COMMENTS?: purnakama at gmail.com

^"19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

²⁰ But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

²¹ Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

²² He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

²³ But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

Riot at the pundit compound in Vedic City

The underlying causes for the protest/riot have not been explained by MUM, but hopefully the goofy MUM management of the project will produce a minimum of bad publicity for the movement until the shrinking pundit population in Vedic City is down to zero (pundits number about 50 as of Sept 2015, a sharp drop from the 1050 at peak numbers) -- at least next time a pundit leader is expelled, those genius MUM managers won't call the local cops for assistance! Pundits continue to be expelled...Iowa's leading newspaper on pundit issues

Actually, as frustrating as it is to see more stupid human tricks from MUM management, if the goal of Nature is to remove the pundits from Vedic City, and have them work in India, then this current episode of as-stupid-as-it-gets from MUM managers can be seen as promoting that goal as it highlights the apparent fish-out-of-water character of the pundit presence in Vedic City.

Maharishi has noted that a hand works because the fingers are of different lengths -- like that, humans are of different levels of intelligence and it is absolutely necessary to the success of the movement that dummies run it for the time being, as nauseating as the stupidity is. It seems logical that you would want to have the best possible managers for any enterprise, but a good fit for the people and the situation frequently requires that the unqualified be seen as the best qualified.

The first President Bush was clever enough in his war on Iraq to not push on to Baghdad and oust Saddam, which he knew would destabilize the country. His dimwit son was so angered by the brutal Saddam regime that he killed him, which led to the horrifying mess -- really a problem with no solution -- that we see in Iraq 2014. Only a thug could hold a country like Iraq together and it was terribly irresponsible for Dubya to eliminate Saddam without a follow-through plan that had any chance of success and not just a lot of sloppy thinking about exporting American values of democracy and all that nonsense in a region locked in medieval violence over communal differences.

Maharishi's embrace of incompetent management is not a fluke, but part of the Divine Plan to deep-six the Kaliyuga in the only way that it can be eliminated: gradually. Another example of gradualism is seen in the architecture of the meditation halls on the MIU campus -- Maharishi signed off on round shapes, because these domes would limit the expansion of awareness experienced by users, although he was of course fully cognizant of the Vastu guidelines.

When Bevan was at Maharishi's ashram in Rishikesh back in the 60s, MMY asked him to meditate less and perform some task for him. Bevan ignored the request until a workman came around to his meditation hut with a sledgehammer and started knocking it down, which got Bevan into a compliant mood. Perhaps Bevan has insulated himself since then to a point that has reduced his ability to get the message, but it seems clear enough that it's time for the pundits in Vedic City to go back to India, where they belong, in order to create a very strong breakout influence at the Brahmastan in the home of Vedic culture, rather than scattering groups of pundits around the globe. 23MAR2014

“As long as Vedic wisdom remains powerful in India, from that one land tremendously powerful coherence in the world consciousness can be generated by the daily routine of the Vedic Pandits in India itself. And the world will be a beautiful world.”

— Maharishi, May 18, 2005

In a laughable tacit acknowledgement that Girish Varma is not allowing any more pundits under his control in India to be sent to the U.S., MUM officials proudly announce that "Our Movement organizations in America are unified in their support for this program" --

a program which calls for bringing in would-be pundits to MUM on student visas instead of the current system of utilizing R-1 (religious) visa holders in Vedic City, Iowa who are already competent in Vedic performances.

This move is proposed in order to workaround Girish's vision of placing primary emphasis on the development of a large pundit group at the Brahmastan of India. This is almost certainly the correct vision given Maharishi's guidance and the volatile situation in India, where the recent election of a Hindu nationalist could be great for the restoration of Vedic culture or embroil the country in civil war with an undesirable outcome if the radiation of peace, or more importantly, progress, from the pundits in the Brahmastan is inadequate.

An undesirable outcome means as opposed to the U.S. Civil War which had a desirable outcome, including a large death toll which reduced the burden on the earth, just as Krishna engineered such a reduction as described in the Mahabharata -- "Narada also revealed to Krsna that the Lord (Krsna) would soon destroy all the demons, including Kamsa, that the Lord would rule from Dvaraka, and that he would preside over the destruction of millions of people in the Mahabharata war" War, as Maharishi notes, is a natural phenomenon and there will be plenty of time for peace after this inevitable phenomenon, if war or some other destructive natural phenomenon is a coming attraction of the divine plan.

