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The Maharishi's World This is the world of the modern Maharishi. Satellite dishes and a 24-hour channel, exclusive mind-body centres set in the most beautiful acreage in Europe, mansions and castles where the rich and famous pay daunting sums of money to heal their souls. Hemant Kumar took a tour of the Maharishi's empire and found a fantasyland, where opulence and luxury meet Vedic mantras and Vastu.
The place is Vlodrop (pronounced Flow-Drop), some 300 km south of Amsterdam. This is where the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi lives and from where he presides over his vast empire girdling the globe and growing ever larger. It's so quiet here you can hear yourself think. I enter the main building and a long, scented corridor lined with slippers. And yet, not a sound. I raise a questioning eyebrow at Atilla, the young Austrian driver who picked me up at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Fingers on his lips, he points out my room to me. I unlatch the door, and with a whispered ''TM time, I must rush too'', Atilla disappears down the hallway. My room would put any five-star hotel suite to shame. It's plush, elegant and beautifully decorated. It's part of a huge building, housing more than 500 people, each of them sitting absolutely still, deep in meditation--Transcendental Meditation (TM). At this very moment the man responsible for this modern, mystical nirvana is meditating in his glass-encased veranda. At 85, the Maharishi still meditates six to seven hours daily and works longer than any of his ablest lieutenants can. It is said that no one knows how many hours the Maharishi actually sleeps. He turns in only after midnight and is up again before dawn. In the swinging '60s, when he landed in Europe, the Maharishi encountered a dazed, confused generation. Rebellious youngsters freaking out on the decadent pop culture of the hippies. Marriages wrecking on the bedrock of alcoholism, mistrust and promiscuity. The Beatles and Flower Power. Anti-war demonstrations and the search for an elusive elixir. Inner peace? It was as rare as virginity on Pennsylvania Avenue. At first, they didn't understand what this short, dark man from the Far East was saying to them in his broken English and a deeply eastern accent. But soon enough, they began to trickle in. The trickle changed to a flood. And today, the Maharishi's organisation is a worldwide movement spanning 80 countries. For millions of people in these countries TM twice daily is as essential as brushing their teeth, probably more. The ashram complex is built in a forest clearing. Next to the Maharishi's house is an imposing late-19th-century mansion with more than a 100 large rooms and a labyrinthine network of hallways, gangways and thickly carpeted corridors. It's morning. The Maharishi is listening to Yajur Veda chants on his music system. Outside, the whole place is abuzz with activity. The appetising sound of huge stainless-steel vessels clanging in the kitchen downstairs. The loud ''chhanngg'' of rai, hing and curry leaves crackling in pure ghee. Breakfast is being prepared for 500 people and for the Maharishi. A man is snipping white lilies in the sprawling lawn to make a bouquet for the Maharishi. Another pushes a wheelbarrow in the organic vegetable garden, whistling a tune. Indian, European or American, they all greet each other with hands folded and a ''Jai Guru Dev''. This heady cocktail of curry leaves, ghee, Jai Guru Dev, and kurta-pyjama in the heart of white man's Europe would seem ludicrous were it not so genuine and warm and natural in this setting. The greeting 'Jai Guru Dev' is the Maharishi's tribute to his guru, Swami Brahmanand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath. At the stroke of nine, a young Yajur Veda pandit takes up position in the Brahma Sthaan, the most important place in the Maharishi's house. For the next three hours, he will chant the Veda in its purest form as the Maharishi engages in the activities of the day. This primordial sound has a healing and purifying effect. That is why, mantra chikitsa, or therapy through chanting, has the pride of place in Ayurveda. Its practitioners are the most revered of medicine men. All this suggests an ideal lifestyle--one far from civilisation and deep in the realm of the Vedas. But this is a modern rishi who has harnessed technology to his advantage. A dish antenna links up straight from his room to a satellite for broadcasting on his 24-hour TV channel. Cellphones, laptops, Internet, video-conferencing. The works. ''This is the Age of Information. How will you reach your message to the millions of people worldwide