The TM movement in India is asking English-speaking TM teachers to come to India to help instruct the increasing numbers of people who want to learn TM. However, response to this call is likely to be limited, since teachers have to bear their own expenses entirely, which amounts to about $2500/month plus travel costs. Clearly, if the stated goal of 10 million Indians learning TM soon is to be reached, some other means of imparting instruction is going to be necessary -- if one is thinking of achieving that goal of one crore people learning TM within ten years, it requires initiation of 20,000 a week, well beyond what current TM-teaching infrastructure could accommodate, even if there was a strong response to the call for teachers from around the world.
What I think TM leaders will soon recognize is that Indian TMers who want to help can be quickly trained to be TM teachers, without the need to call for Westerners to come to India. People who want to attend current TM teacher-training courses pay large fees for courses that last many months, but this is not really necessary. When Maharishi started training teachers in the 60s, the courses were much shorter, and they could readily be shortened again to meet the need of the times.
Learning how to impart TM instruction is very simple, and the process for checking the progress of the student does not require much more memorization of procedure. As far as lecturing, there is no need for teachers to be good speakers about TM -- they can just pop a DVD in a player and present a canned lecture better than 99% of TM teachers could deliver. My guess is that about a part-time two-week course would be enough to train Indians to be TM teachers, who could continue in their current line of work without needing to be supported by the TMO. Maharishi said that the job of a TM teacher is to teach knowledge of the infinite, not infinite knowledge. As long as a teacher can impart that effortless acquisition of the infinite available through the TM technique, then the TM teacher's job is done -- the huge body of Vedic knowledge left in recordings and print media by Maharishi can then fill in the details of creation.
Promotion of TM should probably also be done on a city-by-city basis, with those TM teachers who can travel moving on to the next target city to augment local TM-teaching staff, after teaching those who have responded to TM promotion activities. Instead of using satellite, which broadcasts to all of India, brief (15-30 second) ads should be run on cable TV in target cities, when TM teacher infrastructure is in place for that city. It would be a mistake to create an unfulfillable demand for TM nationally, since there are no shortage of people in India who (incorrectly) think that they know how to teach proper meditation, and they would be glad to eat the TM movement's lunch if people turn to other providers out of frustration that TM instruction is not available due to lack of teachers.
The hotel attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 make it even more unlikely that Western TM teachers will be able to respond to the call to come to India, and underscore the need to bring India up to Vedic status quickly with indigenous resources. Maharishi has noted that �We cannot underestimate the urgency; action cannot be overestimated. Misery anywhere breeds trouble for us all.� (p. 47, David Verrill's book).
But the readiness of so many young men to embark on suicide missions also shows the importance of not making the TM movement a target of the aggrieved. In the April 2009 issue of Atlantic Monthly, an Indian historian notes that �The Hindu-Muslim divide here is worse than at any time since the partition.�
Muslims around the world feel under siege, watching their brethren suffer from the foolhardy and criminal Zionist occupation of Israel backed by the world's current holders of power, who have foolishly chosen a remake by proxy of the Crusades. India is Israel's biggest customer for arms, allowing India to tap into Israel's acquisition of top military technology through its relationship with the U.S. -- this transfer of technology even goes for weapons-savvy Russia.
Another sore point for Muslims is the unending war over Muslim-majority Kashmir, a dispute which should have been resolved long ago by India.
The Indian TM leadership's goal of instructing ten million Indians into TM is a figure which can only be reached in a reasonable amount of time with the reach of TV advertising, which would create a high profile for the TM movement. And those ads and that resulting high profile should be pitched to Hindus only, in order to avoid inflaming the already volatile, dangerous sectarian strife in India which will continue to see more Mumbai-type attacks and worse for some time in that sickening tit-for-tat cycle of violence that is old news (several Indian states have found it necessary to create anti-proselytizing laws in an attempt to help minimize anxiety over religious identity).
Only a tiny percentage of India's 800+ million Hindus need to learn TM to tip the balance in favor of restoration of Vedic civilization among Hindus in India; not one Muslim in India needs to learn TM to accomplish this change. When Yogic Fliers actually fly, then any and all can hop on this magic carpet ride of fulfillment in life, but until that unequivocal demonstration of the power of expanded awareness, no attempt should be made to pitch TM to non-Hindus in India, where the atmosphere is simply too rife with sectarian anxiety.