Maharishi loaded praise and titles on Western TM leaders to keep them from jumping ship like Deepak Chopra -- not because Maharishi thought for a second that the dim bulbs in TM management were really resplendent royal rulers -- but really, India alone counts from here on out -- whatever the inclinations and abilities of Indian TM leaders -- and Tony and other Western TM leaders should recognize that soon, despite their limitations. And if there is no such recognition, it doesn't really matter. No matter who thinks that they are in charge of the TM movement, the latent potential of India's one billion Hindus is going to be in the driver's seat.

There is simply no chance that a powerful enough influence of orderliness can be created in a country other than India, an influence enough to dispel the Kaliyuga, and if the TM movement does not dispel the Kaliyuga, then it will dispel the TM movement.

The current president of Brazil practices TM, and is promoting TM, but Brazil is in its worst drought for 50 years, and the stress caused by this and other issues that bedevil all politicians could easily put Rousseff out of office in this fall's elections, and that could easily spell the end of most governmental implementation of TM teaching (Rouseff's approval rating is down to 8% as of Sept 2015). It's the same throughout Latin America, where there are apparently impressive numbers of initiations into TM and group YF practice -- but most of those instructed are in a custodial situation (students, military, etc.) and when the custody ends, practice of TM is likely to end too. And, unfortunately, as laudable and desirable --

("...the recitation of the veda, performance of sacrifices and penance and the giving of gifts do not equal even a fraction of the merit of rendering one jiva free from fear.")

-- as the numbers of people learning TM in South and Central America is, I think that there's eventually going to be some sort of pushback from the Church (even with its liberalizing Pope Francis) and other elements who see the TM movement as a threat to their power and influence.

As far as pointing to TM as the reason for any improvements that are noted in Latin America, there is unlikely to be any payoff here (unless some of the Yogic Fliers actually fly, which would certainly have the effect of erasing all doubts about TM's efficacy), since there are no shortage of actors claiming responsibility for improvements in social order. In the Oct 2015 issue of Scientific American, for instance, the former mayor of Cali claims his social and policy changes brought a 35% reduction in homicides (p.47).

Since the TM movement is dead in the water in many places -- Iowa's Vedic City and Fairfield are shrinking -- one has to ask why Latin America is so expansive (for the time being) for the TM movement, and researchers suggest that this receptivity to happiness is common in Latin America: "It's a culture of positive outlook," he said. "It permeates Latin America." But, as Jesus pointed out, seeing enthusiastic spiritual growth doesn't mean it can last -- the weeds of stress and ignorance can quickly choke growth, which is why only India can be a basis for the revival of Vedic culture to the point where the Sat Yuga can be enabled. Many TMers think that this TM movement is just a temporary thing -- a vacation from the Kali Yuga, but the only way that people can live happily on earth for any length of time is to extirpate the Kali Yuga completely, and then the long-lived Sat Yuga will be the reality of life on earth. And the only thing that can end the life of the Sat Yuga, once established, is the long lapse of time with its inevitable entropic influence. Maharishi has said "Free will is the greatest gift of God to man" and those don't want to live in the Sat Yuga will just have to go elsewhere, as the end of the Kali Yuga is always an extinction event for the unhappy -- we can decry the poor choice of living an ignorant life, but every individual has that greatest gift of free will and can do what he wants. When I was a child, I used to go to the amusement park and ride the roller coaster for many hours at a time -- it was what I wanted -- as unamusing as it is to me as a adult -- and those who want to ride the ups and downs of ignorant life can certainly do so even though Guru Dev has enabled an early end to the lifespan of the Kali Yuga.

Even for those in the West who learn TM in a non-custodial setting, the drop-out rates will continue to be so high that growth is simply not sustainable. And although there is a puff of publicity about TM from celebrities, many of them are too confused to be reliable as a means of promoting TM (not that TM administrators have a great record for being reliable -- think Chopra, Domash, and numerous others). Hip-hop musician and businessman Russell Simmons, for instance, who is widely promoted by the TM movement as a celebrity practitioner of TM, has a new book in which he recommends that people sit for 20 minutes thinking the mantra "Rum."

Simmons is trying to be helpful here, hoping to bring the benefits of TM practice to those who cannot afford the hefty instructional fees, but he lacks the background knowledge which would have informed him that TM simply cannot be taught by a book -- the "results will not be good," says the ancient text, the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam.

By all means teach TM wherever you can, but India alone is an environment which could prove friendly to the large scale flowering of Vedic culture. The cultural support for Vedic life is there in India -- the weeds of ignorant life make it impossible for Vedic culture to grow anywhere else, at least until Vedic culture blossoms fully in India.

