Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Yogis

Next week, Dave and Tom will continue with their discussion of The Occult Invasion. We hope you can tune in. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, answers to your questions in “Contending for the Faith,” and in “Understanding the Scriptures,” Dave and Tom resume their discussion of God’s salvation.

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Now, “Religion in the News,” a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the Sunday Times in the United Kingdom: “The locals are already dubbing it Club Med. Club Meditation that is,” writes Andy Goldberg. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the diminutive Indian guru who gained fame in the 1960s for winning the Beatles over to transcendental meditation, is planning an ambitious new complex on the historic shores of the Sea of Galilee, an unusual attempt to bring peace to the Middle East. Backed by millionaire Jewish magnets who have raised 400 million dollars, the ashram (or meditational village) will be home to 7000 of the Maharishi’s disciples. Officially called the Israeli Capital of One Government for One World, the village of East-facing chalets will be set in 250 acres of spacious landscaped gardens near the point where Jesus is said to have worked miracles 2000 years ago.

Tom: Dave, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi—this guy has been flimflamming us for years and years, not only with the Beatles, but even his presentation of TM in this country, right?

Dave: Well, transcendental meditation is neither transcendental nor is it meditation. Biblical meditation, and meditation as it was understood in the Old Testament or the New Testament, is contemplation—thinking deeply about something.

Tom: Mmhmm.

Dave: Eastern meditation is the opposite: tuning it out. You reach an alert but blank state of mind, relaxed state of mind. You are not supposed to think. So, it really isn’t meditation. It’s the opposite of meditation. Furthermore, it’s not transcendental, because he doesn’t believe in a transcendent God. There’s no real transcendent state, but what you’re doing is looking within yourself.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: So, you could call it “subscendental” meditation, but it is very closely related to the whole drug culture. And in fact, it was the drug culture that opened our young people up to the cosmic gospel of these gurus. Of course, The Beatles, as you implied, got involved with drugs first and then Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Maharishi, by the way, Maha- means “great” and -rishi is the “king”—"great king.” Mahesh is just his name, and Yogi—he is a yogi. So, TM—transcendental meditation—is a form of yoga.

Maharishi, when he began here in the United States, he made no bones about the fact that this was a religious practice. It is religious. It comes from the Hindu…

Tom: It’s pure Hinduism.

Dave: Hindu Vedas, that’s right. It’s pure Hinduism. But when he saw people weren’t interested in religion, and furthermore, you couldn’t get religion into the public school, then he called it the Science of Creative Intelligence.

Well, I want to just read what Bob Krupinski, former TM instructor said: In 1957, Maharishi started an organization called Spiritual Regeneration Movement for religious and educational purposes only. In 1974, he completely renamed all the corporations under a new set of articles of incorporation, deleting everything that said “spiritual and religious” to legitimize the teachings of Hinduism. Now, he’s calling it by another name. For example, Maharishi began calling God “the vacuum state.” They literally taught the TM-ers, the instructors, that they were the most important people in the world, that they were generating a spiritual food called “soma” for the consumption of the gods. And that this is going to transform the world. But in fact, it’s a form of yoga, and he’s putting you into an altered state where these demonic entities can take over.

But now, one of the—let me mention another one of the instructors—R. D. Scott was his name. He tells in his book Transcendental Misconceptions how when he first got involved, he was given a name…I mean a mantra—he was given a mantra. He didn’t know that it was a name, which he was told was simply a neutral sound that would help him relax and develop his full potential.

Well, he says, to his surprise, some months later he’s reading a book on Hinduism—because he got led into Hinduism, ultimately—reading a book on Hinduism, and there he finds his individually chosen secret mantra just for him, so Maharishi had said. In fact, it was the name of a Hindu god. Ah Ying was the name of his particular one. Well, he goes back to Maharishi and he says, “I thought this was purely scientific and had nothing to do with religion, and this was individually chosen for me? And I find that the name of my—that my mantra is the name of a Hindu god!”

Maharishi says, “Well, sorry, we don’t have time to talk about it. [I’ve got] a lot of people waiting to see me. We’ll discuss it later,” which they never did.

The next time he appears before Maharishi, he’s given a name to put in front of his mantra. Sri, which means “almost beautiful.” And then the third time he appears before Maharishi—because he’s moving up the ranks as an instructor—he’s given a name…given a word to put at the end of his mantra—Nama. That appears sixteen times in the initiation ceremony initiating you into transcendental meditation. It means “I bow down to you.” So now his mantra is Sri Ah Ying Nama. Sri Ah Ying Nama—Ah Ying: “You great god, I’m bowing down to you.” And he’s told that this is scientific and has nothing to do with religion.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: In fact, he’s calling upon Ah Ying, this demonic entity, to possess him. So, as you said, Maharishi has been deceiving the world. He’s a deceiver and he knows what he’s doing. But unfortunately, a lot of people are embracing this.

Tom: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now, for those of us who, you know, have a heart for Israel and the East, this is a shocker. Even more than that, I mean, here’s the pretense that they are there. This is going to be—it’s their attempt to bring peace to the Middle East—through meditation! Through…it’s like the bumper sticker: “Visualize world peace.” I mean, they’re going to put this…

Dave: The Dalai Lama has his own technique. He teaches tantric Tibetan yoga. He teaches you all that we are all gods and we can create peace. He got the Nobel Peace Prize…

Tom: Yeah.

Dave: …for that sort of thing.

Tom: Yeah. And for some of you out there thinking, Well, this is the Maharishi, but…and it’s the Middle East—no problem.  Well, you just have to go to Fairfield, Iowa to the Maharishi International University and check it out there.

Dave: They’ve practically taken over that town.