HOLLAND:Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement who taught the Beatles to meditate, made "mantra" a household word in the 1970s and built a multimillion-dollar empire on a promise of inner harmony and world peace, died yesterday in the Dutch village of Vlodrop. He was believed to be 91.
Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation organisation, said the Maharishi died peacefully of natural causes at his private residence in the village about 190km south of Amsterdam where he moved his headquarters in 1990.
John Hegelin, the director of the TM organisation in the US, said the Maharishi's impact on Western society was transformative.
"He brought meditation to the West. He encouraged scientific research on it and made meditation mainstream," said Mr Hegelin, who was among 300 world leaders of the movement meeting in Vlodrop.
Known as the "giggling guru" for his high-pitched laugh, the Maharishi headed the TM organisation for 50 years until January 11th, when he issued a farewell message. His devotees around the world were stirred by his announcement and believed that he was preparing for his death.
The diminutive Indian philosopher had attained a cult-like following by the end of the 1960s, when his message of peace resonated with a counterculture in bloom. His most famous followers were the Beatles, who spent a month at his Indian ashram in 1968 and wrote some of their more popular songs there.
By the mid-1970s, TM had an estimated 600,000 practitioners, including actresses Shirley MacLaine and Mia Farrow, and music star Donovan. TM how-to books rose on best-seller lists.
Before long, the Maharishi had established a political party, a gold-domed university in Fairfield, Iowa, and a network of several hundred TM centres around the US.
"Transcendental Meditation is the McDonald's of the meditation business," best-selling author Adam Smith once wrote of the movement, which claims more than five million practitioners in 130 countries today.
The guru's message was appealing in its simplicity: A person could reduce stress and attain happiness by meditating 20 minutes twice a day on a secret Sanskrit word, or "mantra." If sufficient numbers of meditators achieved inner peace, the Maharishi said, they could radiate bliss to the world, which would reduce crime and end wars.
"The philosophy of life is this: Life is not a struggle, not a tension . . . life is bliss. It is eternal wisdom, eternal existence," the Maharishi once said.
Beginning in the 1970s, a number of scientific studies were conducted that showed beneficial physiological effects, including reducing hypertension.
In later years, the Maharishi claimed that advanced practitioners of transcendental meditation could defy the laws of physics and fly through the air like Peter Pan - a feat that would require not only dedication, but at least $275 a week for a four-to-eight-week course. Such claims brought a wave of sceptical news stories.
The influential guru was born Mahesh Prasad Varma, the son of a local tax official in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.According to his official biography, he studied physics at Allahabad University and earned a degree in 1942. While in college, he became a student of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, a major leader of the Hindus who was called Guru Dev, or "divine teacher." After graduating, Mahesh trained under Brahmananda until he died in 1953.
Following Guru Dev's death, Mahesh retreated into the Himalayas for a two-year period of meditation. When he emerged in 1955, he devoted himself to popularising his master's form of meditation, which was derived from Advaita Vedanta, a branch of Hindu philosophy. He called his version of it the Spiritual Development Movement and later the Spiritual Regeneration Movement.
In 1963, he wrote his first major book, The Science of Being and Art of Living, a comprehensive introduction to his thought. Two years later, he completed a commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, one of the principle Vedic texts.
In 1967, George Harrison took fellow Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCarthy to hear the Maharishi lecture in London. Soon the fourth band member, Ringo Starr, joined them in a seminar for British initiates who, for a $35 fee, received their own mantra. Today, the basic course costs $2,500.
In 1968, the Beatles travelled to the Maharishi's ashram in the Himalayas for more intensive study. Although TM officials discount reports that the legendary foursome became disenchanted with the Maharishi during their visit, Beatles' chroniclers have said that the group was dismayed by the guru's megalomania and doubted his claims of celibacy.
"We made a mistake," McCartney told an interviewer later. "We thought there was more to him than there was. He's human. We thought at first that he wasn't."