Any rational person would throw up his hands at the slovenly thinking involved in TM officialdom, but, once again, I have to nod to the Kaliyuga and say "Stupid is good" when it comes to TM management -- let's not let the world freak out from turning up the dimmer switch of enlightenment too quickly. Anyway, stupid may be underrated.

MUM's plan to build their own pundits in Iowa looks like a non-starter, and it's not only because of finances -- the current pundits in residence at Vedic City, Iowa have been students of Vedic recitation since early childhood, but MUM can't bring children into the U.S., and introducing 18-year-olds to Vedic chanting routines in Iowa is unlikely to work well.

Severe beating of Maharishi College student in Bhubaneshwar shows the need to create a greater evolutionary influence in India. Snack wars...definitely not a sign of the rising tide of expanded awareness. More conflict:"There were incidents of violence and bombing at Maharishi College campus yesterday." It doesn't matter if the TM movement falters outside of India, but failure to thrive in India means that the Kaliyuga will continue on its sorry course for the next 427,000 years. Only India can lend the cultural support necessary for the TM movement to thrive. It's good to see the big numbers happening in Latin America, but big numbers and good news in other areas have happened before, only to be shown to be a flash in the pan, like Mozambique.

In February 2015 the TM movement hosted a conference on re-establishing a Vedic India, which was a very encouraging presentation on the progress toward that goal. There was one kind of off-putting note: the nightly TM movement production "Global Family Chat" reported that one of the presenters offered up a birth date of 5114 B.C. for Lord Rama based on an astronomy software search of the sky parameters mentioned in the Vedic literature. However, Lord Rama was the 7th incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and this happened in the latter part of the Treta Yuga, ~900,000 years ago, so it's simply not possible for 5114 B.C. to be the correct time of birth of Rama, although King Tony jokingly told the conference attendees it must be correct, since his own 20th-century birthdate is the same (Jan 10th) as suggested by the planetarium software for Lord Rama.

Maybe TM administrators did not correct the time for fear of being seen as unscientific -- modern humans are currently thought to be only ~200,000 years old, although there has been a steady lengthening of such estimates of modernism in humans over the past decades clearly humans were making tools a long time ago(10 million-year-old teeth could re-write human history). But it would have been better to say nothing than to give credence to information that is clearly inconsistent with the Vedic literature.

Many Indian government officials attended the conference, but TM-practicing Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not, and it's interesting to note that Modi supports GMO agriculture as a means of providing a second "green revolution," so TM leaders should definitely soft-pedal anti-GMO rhetoric in India.

If GMO ag is no good, Modi will find out soon enough -- better for the TMO to emphasize meditation and groups of Yogic Fliers and Pundits rather than antagonizing a national leader who's trying to be pragmatic.

In our effort to reverse the downward spiral of the Kaliyuga and enable the Satyuga, let's not mistake the characteristics of the Satyuga with the path of least action that will allow the Satyuga to happen well before its usual time. Maharishi has described the beautiful purity of the Satyuga: "For invincibility to be real and lasting, its basis must be purity...purity of food, purity of water, purity of environment, purity of all...nothing that is harmful to life should be allowed."

And this purity which is the basis of the long-lasting Satyuga will certainly happen (it's always just a question of time before the restoration of purity and long life on earth, since the 4+ million year Yuga cycle is eternal, like a snow globe that is regularly turned over), but insisting on purity first in terms of environment is not a policy which could be successful on an earth marked by total lack of purity. Let the purity of mind, gained by repeated exposure to that always-pure field of being, lead naturally and easily to general environmental purity. People who learn TM are not required to quit smoking, drinking, eating meat -- in that same spirit, let's not get too invested in insisting on absolute purity in food at present -- people will make better choices when consciousness has expanded and it doesn't make a lot of sense to wear ourselves out in the public arena over difficult-to-achieve food and environmental purity.

Everybody should remember that Jenner was heavily ridiculed when he introduced smallpox vaccination to Europe, but the value of vaccination is overwhelmingly clear despite the fact that in about 1% of cases, vaccination can have adverse effects. But, given the fact that smallpox killed 300 million people even in the 20th Century, no occasional adverse effects could nullify the value of vaccination.

It should be noted that the TM movement skews toward crackpot thinking -- the vaccination rate at the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment is only 47% compared to the usual 90+ percent rate in Iowa. This culture of crackpot thinking should not be allowed to influence TMO policy-making -- obstructionism is not advocated by Maharishi: we don't try to stamp out the darkness, just introduce the light. (Fortunately for Maharishi School students, the State of Iowa is implementing mandatory vaccination for both public and private schools.)

