Stepping Onto the Path

When I sink into my heart, Maharishi is there. Guru Dev, Maharishi, Amma, Maa - blessed beings have taken up residency in my Being. These past few weeks, knowing that Maharishi was leaving this 3rd dimensional existence, I have been sending him light, sending light and scanning all my past interactions with him, all my feelings and emotions, to make sure that I had no residual negativity, no residual hurt or anger or disappointment and I could not find anything but gratitude, gratitude for the multitude of gifts, the teaching, the wisdom, the blessings, even the outrageous plans that made us all think outside the box - the visions of a visionary.

How could I have known when I took my purple irises and peach roses to that funky little house out on Lower Muscatine in Iowa City, May 1972, to get initiated by a former junkie, how could I ever have imagined this life, this path, this journey? I was only going so I could use more mental potential, maybe be more rested and alert as a student, maybe be a happier person. Little did I know that I'd go off three years later to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation, a follower, a chela, a governor of the Age of Enlightenment, a minister (albeit unanointed minister), a sidha, a chela again for another guru, a disciple. All these labels were not in my vocabulary in 1972. I was going on the testimony of my friend Leroy, some recollection of the Beatles' foray to India in the late 60's and because the poster on the door of Things, Things, & Things with Maharishi's face had beckoned me to show up at the Main Library that night.

This is it, I thought - now is the time and so I went that night to the introductory lecture and later asked permission from my parents to spend the $35. The night before I was to be initiated I barely escaped getting either arrested or clobbered by the National Guard with their batons when they cleared off the intersection of Burlington and Riverside Drive of anti-war protestors. I thought I'd better move if I didn't want to get arrested and miss my initiation the next day, so I did. Priorities, you know? But what I didn't know was that the journey would be and become the big priority - the driving force of my life.

The years roll down - memories, memories, but what presses through to the front is that permeation of influence on the entirety, on my Being, on my soul's path and grace, grace, grace. How blessed I feel to have been part of this history, to have met and breathed in his presence, to have been guided and supported by his work.
Jai Guru Dev

Maharishi Takes Mahasamadhi

Maharishiji has merged into the effulgent light, into the cosmos. Yes, there is much rejoicing in that. I know that he has not really left, death is an illusion. Yet, I also feel sad - no one has had more of an impact on my life that this beautiful soul, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Without Maharishi I would never have survived the burden of despair and grief that I inherited, that the world inherited. He brought the sunshine.

The first time I ever saw him on Johnny Carson I sat up and took note - someone was teaching me something different, something more - life is bliss, so simple. But no one spoke like that in the 60's. Life was hard, hard work, people were literally rioting in the streets, bombs were being dropped and here was someone who had a completely contrary message - a message of peace, lightness, bliss, and hope. He spoke of using our full mental potential for the good of the world.

The night he passed I was watching Obama's speech after the primaries and had the thought, we would never have had an Obama without Maharishi's vision, without his teaching, without his message which has permeated the consciousness and the thinking of so many and has extended to transform the entire culture in the last 60 years.

With deep gratitude. Jai Guru Dev!