standard and rigorous discipline. Maharishi, though a devoted and favored disciple, was not eligible to become Shankaracharya due to his caste background (non-brahmin). Nonetheless, he shares with the last two Shankaracharyas of Jyotir Math (who succeeded Brahmanand Saraswati) a brotherly relationship, known as guru-bhais to one another.22Even today, Swami Vishnudevanand (the current Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math) speaks very highly of Maharishi and sees his teaching as a reflection of their master's.23Both he and Swami Shantanand (his immediate predecessor) are frequent guests of Maharishi's both in India and abroad, personally endorsing his mission.24
In the Shankaracharya tradition, Shankara is proclaimed as both a religious founder and major exponent of Advaita Vedanta.. He is seen as the one who reinstated Vedic religion and dharmaby eliminating non-Vedic cults and positively placing paths of both knowledge and devotion before the people. Devotion to Shankara for the Shankaracharyas and their disciples is a form of divine reverence. Shankaracharyas inherit this supreme veneration and role of religious leadership because their specific lineages reach back to Shankara and because individually each is able to express that high ideal in his life and teaching. As a single-minded devotee of the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, Maharishi saw in him another wave of renewal, a restoration of dharma taking place in his life and the lives of his students. In his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, Maharishi expressed this theme succinctly:
It was the concern of Guru Deva, His Divinity Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, to enlighten all men everywhere that resulted in the foundation of the worldwide Spiritual Regeneration Movement in 1958, five years after his departure from us. India is a country where Truth matters most and Indians are a people to whom God matters most. Indian soil has witnessed many times the revival of life's true philosophy. The people of India have never hesitated to return once more to the right path whenever it was convincingly pointed out to them that their way of life had taken a wrong course. This age has, however, been fortunate. It has witnessed the living example of a man inspired by Vedic wisdom in its wholeness and thus able to revive the philosophy of the integrated life in all its truth and fullness - His Divinity Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, the inspiration and guiding light of this commentary.25
Brahmachari
Radiating that same divine influence and that same purity and nobility of thought and action which our forefathers were accustomed to imbibe at the foot of our mighty mountain and on the Sacred banks of our Holy rivers. I say that in the person of Maharishi Bala Brahmachari Mahesh Yogi of Uttarkashi we have secured to ourselves the presence of a blessed soul who has attained an extra-ordinary level of spiritual perfection. A brilliant product of the Allahabad University, His Holiness has taken to the ascetic way of life undergoing a period of training in renunciation and self-abnegation under the great Jagadguru Bhagavan Sankaracharya Swami Brahmananda Saraswati Maharaj of Jyotirmutt, Badarikasram.26
Thus was Maharishi formally welcomed by Sri S. Kuttikrishna Menon at the start of the Spiritual Development Conference in Cochin, October, 1955. Significantly, Maharishi was characterized as an "ascetic" who had trained himself in "renunciation and self-abnegation" under the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math. As a result he had "attained an extra-ordinary level of spiritual perfection" and had been "blessed" with a "divine influence" and a "purity and nobility" akin to that of the "sacred" and "holy" ancestors of Indian culture. These qualities placed him among a respected cultural elite, worthy of veneration and obligation to serve. His titles - "Maharishi," "Bala Brahmachari," and "Yogi" each suggest a particular recognition of achievement highly valued in the Indian ascetic tradition. Their attribution to the founder of SRM at this early stage of the movement indicates its cultural foundation and one of the fundamental elements being revived by this social gathering in the decade following Independence. Unlike other features of Indian culture absorbed by the TM movement, brahmacharyaadded discipline and self-denial, especially for Western males. Many struggled with the high ideal Maharishi presented for them, and their fears of failure or loneliness prompted others to withdraw after they had reached the movement core, where elements of derived Hinduism are most noticeable.