I'm familiar with the TMO's position on GM, and how it differs from previous modification procedures, so no need to email me about this. Here's a statement from Maharishi about GM:

"The sequential evolution of Natural Law from unmanifest to manifest is the key point to understand. This sequential evolution is displayed in the sequential evolution of richas [verses], words, and gaps of the Vedic literature from Ṛk [Veda] to Sama [Veda] to Yajur [Veda] to Atharva Veda and on to unfold all forty aspects of the Vedic literature.

Sequential evolution is the eternal flow of evolution -- Navo-Navo bhavati. It is the sequential evolution of the holistic value of Natural Law. Starting from the holistic value of infinity in the unmanifest, it unfolds sequentially to eventually be the holistic value of the manifest. The sequence that is free from any problems, free from any inhibition of the evolutionary process; that is a sequence of evolution.

It is very, very important -- genetic engineering disturbs this sequence. It disturbs the sequence. That is why it is unnatural. Unnatural means disallowing the natural process of renewal of life -- Navo-Navo bhavati.

Obstruction in evolution is obviously and clearly damaging to life. That's how life gets problems and disease; balance is broken. Sequential evolution is deprived of its natural, direct flow of evolution. Interference in the sequential progression of life is damaging."

I acknowledge the truth of what Maharishi says about evolution, but tremendous damage to evolution is already done by the criminal, unnatural, environment-damaging way of life that the great majority of humans live now, which creates an epigenetic influence that may dwarf any possible negative contributions by genetic modification:

"DNA damage can also cause epigenetic changes. DNA damages are very frequent, occurring on average about 10,000 times a day per cell of the human body. These damages are largely repaired, but at the site of a DNA repair, epigenetic changes can remain."

The human body is subject to many types of damage already, never mind GMO contributions -- it's just the price of doing business in a highly dynamic creation: high-speed electrons crash into cells 10,000 times per second (primarily from beta decay of Potassium 40), doing damage that the infinitely resourceful and dynamic powers of Nature contend with countlessly.

Certainly the argument over "junk DNA" illustrates how sketchy scientific knowledge is about genomes, and it's almost certainly the case that you can't fool Mother Nature (“When insecticides overlay transgenic technology, the economic and environmental advantages of rootworm-protected corn quickly disappear,” the scientists wrote.), and GM tinkering will not be useful in the long run, but GMO may be useful in achieving certain short-term goals, so the TMO should not stand in a principled opposition given the utter chaos that prevails in India (and elsewhere, of course). Let expanded awareness do its work in improving the quality of life rather than getting hung up in complaining about technologies that appear to be offering some immediate benefits.

No national leader in a democracy enjoys real freedom of action, anyway: "Estimated to have cost $4.9bn – perhaps the second most expensive ballot in democratic history after the US presidential election in 2012 – it brought Narendra Modi to power on a tidal wave of corporate donations. Exact figures are hard to come by, but Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), is estimated to have spent at least $1bn on print and broadcast advertising alone. Of these donations, around 90% comes from unlisted corporate sources, given in return for who knows what undeclared promises of access and favours. The sheer strength of Modi’s new government means that those corporate backers may not be able to extract all they had hoped for, but there will certainly be rewards for the money donated."

•••

The ludicrous charges against Girish Varma are dropped.

•••

When it comes to promoting TM, certainly what works is good: efficacy is the only standard we should apply in bailing out an ignorant and unhappy planet. But it's puzzling to see TM rajas promoting the "human society is better than ever" work of Harvard professor Steven Pinker as if it were somehow supportive of the claims of the TM movement. Pinker says that humans are more peaceful than ever, citing several reasons why he thinks this is true -- but all of these claimed reasons substantially predate the TM movement, so what is the point of latching on to Pinker's ideas?

It doesn't even matter that Pinker's thinking is widely ridiculed in academic circles -- it's just useless and silly to try to ride Pinker's coattails when this Harvard professor, ignorant of the Yuga cycle which always heads in the direction of increasing disorder until the Sat Yuga resets everything in total bliss and purity for a while (1.7+ million years), does not support the TM movement's claims in any way, attributing the claimed diminution of violence to a centuries-old “civilising process” which has come about largely as a result of the increasing power of the state. Other causes cited by Pinker for the claimed decline in violence include the invention of printing, the empowerment of women, enhanced powers of reasoning and expanding capacities for empathy in modern populations, and the growing influence of Enlightenment ideals (not TM enlightenment, but the European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries).