Maharishi noted back in the 60s that the Divine plan was to unfold enlightenment for the earth gradually, to avoid causing "fear and havoc" among the benighted. It's not that a lot of people are going to survive the transition to the Satyuga whether that transition is sooner or later (Maharishi said only "a few will survive" because you cannot stop people who are hellbent), but gradualness and caution have to be the keynote of the TM movement in order to keep ignorant people from trying to stomp out the light à la the Jesus story. Of course the light of God cannot be extinguished, but God only comes to earth to protect the righteous, and when righteousness is at low levels, there's nothing to protect and so the Kaliyuga continues on its usual course of increasing disorder until its allotted 432,000 years is up (MMY says that it is possible for SatYuga to intrude in the lifespan of the Kaliyuga, because the wrongdoing of this age makes it weak, and possible to end its life early, just as a human whose life is full of wrongdoing can come to an early end of life). Of course, regardless of the Yuga cycle, Nature is always prodding humans to seek wisdom by visiting disaster on the unhappy, in order to create receptivity to wisdom. And when prodding does not work, the natural order of creation repeatedly recycles the unhappy to reduce the burden on earth.
The TM movement, in order to survive and enable the Sat Yuga transition, needs to create a base of righteous people without annoying those comfortable with living in the darkness of low consciousness. I am, of course, not implying that the level of righteousness or consciousness in India's Muslim community is lower than it is in the Hindu community, but merely noting that the TM movement should avoid becoming a target of those whose feel oppressed by the unfortunate tangle of religion and politics in India. The TM movement is a friend to everybody, and it will be seen that way when yogic fliers who can really fly are on the TV screens of the world to provide a clear demonstration of the power of expanded awareness to improve the quality of human life without harming or infringing on anyone's culture, including religion.
28Nov2008
In December 1957, Maharishi began the TM movement in Madras after a five-minute ovation showed the enthusiasm of the people for spiritual regeneration. Echoing that historic moment, the people of India have again shown their enthusiasm for that message of fullness of life at the 2008 Guru Purnima celebrations in Jabalpur:
Describing the event, Raja Harris said, 'Yesterday there was a very large celebration that captured the entire country of India. Dr Girish Varma, National Director of the Global Country of World Peace in India, had a beautiful plan to create another wing of the Global Country of World Peace that would inspire the imagination of all of India.
'Yesterday he had 1,500 people come to an enormous pandal in Jabalpur, and it was there that the Chief Minister of the state and all the leading educators of the state, leading politicians from the towns and cities, all came with the Chief Justices. 1,500 people gathered to celebrate the great fortune that Maharishi had come from that area of Madhya Pradesh very near Jabalpur.
'There was a wildly enthusiastic response, described by Dr Girish Varma as a 'fire of a response'. Nine television stations were there, including two national television stations. One television station broadcast the entire nine hours of the celebrations. They broadcast the beautiful address and blessings from Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam, First Ruler of the Global Country of World Peace, as well as a beautiful talk by Dr Bevan Morris, Prime Minister of the Global Country of World Peace. Dr Morris gave a global perspective of India and Maharishi's Vedic Pandits in the context of his total plan for enlightenment for every individual and invincibility for every nation.
'It was thrilling to hear that every major newspaper of India has a story today with beautiful large pictures and the wave that came out of that is absolutely wonderful,' Raja Harris said.
Praising the leaders of the Global Country of World Peace in India, Raja Harris said, 'I thought of the greatness of all the dear Indian leaders.' Raja Harris quoted Maharishi, writing in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the Bhagavad-Gita: A New Translation and Commentary, Chapters 1-6 :
''Whether surroundings and circumstances are favourable or unfavourable, men of honour and grace always act in a way that leads them to glory here on earth and in heaven.''
'�and these are all the leaders of our dear Indian movement,' Raja Harris said.
Raja Harris then summarized the main theme of the announcement which Dr Girish Varma had given to those gathered in Jabalpur on Guru Purnima day. These highly laudable plans for India include instruction in Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation Programme for one krore (10 million) people, and instruction in Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme, including Yogic Flying, for 100,000 people. Raja Harris said that Dr Girish Varma had already laid out very precise measures to implement these plans in each state so that day by day and month by month the numbers enjoying Maharishi's programmes will be increasing.