While his association with the illustrious Shankaracharya tradition served as vital letter of introduction throughout India, his title, "bala brahmachari" identified him as a fully dedicated student of spiritual knowledge and life-long celibate ascetic. Literally, the name means "childhood or boy" (bala) "student of sacred knowledge" (brahmachari), and it has signified from Vedic times one who has taken the vow of chastity. Brahmacharihas several meanings in the Indian tradition. In Maharishi's case, as one unentitled to become a dandi sannyasi(for brahmins only), it placed him among sannyasisin the ascetic tradition. Wilson and Oman both recognize brahmacharisas a separate class of sannyasis, distinct from Dasanami sannyasisestablished by Shankara.27Among the larger groups of brahmacharisare those of Mount Girnar and the Agan Akhada of Brahmacharis found at Kumbha Melas. Ghurye has taken exception with these classifications in tracing the brahmacharisto a class of novitiates attached to each of the Shankaracharya mathaswho serve as ministers and helpers to the senior sannyasis. However, Ghurye's four classifications of brahmacharisdo not include Maharishi's appellation of bala brahmachari. He suggests that brahmacharisonly represent a stage of asceticism and not a separate class of sannyasis.28He later refers to the brahmacharisof Jyotir Math as "celibate juniors".29Cenkner found that among the followers of the Shankaracharyas, celibacy was highly regarded and expected of those few shishyas(disciples) who continue in study and service beyond their early education at the mathas.30
Brahmacharyarefers to the stage of life (ashrama) during which one is a brahmachari. The period of studentship is, according to Ghurye, the oldest known of the four ashramas. Passages in the Rg Veda describe munisor ascetics who were the favorites of Indra. Life-long celibates renowned for their self-control include Sanatkumara, Narada, Sanaka, and Sanandana.31The earliest rishis or Vedic seers were considered as eternal beings manifest at the start of each creation. These vatarashana rishisare characterized in the Taittiriya Aranyaka as urdhvamanthins or urdhvaretas meaning one whose semen is "drawn up" - chaste.32The Upanishads declare celibacy (brahmacharya) as a direct means to self-realization (Chandogya Upanishad), immortality (Mundaka Upanishad), and knowledge of Brahma (Prashna Upanishad). In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Yajnavalkya proclaims that for the realization of Brahman, wise men choose a path of renunciation without first becoming householders, "What shall we do with progeny if we do not realize the Self." In the Katha Upanishad, Naciketas learns from Yama, the god of death, that the realization of the Vedic ideal of knowledge comes through brahmacharya. The Mahabharata and Puranas further enshrine Narada, Shukadeva, Sanaka, Sanatkumara and other life-celibates in the popular imagination.33
In his linguistic study of brahmacharya, Gonda sees the "religious student" as one "cultivating Brahman" by pursuing "study of the Veda" and a "state of continence and chastity".34Stress is laid upon the brahmachari's supra-normal power in the Atharvaveda (11,5):
He sets heaven and earth in motion and maintains them; he fills his acharya(teacher) and even the gods with tapas(heat); he generates Brahman, the world, and Prajapati; his divine nature or being a manifestation of divine power; gods and fathers follow him; the gods assembled welcome him; by brahmacharyaand tapasthe gods warded off death.35
Gonda found that from an early date chastity and continence were considered essential to brahmacharya. According to the definition attributed to Yajnavalkya, "brahmacharyais abstinence from sexual intercourse in thought, word, and deed in all conditions, places, and times" (Prashna Upanishad).36When he laid out the conditions for successful studentship in his Vedic Studies program, Maharishi referenced the same Upanishad: self-sufficiency and integration of mind and body based upon "conservation of energy" is the "fertile ground" in which the teacher's words will sprout.37Manu Smriti has a similar admonition among its rules for the student:
Let him always sleep alone, let him never waste his manhood; for he who voluntarily wastes his manhood, breaks his vow. (II, 180)38
According to Manu Smriti, women are by their nature a source of distraction to one dedicated to the pursuit of Brahman-knowledge, requiring as it does the utmost application of the whole person, with all his energy:
It is the nature of women to seduce men in this (world); for that reason the wise are never unguarded in (the company of) females. (II, 213)For women are able to lead astray in (this) world not only a fool, but even a learned man, and (to make) him a slave of desire and anger. (II, 214)39
The Vedic literature often depicts women decoying the gods and interrupting ascetics in their meditations. In his psychological study of contemporary Hindus, The Twice Born, Carstairs found the fear of loss of semen a common anxiety in all castes but obsessive in higher castes. In fact the more sanskritized the caste, the more ritual restrictions upon sexuality. Practices such as avoidance of orgasm, retention of semen, and sex without emission are seen as strengthening physical vitality and sexual power. Conversely, sexuality and all bodily discharges are considered "polluting" and require purification, especially among pure high castes.40In his study of Indian culture (The Speaking Tree), Richard Lannoy stated that for the Indian male, woman's craving for sex represents a threat to man's physical and psychological well-being.41He further identifies Gandhi's derivation of satyagraha (passive non-violence in the pursuit of truth) with his failure to resolve his sexual libido, a disequilibrium based on the notion that sex is by nature violent.42In 1915, Gandhi explained the vows to be observed in his ashram(spiritual center):
it is well-nigh impossible to observe the vows of truth (satya) and of ahimsa (non-violence) unless 'celibacy' (brahmacharya) is also observed: 'one has so to control one's animal passions that they will not be moved even in thought.'43
The result of this emphasis on the moral need to achieve freedom from the sexual impulse is a preoccupation with sexual continence and considerable prestige attached to the life of a brahmachari.. Consequently, Maharishi "Bala Brahmachari" was praised for his "divine influence" and "purity and nobility" of thought and action. The attribution of strength goes beyond mere discipline in maintaining celibacy but, as referenced above, is derived from the association of brahmacharyawith power to achieve whatever is sought, like a divine right. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras state that "as soon as one is grounded in continence, one acquires energy" and "by the acquisition of which the yoginincreases his unhindered (apratighan) qualities." And germane to the concern of SRM members, this creative power influences others, too: "And when he is perfected (siddhah) he is able to transfer his higher knowledge to his disciples."44
Yogi and Rishi
The most extensive relief sculpture in Indian art is the myth of the descent of the Ganges (the holiest of Indian rivers) from heaven to earth depicted in dramatic and impressive living rock sculpture at Mamallapuram, near Madras. As recounted in the Ramayana, Agastya, one of the "seven rishis" and patron saint of southern India, swallowed the entire ocean in the exercise of one of his superhuman powers of digestion. Although it was done in the service of certain brahmin ascetics who were being harassed by aquatic demons, the earth was put into a perilous condition, so that only the herculean effort of another saint, King Bhagiratha, was able to dispel the calamity:
He decided to force his will upon the celestial powers and compel them to release the heavenly Ganges itself, to send it down to succor the earth. Committing the administration of his realm to his ministers, he proceeded to a celebrated center of pilgrimage sacred to Shiva, a place called Gokarna, 'Cow's Ear', in the south. Here, for a thousand years, he devoted himself to fierce penances. With unflinching determination, he accumulated superhuman energy through self-inflicted bodily sufferings. . . Eventually Brahma, pleased and attracted by this ascetic fervor, manifested himself, declared himself satisfied with Bhagiratha's perfect asceticism, and promised to grant a wish. Whereupon the kingly saint (rajarishi) asked the god to let Ganga descend to the earth.45
Through his further austerities (tapas), Bhagiratha succeeded in inducing Shiva himself, the "divine yogi," to catch the descending Ganges water in his matted hair and allow it to fall gently upon the Himalayas and the Indian plains. In the representation at Mamallapuram, Bhagiratha is found in a yogic posture, "lean from fasting, absorbed in concentration . . bent inward".46Accompanied by his pupils, the ascetic has attracted the attention of the divinity within the temple, which is seen appearing from the dark interior. Above this scene is that of Shiva being fervently implored by Bhagiratha, whose "body emaciated by fasting, he stands in one of the typical postures of tapas-yoga, poised on a single leg in pillar-like rigidity, both arms uplifted (urdhvabahu)".47
The "Descent of the Ganges" is an example of mythical dramatization of yogic powers prevalent in Indian culture. Rishi Agastya, King Bhagiratha, and Lord Shiva are divine and superhuman figures who utilize their superior energy to alter the course of cosmic and human history. Through the concentration of mental and physical power, yogis are reputed to melt all resistances to their will and compel divinities to act in their favor. Yogis achieve their status and power not through the accumulation of good deeds (like sacrifice, or yagya) but of a bodily heat-energy, called tapas. Frequently translated as "austerity" (such as fasting or standing rigidly in one position, as mentioned above), tapasis closely associated with brahmacharya, as in the following passages from the Mundaka Upanishad:
This self (atma) within the body is attainable by 'truth', by tapasand by brahmacharya. (3,1,5)Brahman is accumulated by tapas. (1,1,8)
In his discussion of brahmacharya, Gonda accounted for the frequent combination by noting the Indian tendency to associate heat with superhuman power:
This so-called 'asceticism', the generation of creative internal glow, belonging to the brahman methods of rising above normal human conditions and possibilities, of obtaining revelations of secret wisdom and contact with the divine powers is the typically Indian form of the widespread practice of generating 'heat' in order to transcend the normal human conditions and abilities. This practice rests on the belief that 'heat' and magico-religious or 'sacred' power are closely related conceptions, the 'archaic mind' being often inclined to assume the presence of heat is an indication for the manifestation of power. . . Becoming 'heated' means becoming flooded by a mysterious, non-human and irresistible force. Indians are until the present day often inclined to associate every form of occult or evil power or every manifestation of incomprehensible abilities - e.g., the power residing in a saint or a divinity - with heat.48
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had acquired the appellations "Yogi" and "Maharishi" before starting his first teaching tour of South India.49Thus he carried the status connotations of an ascetic saint in a tradition of long standing - one which suggests associations with Vedic legend at least as ancient as that of the brahmachari. "Maharishi" literally means "great" (maha-) "seer" (-rishi). While the designation should not be confused with the "Seven Rishis" (saptarishis) renowned in the Vedic literature as the primal makers of creation and principal cognizers, or seers, of the Rig Veda, its attribution connotes an "ideal or model by which other men are able to achieve spiritual development".50The rishisof the Rig Veda are an elite group of seers who are responsible for forming and preserving the Vedic hymns as well as establishing lineages fundamental to later Indo-Aryan culture. In post-Vedic mythology, rishisare classified as maharishis, rajarishis(royal seers), brahmarishis(priestly seers), and devarishis(divine rishis), according to their honorific level of spiritual attainment.
The "Seven Rishis" (Vishvamitra, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja, Gotama, Atri, Vasishtha, and Kashyapa with Agastya included as the "eighth") were the possessors of sacred speech (vac), capable of practically evoking the form of the word, and ritual sacrificers (yagya) for others and themselves, as well as teachers of Vedic knowledge. The power of tapaswas available to the Rishis who used it as a link between the mental and physical (heaven and earth) to gain immortality and effect sacrifices (yagyas). They are reputed to have gained their superlative powers through ascetic practices, dwelling in isolated and inaccessible locales, fasting and maintaining celibacy and vegetarian diet, ritual purification by heat or water, and yogic asanas(postures), pranayama(breathing), mauna(silence), and dhyana(meditation). As a result the Rishis purified their minds and bodies to obtain moksha, or liberation, and became siddhas, or perfected beings, shining with brilliant light and exuding radiant heat. Among their specific powers were knowledge of past and future, assuming different bodily forms, illuminating the earth and causing rain, curing illness and restoring the dead to life, and flying through the air and travelling to other worlds. Conversely, the Rishis are also known for their destructive capacities - to manifest their ascetic energy (tapas) externally as fire (tejas), anger, and a curse upon those who resist, attack, or insult them.51
The qualities of the rishi have not disappeared from Indian culture but are still attributed to the sadhus, or wandering ascetics and holy men, whose numbers are estimated anywhere from 70,000 to 700,000. In an article written in 1959, R.K. Narayan wrote of the continuing special regard given these renouncers of society:
supposed to be above material considerations, . . the Sadhu and his way of life are venerable features of the Hindu religion. The most ancient sacred writings - the Vedas and the Puranas - contain references to them. . Among some people he is greatly feared, and a reluctant or grudging householder may be cowed by 'You dare to turn away a sadhu!' with its implication of a curse. In general, a sadhuis accepted as a person who, having forsworn all private property and possessions, being without family or even identity as it is usually known, has a privileged position.He is, simply, a 'holy man', dedicated to meditation and prayer. . . He is, in Hindu belief, set aside by his own choice and discipline as an exemplar of dedication and abnegation. . . Practically every sadhuyou meet claims to have spent his apprenticeship on the slopes of the Himalayas, living in caves, practicing austerities and growing beyond human limitations by yoga.52
Among the many sadhus(wandering ascetics) are a large number of sannyasis(members of a monastic order) and, overlapping both designations, a high percentage of yogis, or practitioners of some form of yoga.