More from political philosopher John Gray on why it is not true that "...modernization and civilization are advancing hand in hand."

The direction of the Yuga cycle has to be in the direction of increasing entropy, increasing disorder and unhappiness. If the Yuga were to proceed in the direction of increasing bliss, it would quickly make the long dream of creation impossible -- a game of hide and go seek in which all is known right off the bat, thus putting an end to the fun and games.

Instead of grasping at straws in an effort to show how nifty TM is, TM rajas should accept the role of increasing disorder in the Yuga cycle, and the inevitability of mass extinction as a means of resolving intolerable levels of disorder. Lord Krishna comes at the end of the Kaliyuga prompted by the pressure that evildoers -- exercising that free will that is the greatest gift of God -- put on the righteous (see Maharishi's commentary on Ch. 4, v. 7-8 of the Gita), so there is simply no way around elimination of unhappy people in order to enable the Sat Yuga. The natural order of creation repeatedly recycles the unhappy to reduce the burden on the earth: "...when the people become predominately sinful, Yama the god of death sometimes engages himself in meditation for some years, during which the population increases and explodes. The gods, frightened by this population explosion, resort to various devices to reduce it. All this has happened again and again countless times."

Although the Natural Law Party was the high water mark for silly in the TM movement (Maharishi noted that we were just wasting our time on political fantasy when he shut down the NLP), this support of Pinker's ideas can't do any good for a movement that needs from TM managers practical and realistic thinking that is also consonant with Vedic natural order and history in order to improve the world and enable the Sat Yuga earlier than usual.

•••

Three members of the TM community have stepped in front of a train within the last year or so in Fairfield, the most recent being Ronald Hall.

If suicide were OK, then really, everybody should do it -- who would tolerate the misery and stupidity of unenlightened human life if all could disappear simply by destroying the body? But the end of the body does not mean the end of the mind, which is where all the misery resides.

During the TM-teacher training course that I attended at Humboldt State College in August of 1970, somebody asked Maharishi about the fate of a suicide, to which Maharishi replied "It's so bad I don't want to talk about it." In her book All you need is love, Nancy Cooke de Herrera quotes Maharishi: "It is the worst sin against life. It is the most terrible thing you can do to your soul. If a person takes his own life, his bodiless soul is doomed to wander in a state of nothingness until the day when the body would have died naturally. And it is such a waste -- the soul will be reborn to the same test. It will have to relive them, only they will be harder." (p.141 --p.153 in original edition titled Beyond Gurus)

The sage of Jyotish, Parashara, also wrote the Dharmasastra, a guide to behavior in the Kaliyuga, in which he said:

1. Whether from excessive pride, excessive wrath, or from affection, or from fear, should a man or a woman hang one's self, — then this is the destiny that awaits him or her. 2. He or she sinks into a region utterly dark, and filled to the brink with pus and blood; that torment is suffered for sixty thousand years. 3. For such a being there should be no impurity, no libation of water, no cremation, nor any shedding of tears.

From page 28, CHAPTER IV, the Parashara Dharma Shastra

Apparently Nature heavily sanctions suicide because destroying the innocent body solves nothing (it's the mind that needs to become non-existent by purifying it through TM, making it so sattvic -- transparent to the infinite awareness -- that it amounts to no-mind) and it's necessary to sting those who commit suicide so heavily that they never do it again and don't get locked in a pointless series of suicides. It's a hard thing to hear about the fate of one's loved ones, which is why Maharishi was reluctant to discuss it (although it's possible that it's a case of a saint from the Himalayas seeing all ignorant human life as being lived in a pit of muck and not therefore seeing any reason to spend much time differentiating suicide), -- but somebody should say words of warning so that others,

(and there will be others, given the aging and/or at-loose-ends meditator population in Fairfield, some of whom, failing to understand how a spiritual regeneration movement proceeds at a necessary halting pace in the Kaliyuga, are disheartened by their appraisal of the movement's status in Fairfield as well as their own personal problems)

overwhelmed by circumstances, don't make this unfortunate choice because they wrongly see it as a victimless act with no consequences.

In the eternity of time, nearly everybody has spend substantial amounts of time in the many hells, but whatever discomfort people are going through embodied beats living in some ugly hell.

