Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Feb 7 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

IN THE unlikely setting of a North Wales university city, East met West when the world’s most famous pop group visited the founder of transcendental meditation in the summer of love.

“Sexy Sadie” – the giggling guru from the Himalayan foothills – and his hippy followers, were a surreal arrival in Bangor, deep in the heart-land of the Principality’s biscuit-brown chapel tradition.

However, even a holy man had to grasp an opportunity of meeting The Beatles in August, 1967, at the height of their psychedelic majesty.

What was to have been a love-fest for the beautiful people turned tragically black when it was announced that the man often cited as The Beatles’ first guru, Brian Epstein, had died from an accidental sleeping pill overdose.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru who introduced The Beatles to transcendental meditation, has died at his home in Vlodrop, in the Netherlands, aged around 91 years, apparently from natural causes.

The Maharishi, who claimed to be leading humanity towards a new era of peace and harmony, simultaneously converted his interpretations of ancient scriptures into a multi-million dollar global empire, which attracted five million followers worldwide.

Although he first taught in the US in 1959, he achieved worldwide publicity through his Bangor meeting with the Beatles and their visit to his Indian ashram in 1968. In tow were the in-crowd including Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful, Jane Asher and Donovan.

The now bearded, sagely-looking Beatles claimed they had renounced LSD after learning about the Maharishi’s messages of universal love and peace. Yet this harmonious commune atmosphere cracked when the Maharishi discovered the band had not quite relinquished hard drug use. John Lennon allegedly countered with the song titled Sexy Sadie, changed from Maharishi to avoid litigation, but referring to the touchy-feely guru’s earthier appetites. It includes the line: “You made a fool of everyone”.

Donovan and film director David Lynch revealed plans last year to open a Scottish university teaching transcendental meditation to cut violence, crime and stress.

Other critics accused the Maharishi of fraud over his “yogic flying”, with believers filmed apparently hovering in the lotus position. Closer inspection showed they were hopping, not flying. Latterly, he moved to a former Franciscan monastery on the Dutch-German border.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Beatles guru; born c1918, died February 5, 2008