Yogameans "union" and it is used to designate virtually any practice which has as its goal the "yoking" of the mind and body into integrated functioning, ultimately linking cosmic energies of the microcosm and macrocosm.53There is evidence to suggest that its practice was known in Harappa and Mohenjodara, even before its development in Vedic India. In the late Upanishads, specifically mental disciplines, or techniques, are advocated to free the self from the distractions of senses, mind, and intellect (Katha Upanishad) and are elaborated in practical details (Svetasvatara Upanishad). However the classic "textbook" of yogais recognized as Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the basis for one of the six darshanas, or philosophical systems.
Under Patanjali's system, called ashtanga yoga(eight limbs of yoga), there are eight aspects or stages of discipline, from external to internal (behavior, body, senses, breath and mind). Maharishi differs from most interpreters of Patanjali in asserting that the eight are not distinct stages to be consecutively controlled but rather interconnected parts of the whole yoga, or integrated functioning, which are simultaneously affected by correct practice. He consequently advocates a direct path first to samadhi, the state of pure consciousness, rather than last and recommends dhyana(meditation) as the most effective means. While transcendental meditation (TM) is essentially dhyana-yoga(meditation), asanas(physical postures) and pranayama(regulation of breathing) are used to supplement the mental discipline, and samyama(a conjunction of three "limbs") has been utilized in the TM-Sidhi program. (Book Three of the Yoga Sutras is exclusively concerned with "Supernormal Powers," or siddhis, which involve the application of samyamato various objects.)
Cenkner found that the Shankaracharya tradition placed emphasis on the path of knowledge (gyana yoga) due to Shankara's debate with Mandan Mishra over the relative merits of shabda, or verbal testimony of the Vedas, versus upasana, or devotional meditation. Shankara stressed the fundamental of the guru-shishya(teacher-student) relationship to provide direction for instruction and interpretation of experience and Vedic texts rather than the independence and self-sufficient inquiry permitted by a path of yogaor meditation alone. For gyana-yogaShankara recommended the highest object of meditation - discrimination between the Self and non-Self, that is, between pure consciousness and the fluctuations of consciousness (or "mind-stuff" as Patanjali calls it). Devotion and ritual practices are preliminary at best and relegated to the background.
In contemporary Shankaracharya mathas(like the Jyotir Math in which Maharishi studied), Cenkner found little use of hatha-yoga(physical postures) but rather pranayama(breathing exercises) and mantra meditation (japa) along with service to the mathaor teacher. Higher forms of meditation like the gyana-yogadescribed by Shankara are restricted to a few advanced students of Vedanta, although it is generally recognized that "formless meditation" and sustained "self-inquiry" are the central goals of their Advaitadiscipline.54
Following Shankara, Maharishi wrote his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita (1967). Hailing it as the "Scripture of Yoga," Maharishi emphasized, "Its purpose is to explain in theory and practice all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level."55To two verses he gave special attention: "Be without the three gunas (mental and physical activity elements)" (II, 45) and "Established in Yoga,. perform action" (II, 48). These two, he explained, provide the nucleus of transcendental meditation (transcend the field of mental and physical activity to pure consciousness) and its effective result through continued practice (the goal of yoga, or union, with the Self fully known while engaged in dynamic activity). This he described to be the essence of yoga.56In the words of Sri S. K. Menon, who welcomed him to the Spiritual Development Conference at Cochin. "the blissful pedestal of Realization - that stage of Union between the lower self and the higher self" was made available to them by Maharishi's "easy method of mind control".57
Guru
Those people are fools who engage in sacrificial rites, vows, penance, japa, charity, and also pilgrimages without knowing the Guru principle.Always remember the Guru's form. Constantly repeat the divine name given by the Guru. Always follow the Guru's commands. Think of nothing other than the Guru.
If Shiva is angry, the Guru saves you, but if the Guru is angry, even Shiva cannot save you. Therefore, with every effort take refuge in Sri Guru.
I worship the Lord Guru, even a few particles of dust from whose feet form a bridge across the ocean of the world.
Salutations to Sri Guru, who by imparting the power of Self-knowledge burns up all the karmas acquired through countless lives.
The root of meditation is the Guru's form. The root of worship is the Guru's feet. The root of mantrais the Guru's word. The root of liberation is the Guru's grace.