if you don't keep in step with technology,'' asserts Dr Bevan Morris, the man who heads the Maharishi's think-tank (Council of Supreme Intelligence) and one of the three people who oversee the global empire (see box). So, what is the Maharishi's message? ''It's actually simple enough. Live by the laws of nature. Imbibe Vedic practices in your life. Meditate and live in pure surroundings. Build according to Vastu. Practise Ayurveda and prevent, rather than treat, disease,'' says a smiling Dr Morris, sitting on a low sofa, hands folded sagaciously in his lap. One of the Maharishi's biggest campaigns, however, has been to propagate Ayurveda in the world. And he hasn't had to try very hard. The West is fairly disillusioned with its own system of medicine. ''Allopathy relies too heavily on machines. All told, it is a system that has lost touch with its roots and the patient feels alienated,'' says Anand Srivastava, chairman of the multimillion-dollar global pharmaceutical enterprise, Maharishi Ayurved. ''Ayurveda, on the other hand, is more complete. A holistic health-management system that has a highly preventive attitude by suggesting a lifestyle and treatment that keep disease away.'' In his own adaptation of Ayurveda, the Maharishi trains doctors to focus on the human psychophysiology--the mind-body complex. The body, he says, has its own intelligence. The mind controls the body. Together, they drive a living, pulsating, dynamic human being with consciousness. This consciousness is nothing but oneness with this inner intelligence. The Vedas propound a lifestyle that helps us find, fire and enliven our own consciousness. And TM eases you into the refreshing pool of your own consciousness from which you return cleansed and rejuvenated. Deepak Chopra honed his Vedas-based healing skills at the Maharishi's organisation before he fell out and branched off on his own.
But most inmates of this facility double up as something else when they are not meditating. The Maharishi has a battery of secretaries, all practitioners of TM and committed bachelors or celibates. They work in shifts from morning to night attending to the Maharishi's calls and keeping him connected to every city in the world. Shailesh Saxena, 28, has been the Maharishi's secretary for two years now and his life has easily settled into a natural rhythm with that of the Maharishi. ''It's something I can do forever. It's almost as if I was born for this. I'm so lucky the Maharishi chose me to be so close to him all the time. My life is fulfilled,'' says Saxena. Up early at 6.00 a.m., he meditates for a while and goes walking in the woods for a good hour or so. A quick shower after that and he is ready in a sparkling white kurta-pyjama. A quick upma or vada-sambar with tea and off he goes to the Maharishi's house next door in a battery-powered golf cart. Every morning, without fail, Saxena is at the Maharishi's house sharp at 10.00 a.m. to relieve Mayur, another secretary who has been there since very early in the morning. By 10.30 a.m. a group of people start filing into the Maharishi's house. These are vaidyas, allopath doctors and exponents of Jyotish and the Vedas. In a large hall right below the Maharishi's first-floor bedroom, they take up positions before huge TV cameras. Soon they are joined by the Maharishi himself and the day's broadcast on the Maharishi Channel takes off. Right now, the programming is mostly in the form of discourses from the Maharishi on a variety of subjects followed by discussions with these experts. ''But, soon enough, we'll start broadcasting animated stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Upanishads, and other books of knowledge,'' says Rajesh Srivastava, director of the in-house company, Cosmic Software, in-charge of producing the programmes. In Maharishi's brand of Ayurveda, TM and medicines go hand in hand. And his dedicated band of vaidyas all practise and teach TM. Dr Raju, an exponent of pulse-diagnosis, has been working with the Maharishi for more than 20 years now. And he travels throughout Europe to see patients. And everywhere, there are long queues of patients waiting for him. ''In the beginning, you could have dismissed the long queues of patients as idle curiosity towards Asian mystique. But two decades have gone by and now, I treat children of my old patients--a generation born after I began practising here,'' said Dr Raju, looking out onto the fields rushing past, as we drove early one morning to Valkenberg, an old Dutch town less than 20 km from the famous town of Maastricht. Valkenberg (pronounced Fall-ken-berg) showcases the Maharishi's finest and most exclusive Ayurvedic healing centre in Netherlands. Housed in a