21Jul2008
I'd like to propose two ways of looking at this issue. It may be that the fact that Maharishi is no longer walking on planet earth may have had a profound effect on the world's well-being. With the departure of this great saint, maybe we just need to create much larger groups of Yogic Fliers and Pundits meditating together in order to compensate for this. I should note that I personally have never been a fan of the magic number proposed by TM managers (the claim is that if the number of Yogic Fliers meditating together in one place exceeds the square root of 1% of a nation's population, then national invincibility is assured, and we should see a reduction in all negative trends, natural and man-made). I just don't think that this threshold value can be quantified, although there is certainly some point at which Nature yields the earth to the happy.
A alternate way of looking at the rise in disaster and dislocation is to consider what needs to happen in order for the Sat Yuga to begin. As Maharishi says:
"There has not been and there will not be a place for the unfit. The fit will lead, and if the unfit are not coming along, there is no place for them. In the place where light dominates there is no place for darkness. In the age of Enlightenment there is no place for ignorant people. The ignorant will be made enlightened by a few orderly, enlightened people moving around. Nature will not allow ignorance to prevail. It just can�t. Nonexistence of the unfit has been the law of nature." (Maharishi, 1975, Inauguration of the Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, MIU Press, p. 47) The current apparent disconnect between increased numbers of Yogic Fliers and Pundits together in Vedic City and the increase in negative trends in the U.S. may be seen as analogous to the situation created when cold air masses run into warm air masses. The cold air and warm air do not mix, but begin to revolve around one another, creating a vortex that, under certain conditions, will form tornadoes, which are stronger when the contrast in temperature between air masses is greater. In a like fashion, we might consider the increased bliss generated by Yogic Fliers in Vedic City as not mixing in with the atmosphere generated by the ignorant and unhappy, but challenging the dominance of ignorance -- as MMY notes above, "Nature will not allow ignorance to prevail. It just can't." If the bliss generated by people meditating together met no resistance, then it would be like masses of air meeting like-temperatured masses, but there is a huge gap between the way the world is and the world in the Sat Yuga, and that difference can only be resolved when unhappy people are gone. As Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." Maharishi: "Nonexistence of the unfit has been the law of nature." So if this second way of looking at the situation is correct, then we should not be surprised to see an increase in disaster and dislocation along with the strongly contrasting rise of bliss-enabling forces in the world.
Nature is always declaring war on people. In the 20th Century, about 100 million people died in armed conflict, but just one disease accounted for three times as many deaths during that same period of time -- actually less than a century, since smallpox has only existed in labs for about the last 30 years. From the ignorant point of view, this sort of natural selection is inexplicable, something that heroic scientists in lab coats will eventually abolish (good luck with that...). But from a consideration of the real potential of human life, it's an act of kindness by Nature to act against people living ignorant lives. Since every person is capable of knowing his own nature, sat chit ananda ("concentrated happiness of absolute status and permanent nature"), it's the worst possible loss and suffering not to live that unbounded happiness in life, and it would be cruel for Nature not to use a stick to encourage people to unfold their own nature, which is the Nature of the entire existence:
One day Jesus, hungry, went up to a fig tree, but not finding any fruit, cursed the tree, and the tree withered away. When people live in suffering, not producing the expansion of happiness that is the purpose of creation, it's only natural that they will get negative feedback from the environment:
There are no two things here in this universe: the one infinite consciousness alone shines in all names and forms. It naturally seems to the narrow awareness of an ignorant mind that the universe is chaotic and antagonistic, a point of view that embraces the idiot slogan "Every man for himself, and God against all." But it is all really the play of one consciousness, and when that consciousness is tired of allowing too much ignorant play on earth, then that desire to make order predominant will be fulfilled, as it has countless times in the recurring cycle of creation. If duality is only imaginary, then nothing is lost when vision is restored to wholeness and unity.
When in 1953 Guru Dev left this mortal frame and attained nirvana*, I
was at Benares, another place of pilgrimage for Hindus, and at that
moment I was staying in the ashram of Guru Dev. Everybody knew that I
am very attached to Guru Dev and devoted to Guru Dev, and then news
came to Benares that Guru Dev has attained nirvana. I was sitting
somewhere with a group of my friends and the news was relayed there.
When my friends heard that Guru Dev was no more they were very anxious
about me and when they conveyed that news, they were rather alert to
appraise whatever reaction is and what happened, I simply, when I
heard that news I became very sad, very sorry and I just kept my head
on the table before me. And all of them were very anxious what will
become of me. But soon after, while I was very morose, sorrow, sad,
entire world was empty for me and I did not understand what to do
without Guru Dev, just a half a minute or two seconds after, a flash
came and it appeared to me that Guru Dev was scolding me;
'What a fool you are!
You have been with me for all these many months and years, and you
heard my discourses too.