-Sri Guru Gita58
The fundamental principle of the guruis as reverenced today in India as it was in the Upanishads and other Vedic literature. The teacher is indispensable to gaining knowledge and especially to gaining spiritual fulfilment, even for the student who already possesses knowledge (Chandogya Upanishad). In ancient times the purpose of education was spiritual development attained through service to a learned man (shushruvan), a teacher (guru) "who is learned in the scriptures and established in Brahman." (Mundaka Upanishad). Based upon the conditions of brahmacharya, the student-teacher relationship was characterized by constant personal contact. It was taken for granted that education required a teacher, and the relationship was so close that pupils were named after their mentors.59The association was spiritual because of the intimacy exchanged and because the guru was the possessor of tapasand the power of divine speech - to evoke the manifestation of the form in the mind of another. Thus the sadhana, or spiritual practice, given in any form by the gurucarried far greater possibilities for realization by the student than any path secured by the individual's own invention.60The power, influence, and efficacy of the mantra(divine word) is initially derived from the powerful capacity of its original invoker, so that when it is used for meditation this depends upon the consciousness of the teacher. Thus the elaborate and traditional manner in which instruction or initiation (diksha) is given by the guru and the prescriptions and prohibitions pertaining to the qualifications of a serious seeker of divine (and usually secret) knowledge.61
Gonda has surveyed the development of the guruconcept into the present day and found his position "essentially based on the time-honored reverence for the Respektspersonen,"62who are bearers of sacred knowledge or tradition or victors in spiritual struggle:
It is no less evident that the belief in their superiority rests largely on the conviction that their knowledge or doctrines are not only eminently powerful, but also of supernatural or transcendent origin, that their rites are efficacious and their ideals exalted; on the conviction also that they, and especially those who are supposed to be liberated themselves, are able to guide their adepts to perfection and emancipation. The guru accepts pupils, initiates, imparts the mantra. His full favor is essential. An unending succession of twice-born students learned the old texts from their teachers.63
In Yoga and Tantra schools, the guruis representative of God, the highest Teacher (paramaguru) and "the root of initiation (diksha), which in its turn is the root of the mantra".64At the time of initiation (and consecration) the guru's vital energy is transferred to the student along with the suitable mantra. In exchange for this power and knowledge, the student traditionally offers a gift (dakshina), which cannot, of course, be equivalent in value but is meant to please the teacher and gain his favor. He also acknowledges the guruthrough his serviceful attitude until his own liberation is secured.65The gurutakes responsibility for spiritually uplifting the student, sharpening his intellect for purposeful analysis and discussion, and for purifying him in mind and body. This may be accomplished through a prescribed program of yogaand self-purification or more directly through the grace of the guru; that is, through his concentrated attention. In the following passage, Gonda indicates that the tradition of profound respect for the guruhas not only continued but even grown in recent years:
In the last centuries the religious teacher or spiritual preceptor - who is not always a brahmin or an ascetic - still is as a rule a much honored personality. The name guru is applied to a man of any caste who is believed to be in peculiarly close communion with the Highest Being or supranatural power and to hold the secret of divine mysteries, whether on account of asceticism, utterances regarded as inspired, or saintliness of life or character. The basis of the peculiar veneration of the guru still lies in the conviction that he is a link in a long chain of transcendental beginnings, a mediator able to bring his disciple and God together, or a medium through whom God is willing to reveal Himself. Those who on account of their highly developed spirituality and earnest religious life need no guru are rare.66
In his autobiography, Gandhi flatly stated, "I think there is a great deal of truth in the doctrine that true knowledge is impossible without a guru."67Considering that spiritual development remains an important goal of Indian community and family life and given the relative increase in materialistic and non-traditional means of status enhancement, dependence upon the guruas a specialist in spiritual matters has if anything been strengthened since Independence. This continues, however, in the informal educational sphere, that is, outside of the public institutions of primary, secondary, and higher education. Where the government has taken responsibility for education, the form has followed the lead of the British in instituting English education to prepare officials and bureaucrats to administer the Indian Civil Service. The tone of interaction is impersonal and in dramatic contrast to the style of intensely personal communication which characterized the traditional master-disciple relationship.68Since such a large number of the early adherents to TM in South India were upper caste and educated in the Western system, they probably saw Maharishi as a guru in an almost anti-modern sense.