castle-like mansion that used to be a monastery, it combines the best of Ayurveda--pulse-diagnosis, natural medicine, meditation and panchkarma. Rich Europeans and Americans spend weeks here cleansing their minds and bodies of toxins. The mansion has scores of consultation rooms, treatment and massage facilities, meditation halls, dining halls and super-deluxe suites for guests. The place is a mini-India minus, of course, the filth and stench. Spotlessly clean and exquisitely designed, the centre has a hawk-eyed German caretaker, Johannes, who prowls the campus with a magnifying glass. Dozens of vaidyas and technicians have been flown in from Kerala and other parts of India. It is no doubt, very, very expensive. But it's also deeply satisfying. If you believe in holistic healing, then Valkenberg is the place for you. Spend two weeks here and come back a new person. A complete therapy involving pulse-diagnosis, herbal treatment, TM and panchkarma takes two weeks. And you pay approximately $10,000 for it. The Maharishi has standardised the charges for panchkarma throughout Europe. Room tariff, however, varies from place to place. At Valkenberg in Netherlands, for instance, the room tariff is slightly lower than at Parkschlosschen, Germany. The German outfit is decidedly the most exquisite health centre of Maharishi Ayurved in Europe. For a two-week treatment, Parkschlosschen charges DM 8,800 (Rs 2.2 lakh) for its best suite with single occupancy. For a couple, the charges for the same suite will go up to DM 13,500 (Rs 3, 37,500). But this includes everything that you will need during your stay here. It is expensive even by European standards. ''But the herbalised oils and proprietary formulations used for the two-week course of panchkarma, come straight from India. And even in India, they are handpicked and prepared under very strict guidelines by traditional Ayurvedic practitioners,'' says Srivastava.
Panchkarma is an ancient Indian Ayurvedic form of mind-body healing. Simply put, it is a series of carefully designed, total-body massages. For two weeks, the body is swathed in warm, medicated oils massaged gently into the skin by trained technicians. It is not a one-size-fits-all kind of treatment. Designed by pure inner logic, it is geared to your specific body type. Nutrition during the treatment is easy to digest, warm, low in fat and free of animal proteins. Panchkarma is not easy to administer. It requires years of training and practice. And when you experience oil-soaked Indian herbs being rubbed into your body by European hands, it's, well, quite a feeling. The Maharishi has trained hundreds of foreigners in panchkarma. One of them is Dr Ulrich Bauhofer of Germany, who lost faith in his own system of medicine and joined the Maharishi 20 years ago. Indoctrinated in the Maharishi's philosophy of Vedic healing, he decided to set up a panchkarma facility in Germany. Two years ago, he opened a centre in lush-green wine country, Traben Trarbach in southern Germany. I drove early one September morning from Vlodrop to see Dr Bauhofer. Thirty km before Traben Trarbach you catch up with the Moselle river flowing in from France. As you drive along the winding river, you smell the aroma of ripening grapes in the slate hills on both sides of the road. Set in the picturesque hills laden with acre upon endless acre of the choicest Reisling grapes, Dr Bauhofer's centre is truly divine. Far away from stress, and breathtakingly beautiful, his sprawling two-acre complex is called Parkschlosschen (pronounced Park-shlo-ssen). Go there and you will never want to come back. A clear, natural spring supplies the drinking water and a geyser spouts nearby spraying its healing minerals on the needy. Complete with a restaurant, lobby and tree-lined walkways, Parkschlosschen is the place to spend two weeks in absolute luxury and rejuvenation. The place is so Indian in character that even the bathroom fittings are called Hansa. Exquisitely designed treatment rooms for panchkarma are swathed in the sweet aroma of some of the choicest Indian flowers. I spent a whole day getting drenched in sesame oil from head to toe as two trained technicians working in tandem, massaged the oil into my body, ever so slowly. Abhyang, they call it in panchkarma. I was already falling asleep with the gentle rhythmic motion of the massage, but what came next was like a dream. Sweetly scented, warm oil poured from a vessel inches above my head--for nearly half an hour. This is shirodhara, the climax of the therapy. I don't know how long I must have slept after that but when I woke up, I felt different--light and cleansed. Hunger drove me straight to the restaurant after a lavish warm