Is it a moment of feeling sorry?
Why should you be sorry today?
And you think that I am gone, where am I gone?
Till now whenever you wanted to meet me, you had, you had to come to
the place where I was, and today when I have attained nirvana, I am
everywhere, I am omnipresent.
Where have I gone?
Very foolish for you to mourn on this occasion.
I am with you, here, there, everywhere.
Why should you be sorry?'
And the moment this flash came, my face became very brilliant, I
became very cheerful. And when I raised my head, my friends who were
standing there, very anxious and held in suspense, they were upset to
see my brilliant and cheerful face. And then they said, 'What has
happened to you?' I said, 'No you can't understand, nothing has
happened to me, I am alright, now let me go back to the ashram and
make the necessary arrangements.' *[nirvana means "freedom from craving," freedom from the cycle of birth and death caused by unfulfilled desires -- when one gains the total awareness of Cosmic Consciousness, bliss consciousness, then all desires are in a constant state of fulfillment in that unconditioned bliss, and death, a mere dropping of the body, does not bring re-birth -- MMY explains "death" of an enlightened person]
The M-schools in India are financially successful and not at all a burden on the TM movement, but given that there are more than 800 million Hindus in India, it would only be necessary to get 1% to give $100/year in order to fund a larger school and pundit program and other TM initiatives in India, something that could readily be accomplished with heightened public awareness in India of Maharishi's revival of Vedic culture. The TMO broadcasts on a satellite channel in India, but this is just preaching to the choir, to people who have already learned TM. In order to inform the hundreds of millions of Indians who are not aware of MMY's work, it's necessary to go to where the people are watching and let them know. 61 million households in India have cable TV, reaching about a quarter of the population. Although most people in India are poor, earning less than $100/mo, there is enough of a middle-and-upper class to contribute significantly to the TMO and help change poor and violent India into Vedic India, a lighthouse for the world.
How to reach the Indian public? Well, definitely not the jittery TM ads made by David Lynch (you might want to cut back on those 20 cups of coffee a day, David; hopefully his planned feature-length film on Maharishi will have a more calm and dignified air), but artistic presentations of the Vedic wisdom on brief TV ads in primetime should quickly bring Maharishi's work to the attention of the Indian public and then the "5000 Club" (donors of 5000 rupees/year) would enable an revenue stream of $800+ million/year.
There has been some concern expressed in the TM community about the persistent economic downturn currently topping the U.S. news and also the uptick in natural disasters, particularly the Iowa floods, despite the increased number of Yogic Fliers and Pundits in Vedic City.
The transition from the Kali Yuga to the Sat Yuga always involves the removal of disorderly people. Maharishi has noted that happiness and unhappiness are incompatible -- you can't have an orderly society with unhappy people always throwing a wrench into the works, and an increase in disaster can be seen as the ill omens prefiguring the removal of the disorderly. It doesn't matter whether the onset of the Sat Yuga is imminent or far in the future -- the reaction of Nature to the unhappiness created by disorderly people is a constant part of creation, so there's nothing new under the sun here.
Maharishi -- "Just as a mountain of snow is nothing but water, so also the whole of the universe is nothing but ananda (bliss)."
Jesus -- "For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away."
Yogavasistha:"They are ignorant and therefore a burden on earth. Such ignorant people suffer here and hereafter; suffering is the only mission in their life! Death, unto them, is a welcome release from such suffering and it is possible that after death they will awake and seek their salvation."
16Jul2008
Brahmachari Satyanand speaking c1967 about Guru Dev's
mahasamadhi:
7Feb2008 Although MUM-Fairfield is enjoying success with its computer professional program (in which students, mainly from 3rd-world countries, get an advanced degree in Computer Science while working for American infotech companies at market wages), there is a huge market available in India for Maharishi schools, because education infrastructure is completely inadequate in that country, forcing even the Prime Minister to lament that fact (see video presentation on the construction program for M-schools in India). Since you get more bang for the buck in India, TMO resources should be allocated there preferentially to get a maximum effect on world consciousness. The Maharishi schools in India are the largest private-school chain there, with 80K students in 143 schools, but this is only a very small part of the market there. It's not just a matter of numbers, of course, since Maharishi has noted that "India is the only country which can assume a parental role for every
country of the world with this knowledge of the Veda." It's good to promote M-schools in every country, but it's essential for world peace and happiness that M-schools in India get the most attention.
6Feb2008Click here for pre-2008 updates