In the Spiritual Development Conference at Cochin in 1955, Maharishi was referred to as "a true spiritualist and expert guide," "our spiritual guide,"69and in the time-honored tradition, "teacher of calm thinking and clear understanding who can successfully find out the ultimate cause of distress, confusion, and powerlessness, and who having found it, can cure it."70
Maharishi was, of course, himself a student of a guru in the most traditional sense, having served Swami Brahmananda Saraswati when he was the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math. Following that system of teaching established by Shankara many centuries before, Maharishi adhered to the Vedantist emphasis upon dependence on the gurufor instruction and for knowledge and understanding.71He reverences the Vedanta lineage of teachers extending back from Shankara to Upanishadic and Vedic gurus and Brahma the creator through the repetition of the list of gurus known as guru-puja(or the Holy Tradition of Vedic wisdom).72All his teaching and that of other initiators of transcendental meditation is carried out in the name of this lineage, expressed systematically through the guru-pujawhich precedes each TM initiation. Like the Vedic diksha, the guru-pujawhich precedes individual mantra instruction (TM) is intended to sanctify the teacher, purify the environment, and place the teaching relationship on an elevated plane in which historical continuity with the ancient gurus is achieved. In so doing, the teacher also embraces a reality greater than himself and further advances his own spiritual development.73
Maharishi regards his teacher as supreme, worshipping him as the embodiment of the Absolute, of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. He sees his "Gurudeva" as the essential link in this generation to the Holy Tradition of gurus that includes Shankara and Lord Krishna, who transmitted the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita. He understands his own purpose to be the "revival" of the knowledge of an integrated life based upon Vedic principles and Vedantist reality. Towards this end he began the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in 1955, initially directed towards an exclusively Indian clientele but soon expanded into an international social movement with world peace and a worldwide social order within its scope.74
The guru, in Shankara's estimation, must be both an intellectual and moral leader - not only a knower of scripture and established in Brahman("shrotriyam brahmanishtham") but also compassionate and communicative of right values (dharma). When that capacity to teach liberating knowledge extends to all sectors of society, including ritual, devotion, and intellectual paths, their esteem raises them to the status of "world-teachers," or jagad-gurus. Jagadgurustransform the world from within, seeking to re-establish dharmauniversally through their own vitality and charisma, rather than through a detailed program for social change. They are essentially public figures, regardless of how private their instruction and personal lives may be.75
That very element which served Maharishi as guruin India, lending him a particular cultural identity, could have become a distinct limitation upon his capacity to be a universal teacher, that is, to teach and lead an international social movement. It is clear from the discussion in this section that transcendental meditation and the Spiritual Regeneration Movement have genuine and firm linkages with Indian cultural tradition and that Maharishi embodied the revitalization of particular cultural elements distinctly Vedic and Vedantist. Just how he was able to adapt his program and presentation to suit Westernized and modernist interests will be the topic of the next sections.
Notes for Chapter 3
SRM as Cultural Revitalization Text
1. Peter McCormick and Frederick Elliston, eds., Husserl, Shorter Works, 1981, Notre Dame, Indiana: The Harvester Press, p. 326.
2. Clifford Geertz, "Ideology as a Cultural System" (chapter 8) in The Interpretation of Cultures, 1973, New York: Basic Books, p. 221.
3. Ibid., p. 220.
4. Geertz, op. cit., "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture," p. 13.
5 Emile Durkheim, De la division du travail social(1893),p. 144, quoted in Anthony Giddens' edition of Selected Writings, 1972, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Emile Durkheim, Les formes elementaires de la vie religieuse(1912), p. 609, quoted in Giddens, p. 243
7. Beacon Light of the Himalayas (souvenir of Spiritual Development Conference at Cochin, October 23-25, 1955), published at Ernakulum, p. 22.
8. The importance of Shankara to the Smarta tradition of brahmanical orthodoxy is discussed in Thomas J. Hopkins, The Hindu Religious Tradition, 1971, Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, p. 120.
9. Ibid., p. 119. The same dates are used by Ghurye in Indian Sadhus(1953) and Cenkner in A Tradition of Teachers: Shankara and the Jagadgurus Today (1983). Wolpert and Thapar, op.cit., concur.
10. This is according to records kept by the mathas themselves,stated in Shri Jyotirmath - A Brief Introduction, published by the matha at Joshimath. Maharishi agrees with the matha's version andsuggests that the discrepancy is due to confusion of Adi-Shankara with one of his successors, all of whom were titled "Shankaracharya" (On the Bhagavad Gita, 1967, New York: Penguin Books, p. 256). For an extended discussion of the attempt to establish Shankara's life between 509-477 B.C., see A.N. Aiyer and S.L. Sastri, The Traditional Age of Sri Sankaracharva and the Mathas, 1962, Madras: Thompson and Co.
11. Shankara's commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad (VIII.XII.1) quoted in William Cenkner, A Tradition of Teachers: Shankara and the Jagadgurus Today, 1983, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, p. 38.
12. Maharishi, On the Bhagavad Gita, 1967, New York: Penguin Books, p. 13.
13. Maharaja of Cochin in his inaugural address at Spiritual Development Conference, October 1955, reported in Beacon Light ofthe Himalayas, p. 21.
14. Ibid., p. i..
15. Cenkner, op. cit., p. 40.
16. Maharishi notes that Trotaka was not the most intellectual of Shankara's disciples but rather undertook mundane and practical duties, such as caring for the meals and physical facility of the matha. Yet through his devotion and service, he attained the same high level of consciousness as the other close disciples. The tradition of Jyotir Math, consequently, thrives more on the values of the heart. Maharishi draws parallels to his own life of service to his master and thereby suggests repeatedly that intellectual capacity is not the essential required for development of consciousness in SRM - rather it is innocence and sincerity. (From a lecture titled "Great Masters of Our Tradition," Vittel, France, March 15, 1974).
17. Shri Jyotirmath: A Brief Introductiongives a 165 year gap based upon a renaissance among the mathasin the area, but this is disputed by other records which indicate a break of nearly three centuries according to T.S.N. Sastry and T.N. Kumaraswamy, The Age of Shankara, 1916, Madras: B.G. Paul.