bath. I was greeted by a smart German girl. She put down a small glass before me with a yellowish liquid in it. Gingerly, I sipped at it. It was ginger, in warm water to work up my stomach and prime up the digestive system, she explained. Then came hot cauliflower soup, followed by an assortment of fresh fruits. Dr Bauhofer says it is best to have fruits first and then go for the cereals. Lassi came next laced with honey and then some rice and a typical Indian curry, albeit lighter on spices. I had had a pure Indian meal in the south of Germany, thousands of kilometres from home, presented to me in the most exquisite fashion in a stylishly laid-out restaurant. I was more than flattered. For a two-week stay here you can expect to pay a maximum of DM 9,000 (Rs 2.25 lakh) for one person and a minimum of DM 6,400 (Rs 1.6 lakh). This includes everything: the suite, food, treatment and massages. Expensive, but exclusive! And there is so much to see around here. The oldest Roman town outside of Rome, Trier, is less than an hour's drive from here. Shop or lounge in renovated 12th-century buildings or simply roam in the bylanes of Trier. Or, you can just walk down to the town of Traben Trarbach and sample some of the best wines sold in Germany. Every single house sells wine and kegs overflow with the stuff kept just outside every restaurant in town. The Moselle flows playfully through the town and falls into the Rhine in Koblenz. The nearest international airport is Frankfurt and Parkschlosschen can have you picked up at the airport for an extra DM 350 (Rs 8,750). A few months ago, the Maharishi launched his 24-hour satellite television channel. Tune in, and you'll see him speak about meditation, Ayurveda, life. But his latest passion is Vastu. He has huge, and almost impossible, plans of a global reconstruction based on the principles of Vastu. He believes most of our problems today emanate from poor or non-existent Vastu in our lives. Our buildings face the wrong direction, roads look the wrong way and our bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms and storerooms are not built where they ought to be. Therefore, we don't succeed in our efforts. It sounds unconvincing. But he laughs at critics. And when he recites confidently: ``The time has come for the precious unfoldment of the golden hue of heavenly life on earth'', you're almost convinced. So, over 10,000 acres of prime forest land in the breathtaking Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, USA, the first of his Vastu-perfect settlements, was commissioned this July. Aptly called the Heavenly Mountain Resort, the place is built strictly according to Vastu and is self-sufficient in every way, complete with schools for children. Close associate and follower for more than 20 years, Dr Morris, admits the Maharishi's plans are ``ambitious, even impossible. But then only he can think on such a global scale.'' And act, too. The Maharishi's target is to collect $100 billion for his global reconstruction project. And already, business houses and sympathisers from all over the world have contributed more than $1 billion. This is a huge, efficiently run corporation selling the ancient wisdom of India in a modern-day package. And its success is evident in the kind of resources it has, the talented people it attracts, the magnificent, peaceful beauty of its centres, and the mystic magnetism of its CEO. © Living Media India Ltd |
It's the
biggest wooden house in netherlands. not a single metal pin or nail has been driven into
the seasoned cedar. Finnish artisans handcrafted wooden pins and rivets to take the place
of metallic nails and screws. Famous German architect Ike Hartman pored over reams of
original Vastu inscribed in Sthapatya Ved, to design the house. A generous coat of neem
oil protects the wood from termite. When the cedar catches the late evening sun, its
golden paint simply ignites. And the house glows--like a gigantic ladle overflowing with
molten gold. And then, as the sun goes down, up goes the quartet of fountains on the
sprawling lawns across the building. Transfixed, I watch the spectacle unfold like a giant
slide show. 
This is an ashram where every one meditates at least
twice daily. But there are those who sit for hours deep in meditation. They only break for
meals and a few hours of sleep. These are committed celibates or simply bachelors called
purushas who have learnt the technique of TM but aim to achieve higher levels of
consciousness. Some of them may be in meditation for as long as 15 hours daily. Close to
the kitchen on the ground floor is a large, lamp-lit hall lined with white-cushioned
seats. This is the main meditation hall for the purushas. 