I'm certainly not a one-pointed saint, but the one-pointed do point out that one can gain enlightenment even in a short span of time, especially when imminent death or great misery focuses our attention. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, it's recounted how King Parikshit gains enlightenment when he seeks counsel from sages after being cursed to die from a snake bite within a week. Better to live with grief and listen to Vedic wisdom than throw away a body that could be a vehicle to enlightenment even at the bitter end. Fortunately for all parties, it is possible to rescue one's kin from hell by gaining enlightenment: a famous account of such a rescue is in the Srimad Bhagavatam, in which it is recounted that Prahlad saved his demonic father from hell by automatically sending a pulse of liberation to kin from Prahlad's own liberation.

"The whole purpose of life is to gain enlightenment. Nothing else is significant compared to that completely natural, exalted state of consciousness. So always strive for that. Set your life around that goal. Don't get caught up in small things, and then it will be yours." -Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

•••

Crackpot management of an Australian Maharishi School underscores the fact that "India is the only country which can assume a parental role for every country of the world with this knowledge of the Veda"

Only India can provide the cultural support that will allow the TM movement to enable the Sat Yuga. The TM movement outside of India is canted heavily to crackpot thinking and is readily susceptible to disabling influences by people unduly concerned with the "otherness" of cultural values brought in by the TM movement. Even if TM management outside of India was always level-headed, it will continue to be a struggle to create an enlightened world unless India leads the way with a large group in the Brahmastan and at least 1% of India's billion Hindus practicing TM -- India alone can reach the critical mass necessary to end the Kaliyuga.

The world certainly needs a bail-out from India -- despite Raja Luis's marvelous efforts in creating YF groups in Mexico, the country is facing a huge crime problem. -- Mexico homicides reach record levels -- (U.S. not so wonderful either, of course -- although the U.S. looks relatively good when you consider the rest of the world: "Not a day in April passed without a terror attack.") Of course, nobody could overlook the chaos that rules in India, moving any solution to the nation's staggering problems far beyond the reach of Prime Minister Modi without a large input from a large number of Transcendental Meditators and yagya-performing pundits, which can only be enabled by advertising the benefits of TM effectively to a wide Indian audience.

And some of that wide audience certainly can easily contribute to a well-funded TM movement in India -- There are 219,000 USD millionaires in India, and India is the 6th wealthiest country in the world.

15 or 30 second TM ads on Indian cable TV (avoiding national satellite, in order to avoid overwhelming the inadequate TM-teaching infrastructure) which illustrate the invincibility benefits for the individual are likely to be the most effective way to bring a large number of people into TM centers. The TM movement is fond of pitching TM primarily in terms of national invincibility -- insisting to an uninterested audience that research shows that TM brings world peace -- but that pitch does not appear to be successful, given the decades that the TM movement has tried to present itself as a World Peace Government and the lackluster results. People need to hear a hyper-localized reason to learn TM, not talk about some utopia. How can I protect myself against the demands of a high-stress world? This is the question that stressed minds want to deal with, and it should be the primary focus of an Indian (or any country, really) TM-ad campaign: Invincibility and happiness to the individual should be 95% of the message -- 4% for the Vedic literature roadmaps to creation and physiology (for Indian ads only, of course), 1% for utopia. And this message is best delivered in a few seconds, not only because stressed minds can't follow a lot of logic, but because it only takes a few seconds to attract those ready to make a giant leap in their evolution. Maharishi's description of his first meeting with Guru Dev:

"We quietly went up, there was nothing to see, it's all dark and somehow we felt someone was sitting on a sort of chair or something, reclining, comfortable. We sat down quietly, we found two or three other men were also sitting. No one was talking, whispering, it was all dark, everything. It so happened, about maybe fifteen, twenty minutes passed and it happened that far distance a car was coming and it showed the light on the terrace, and that was the first sight of Guru Dev. Just on the flash of the car, maybe a mile away from the car, but it just turned, it just turned for a moment and I was.. it was just enough to have a glimpse of him. And then I thought, "Yes, it seems the time has come." That one glimpse of a flashy light and that was enough to take decisions."

•••

TM administrators are trying to figure out how to run the IAA group in Fairfield, now that the Settles' generous support is no longer possible. One of the options floated is to charge money to meditate in the dome, a counterproductive move that was tried before.

There are other problems with the IAA grant program. Since many people receiving the grant were sleeping during their time in the dome, administrators decided to monitor grant recipients so that they were not paying people to "doze for dollars." This monitoring does not contribute to a healthy atmosphere in the dome -- being watched while you are meditating is an inherently uncomfortable thing, and falling asleep in meditation is a sometimes necessary thing.

Also, many people receiving the grant, which is not means-tested, don't need the financial support, having other sources of income like Social Security or income from work or investments, inheritances, etc.