18. Swami Brahmanand Saraswati's reluctance to accept the public role of Shankaracharya and thereby relinquish the solitude and simplicity of a life of renunciation (he was 72 at the time of his investiture) is legendary. One sannyasi, Swami Narayanananda Saraswati, whom I met at Uttarkashi, recounted the story of Brahmandaji's sudden disappearance from Varanasi just hours before his planned investiture as Shankaracharya. He returned of his own accord three weeks later and accepted the seat, realizing that his followers would persist rather than choosing another candidate for the Shankaracharya.
19. At the same conference, Justice Paul described him as "TheSupreme" in his presidential address. Sanskrit poets declared him to be "personified divinity" and Murtiman esha dharmah- the embodiment of dharma. The visit of Rajendra Prasad, President of India, has been documented in Chapter Two.
20. This is mentioned in his biography, The Whole Thing, The Real Thing, by Rameswar Tiwari, 1977, Delhi: Delhi Photo Company, page 62. Maharishi, Swami Narayanananda, and current Shankaracharya, Swami Vishnudevananda, agree that the funds for the restoration of the mathawere not gathered from outside contributions, and their source is unknown.
21. The only known exceptions to this apolitical attitude are to be found in the Shankaracharyas of Puri (Orissa). Prior to his ascendency to the Puri seat in 1925, Shri Bharati Krishna Tirtha was a candidatefor President of the Hindu Mahasabha, and, later as Shankaracharya, he directly opposed Mahatma Gandhi's unorthodox advocacy of the Untouchability Abolition Bill and the Temple Entry Bill. The present Shankaracharya of Puri (Govardhana Vidyapitha), Shri Niranjana Deva Tirtha, is an outstanding intellectual (speaking six languages) and political leader. In 1966, he led the mobilization of over 200,000 protesters who stormed Parliament in New Delhi because of the government's failure to ban the slaughter of cows. Subsequently he was imprisoned for his public fast-unto-death over the same issue. In 1972 he formed an organization against family planning and again gained national prominence. This is detailedin "The Shankaracharya of Puri," an article by Jurgen Lutt appearing in The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional Tradition of Orissa,1978, edited by A. Eschman, H. Kulke, and G.C. Tripathi, Delhi: Manohar.
22. From an interview with the present Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, Swami Vishnudevananda Saraswati, in Joshimath, June 11, 1983. Cenkner also states that Maharishi and Swami Shantanand Saraswati, the predecessor of the current Shankaracharya, speak of each other as "gurudeva" and verifies that he "witnessed Swami Shantanand celebrating guru purnimapublicly for Maharishi in Delhi." (Cenkner, op. cit., p. 120)
23. In the interview of June 11, 1983, the current Shankaracharya said that Maharishi accompanied his "gurudeva" wherever he went, and that it is due to "his habit of following everything of Guru Deva," "his devoted learning," that he has achieved such knowledge and fame. He used the term "bhavati dhyana yoga" for transcendental meditation.
24. In the interview of June 11, 1983, the Shankaracharya stated that Swami Shantanand, who had voluntarily stepped down from the seat, had visited Maharishi in 1982 and 1983 in Switzerland, Kenya,and China.
25. Maharishi, op. cit., p. 16.
26. Beacon Light of the Himalayas, op. cit., p. 20.
27. H.H. Wilson, Hindu Religion, 1862, p. 150, and J.C. Oman, Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India, 1905, London: T. Fisher Unwin, p. 152.
28. G. S. Ghurye, Indian Sadhus, 1953, Bombay: Popular Prakash, p. 80.
29. Ibid., p. 56.130. Cenkner, op. cit., p. 163.
31. Ghurye, op. cit., p. 79.
32. Maharishi refers to "urdhvaretas" as the unilinear flow of energy in an upward direction, which he says occurs not only in the life of the celibate but through the practice of transcendental meditation. Here he means the bodily, sensory. and mental energies - the whole life-stream, rising to higher levels of evolution. (On the BhagavadGita, 1967, New York: Penguin Books, p. 410)
33. Ghurye, op. cit., pp. 17-35.
34. J. Gonda, Change and Continuity in Indian Religion, 1965,The Hague: Mouton, p. 284.
35. Ibid., p. 286.
36. Ibid., p. 291.
37. In a lecture, "Introduction to Ph.D. in Vedic Studies Program,"Maharishi European Research University, Weggis, Switzerland, April 2, 1974.
38. The Laws of Manu, translated by G. Buhler, 1964, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, p. 63.
39. Ibid., p. 69.
40. G. Morris Carstairs, The Twice Born, 1967, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
41. Richard Lannoy, The Speaking Tree, 1971, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 114.
42. Ibid., p. 387.
43. D. G. Tendulkar, Mahatma, Life of M.K. Gandhi, I, 1951, Delhi, p. 169.
44. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (2, 38), quoted in Gonda, op.cit., p. 309.
45. Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946, Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 114.
46. Ibid., pp. 117-118.
47. Ibid., p. 118.1
48. Gonda, op.cit., p. 294.
49. This is given by the titles "Maharishi Bala Brahmachari Mahesh Yogi Maharaj" by which he was addressed at the Spiritual Development Conference in Cochin (1955). When asked about the sources of Maharishi's status designations, the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math replied, "From his sadhana(discipline for spiritual growth). Given by the society. He followed the teachings, sadhana, devoted completely to Guru Dev's teachings. He became equal in sorrow and pain and happiness. Thus the people realized him, that he has achieved the qualities of a Maharishi. It is an honor by the pitha(matha), and by the society." (Interview of June 11, 1983, at Joshimath)
50. From the definition of "rishi" in Margaret and James Stutley, Harper's Dictionary of Hinduism, 1977, New York: Harper and Row, p. 251.
51. John E. Mitchener, Traditions of the Seven Rishis, 1982, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, pp. 171-217. In this work, Mitchener discusses various formulations of the elite group of rishis and their significance as clan progenitors (gotras), mythical personages in Vedic literature, creators of the cosmos, and representations of stellar constellations and the body's vital airs (pranas).
52. R. K. Narayan. "New Role for India's Holy Men," New York Times Magazine, September 6, 1959, pp. 9, 21.
53. The literature on Yoga is vast, indeed. A few selections: Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, 1958, New York: Pantheon, which contains a comparison with shamanism; among the many recent attempts at trying to explain the experience of "transcendence" to the inexperienced Westerner, Agehananda Bharati offers his tantric view in The Light at the Center, 1976, Santa Barbara, Ross-Erikson; a very popular and influential approach is Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga, 1964, Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, or Los Angeles: Vedanta Press; the best translation of Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is that of P. N. Mukerji, Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, 1981, Calcutta: University of Calcutta Press; for a look at yogis in their legendary practices, see J.C. Oman, Mystics, Ascetics andSaints of India, 1903, London: T. Fisher Unwin; and for a newer version written by a yogi and sannyasi, see Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, 1971, Los Angeles: Self Realization Fellowship.
54. Cenkner, op. cit., pp. 71-85, 170-174.
55. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, loc. cit., p. 20.
56. Ibid., pp. 126-138.
57. Beacon Light of the Himalayas, op. cit., p. 20.
58. from the translation by Gurudev Siddha Peeth, 1978, Ganeshpuri.
59. Gonda, op. cit., pp. 230-231.
60. Note that this is almost the antithesis of contemporary educational wisdom in the West, where the ideal is the autonomous and creatively independent student. Thus for Maharishi's TM to become acceptable outside of India, other more egalitarian emphases had to be encouraged in the teaching exchange. Self-validation of correct experience was one option used by the movement to counteract the tendency towards hierarchical relationships, although grumblings from members persisted into the current period. See Chapters 5 and 6 for more detail on the institutional and individual adaptations caused by this feature.
61. Consult sections in Manu Smriti on initiation and studentship for an elaboration of the procedures and prohibitions surrounding the teaching process. Regarding the secrecy aspect, it is commonly believed that to divulge either the teaching procedure or the mantrato another ruins the initiation and seriously impairs the efficacy of the practice in the future. This is one belief which has been instituted as regulation in the TM movement's teaching procedure.
62. Gonda, op. cit., p. 276.
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid., p. 277.
65. Maharishi, quoting Shankara, states that even after liberation is secured, the student retains an elevated devotional attitude towards the guru. This is not merely out of respect or habit, but rather from necessity. "Unity throughout the universe, but not with the guru" is the rule because there must always be at least one point of reference outside of the self, that defies ownership and possession. (from a lecture by Maharishi titled "Sat Gurum Tam Namami," April 13, 1971, Mallorca, Spain)
66. Gonda, op. cit., pp. 281-282.
67. M.K. Gandhi, An Autobiography, 1957, Boston: Beacon Press, p. 211.
68. For an interesting comparison of higher education student-teacher interactions between America and India, see Joseph R.Gusfield, "The Academic Milieu, Students and Teachers in India and the United States," 1968, in Turmoil and Transition, Higher Education and Student Politics in India, edited by P. Altbach, Bombay: Lalvani. In this study, Gusfield finds the British influence to have made a system of greater uniformity, objectivity, and impersonality than even its American counterpart, completely obscuring any reference to the traditional master-disciple relationship.
69. Beacon Light of the Himalayas, op. cit., p. 24.
70. Ibid.
71. Consult Cenkner, A Tradition of Teachers: Shankara and and the Jagadgurus Today, op. cit., especially pp. 39-59, for the discussion of Shankara's requirements for effective instruction and estimation of the necessity of the guru for spiritual progress.
72. See Maharishi, On the Bhagavad Gita, op. cit., p. 469, for a listing of the names in the Holy Tradition. Shankara's use of guru-pujais described in Cenkner, loc. cit., p. 37.
73. In the TM movement, guru-pujais discussed differently depending upon the level of membership. For new initiates, it is described merely as a hospitality ritual - bringing a few gifts or items of exchange to the initiation so that the teacher may honor his teaching tradition in a prescribed manner. However, among the teachers themselves, it is acknowledged that puja performance greatly accelerates the teacher's own evolution of consciousness ("skillof teaching lies in the teacher gaining more than the student") and is not under any circumstances to be omitted from the initiation procedure, regardless of the objections of the student.
74. See Maharishi, loc. cit., preface to his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, pp. 9-17, for a statement of his ideas on his guru's status and his own purposes in teaching.
75. Cenkner discusses the status and role of the jagadguru in connection with the Shankaracharyas in his book, op. cit., pp.132-134, 154-161, 177-188. While Maharishi refers to his teacher,Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, as jagadguru, he does not accept the title for himself, reserving that recognition to figures of renown established in Indian spiritual history. Nevertheless, the title may become his in some future time if his goals should be realized by his movement.
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