IAA grants should be re-structured to feature only a very small cash grant, with participants living in the virtually empty Pundit campus trailer park in Vedic City, and eating meals provided on site. With no rent or food obligations, participants should be able to get by on a small ($100/month ?) cash grant instead of the current $800/month. Those receiving this $100 could work a few hours a week in food service or some other task in the Pundit campus (all the time saved by not having to cook for themselves enabling such work) -- others with income from outside jobs could choose to not do such work and not receive a cash grant at all. Or, possibly, if means testing is implemented, those with outside incomes could pay a low rate for rent and food at the campus. These steps would eliminate the need to monitor meditators in the Dome, and also solve the shortfall in donations used to support the IAA grant program.

Another option to make the IAA sustainable is to do what groups like the Trappist monks have done for centuries: meditate full-time and work part-time making something or providing some service that people need (one Trappist group makes caskets, for instance), a hybrid approach enabled by communal living and dining.

Of course, the real answer to a more affluent (in terms of both money and consciousness) approach to the IAA situation is to have a lot more people meditating in the U.S. Since TM administrators have never shown much aptitude for effective marketing of TM (most TM administrators still regard a sick puppy like the Natural Law Party as a rip-roaring success while ignoring the 50,000 initiations a month inspired by the Merv Griffin show in 1975), this is unlikely to happen until that day when some foam bunny lifts off in a convincing way..."If the needs and desires of a devotee are fulfilled without much exertion and trouble then closeness to God is verified on the material level." Maharishi's commentary on Ch. 9, v. 22 of the Gita.

But, as always, one has to consider the Divine Plan, which calls for a gradual increase in enlightenment values in order to avoid a fear and havoc response in the world. An effective TM promotion campaign in the US would quickly bump up against hard rocks of ignorance in a population unable to parse the difference between TM and Hinduism (the Malnak decision has no chance of being overturned). The David Lynch Foundation is teaching TM in a few schools, but these are schools in poor neighborhoods where the parents do not have the education, money, or inclination to challenge school authorities -- an expansion to schools in middle-class neighborhoods can't possibly be successful, no matter the results the DLF finds in its at-risk cohort projects. Because of this fundamental cultural incompatibility, only India could be home to a TM movement of enough size to turn the tide of the Kaliyuga.

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Maharishi: Don't Speak Ill, Remain Pure, 1964

Everyone has to discharge one's duty towards himself and towards spreading of this meditation in whatever capacity one can. And never undermine any other's attempt or desires in whatever humble way it may be.

One thing of very great importance: that now when you have been meditating for some time, purity has grown in life quite a lot. As the mind gains more and more of the Being, mind becomes more and more pure.

But one thing which you have to be very cautious about is that you don't think evil of anyone, don't speak ill of anyone. Otherwise speaking ill and thinking ill of someone, dwelling on the weaknesses of someone, all their bad qualities come to your heart; [this way] you get your heart and mind spoiled.

So when through meditation, purity is growing in life, we don't invite this mud from outside to make us impure anymore. We have to be cautious against our thoughts that we don't think ill of anyone, and we don't do ill to anyone naturally.

Speaking ill of others is a very bad.... We say it makes the cloth dirty, makes the whole personality very dirty and impure. That we have to guard against in our dealings and feelings with people. Very important; very, very important. It is as important as daily practice of meditation.

In the olden days in India, there was a practice that if some man did some great sin, then the way to repent it was that he would cover his body with a cloth like that and will go to any village. Standing out of the village, he would shout out: my name is such and such, and I come from that village, and I happened to be doing like that and like that and like that. He would just announce it and go ahead, and keep on announcing from village to village.

And the effect was: all the people who heard him, if in their evening meetings with their fellow men, they talk about that, then the contention is that they partake of his sin and after some time he becomes pure. Just by talking about the sinner, the people who talk about him share his sin.

This is very dangerous. Someone has done something wrong and if we dwell on that and talk it over with someone, we have been affected by that sin and we spread that sin; we partake of his sin and take it upon us.

Anyone who has done any mistake there or there or there, we just don't speak of it. Otherwise we will only be shrouding ourselves with the sins of others. Very important, especially now when through this Transcendental Meditation we are making ourselves more and more full with Being, means more and more full with purity, then we have to guard against this thing which is very dangerous.

No one thinks that if I am talking ill of someone, then no one thinks that I am taking over his sin. It is a common practice in the world to simply talk something wrong done by others. It is just very harmful for us.

Question (inaudible, about newspaper writers?)

They do a great service as far as amending of the wrong is concerned, but as far as partaking of his sin is concerned, they do partake. They help the sinner by spreading the news about him and everybody talks about him, and then all of them partake of the sins. As far as partaking of the sin is concerned, that is helpful for the sinner.

In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna said to Arjuna at one point [Gita 9:1, see below] that I am giving you this most secret wisdom because, one condition out of many that He said was, that you never speak ill of others (anasuya). That is you don't speak ill of others, for this quality in you I think you deserve this wisdom, so I give this wisdom to you. Just this quality of not speaking ill of others.

Out of my own experience, I tell you, in the ashram of my Guru Dev, there were 100s of people, all good disciples. And everyone after all is a human being. No aspirant is ever perfect. They come to the feet of the master for that perfection. So everyone has his own failing there and there and there. I had my own failings, I never knew what were they, but must be because no human is ever perfect.

One thing I was famous about is that I will not speak ill of anyone. I would always cherish a hope of his becoming better sooner or later. I would always cherish a hope.

If someone says: that man has done like that and such a bad man. [I would say:] “Now that he is in the ashram he will improve.” Always I cherish a hope against all the wrongs done by all the people.

And the effect that you find today is all this world Movement to bring peace to every man all around the world; it is a very great thing in the long history of the world. This great force of purity and strength for spiritual regeneration of entire mankind, no surprise [that it] is based on the faculty of mind that will not cherish into the wrongs of others.

Bhagavad Gita 9:1

The Blessed Lord said:

Now I shall fully declare to you, who do not cavil, this the greatest secret, the knowledge combined with the experience, having known which you will be freed from evil.

“Anyone who has done any mistake there or there, we just don't speak of it. Otherwise we will only be shrouding ourselves with the sins of others.” -- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

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Maharishi on Behavior and Surroundings

"If someone makes an ill-humored remark, a joyful mind that is fully developed and full of love and contentment responds to it with forgiveness. The joyful man does not mind the wrong, because his is a strong mind. a strong mind has the ability of tolerance; a weak mind takes upon itself all the insult and all the ill-humor of the utterance.

Another point may be made in this connection: If someone has already had doubts regarding another man's behavior, even if that man expresses something of love and joy, the doubter keeps on having doubts because his doubts were present before the conversation started. So a doubting or unkind mind, even if there have been reasons for the doubts in the past, fails to enjoy the joyfulness and sincerity of the other. Thus, it is not the present behavior of the man that is causing the other to be doubtful; rather it is the state of his own mind.

So as far as the influence of the atmosphere upon the individual is concerned, the state of mind is of primary value. The nature of the atmosphere turns and takes shape according to the state of mind of the individual. If one puts a red glass to his eye, he sees everything as red; if he looks through a green glass he sees everything as green. Whatever the individual's state of mind, it reflects itself. But due to ignorance, generally, the atmosphere is held to be responsible for it.

The individual is responsible for the atmosphere. True it is that the individual creates the atmosphere and the atmosphere in turn has its influence on the individual. But when the mind of the individual is strong, functioning at its full potential, then he is able to make the best use of the surroundings and circumstances. This is the art of behavior with others. The art of action and the art of behavior lie in making things favorable for us and in not making them unfavorable. The atmosphere is there for us to use and not for making us miserable. If someone has said something, it is his action, his responsibility in saying it. If it is useful to us, we enjoy it, accept it, think about it, act on it, and derive benefit from it. But if it is not useful and elevating or favorable to us, then we do not think of it again and again; we do not attend to it. If it happens to be an expression of something bad, and if we are not responsible for it, and the speaker thrusts the responsibility for the wrong on us, then he is in the wrong. We do not bring that wrong to mind and mull it over and over. If we do so, we are putting a bad thought in our mind, which was not our own fault in the first place.

Therefore, once and for all, we must make our mind such that it becomes a principle of life that we naturally think and act in a way that is elevating and beneficial to us. This way we derive great benefit and advantages for ourselves and others. We do not go for damaging or malicious thoughts, either to reject or accept; indifference is the weapon be used against any negative situation in life.

This is the art of behavior. If someone has done us an injustice, we do not harbor it or think about it. Perhaps it was a mistake. If we permit it to affect our future actions toward him, we are not giving him the opportunity to improve in his relations with us, and we also suffer. Even if he does harbor ill-feelings toward us, we will benefit him and ourselves if we still behave toward him with love and tolerance. In this way, we help the atmosphere to improve, and, with an improved atmosphere, we are better served." SBAL, pp. 178-179

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Quotes from Maharishi and the Vedic literature