Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: The Biography of the Man Who Gave Transcendental Meditation to the World

Paul Mason has been a fan and devotee of The Beatles for more than five decades. In his own life he has sought to emulate their ways in every manner possible. The devotion Paul feels for The Beatles is really shining through in this work, and the reader can readily understand how it has motivated him to embark on a quest of nearly lifelong research into their lives and to becoming a very dedicated amateur historian and biographer. Paul Mason has, naturally, following in the footsteps of his great idols, also embraced the practice of Transcendental Meditation. Sadly for Paul Mason his dream of meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation, in person, never came to fruition, as it did for his heroes The Beatles. To compensate for this lack he has spent much of his life researching into the Indian tradition from which Transcendental Meditation has its source, including its great masters and mystic disciples such as Maharishi.This book, which is partly a biography of Maharishi and part a biography of the Beatles, consists of firsthand accounts from Pauls personal sources and witnesses, citations from writings, interspersed with Pauls personal judgements and opinions.For example "the funny kick in" on page 86 where Maharishi, to some "His Holiness", is called:"The boss of the Spriritual Regeneration Movement. And on page 88 " His capacity for strategy might, if he had so wished, have won him employment in virtually any major advertising concern". Like his heroes, Paul Mason is not one to express his love for authorities, not even spiritual ones.The book however could have gained from a more thorough check for grammar, spelling and facts. The more obvious mistakes in the book are the propositions that the Bhagavad Gita has 24 chapters and that Maharishi translated only 3 of them. This claim is asserted on page 120. But of course the Gita has, as every one interested in yoga knows, 18 chapters, of which Maharishi translated six. On page 125 Paul claims Maharishi participated in a Kumbha Mela in Allahabad in 1966. When the calender of the Mela's held in Allahabad is consulted though, it is stated, that the Mela was held in 1965.The book contains many valuable and interesting bits of pieces of information, but a quantity of the statements should be treated with due prudence. The reader has to bear in mind that this book is the work of an amateur historian and devoted Beatles fan. This tends to sometimes obscure objectivity. Especially in the many paragraphs when Paul provides his own oponions on a matter is a time for the reader to tread lightly.They are only pure conjecture.All in all the reader must appreciate the effort that went into the creation of this work.But the reader must also bear in mind that there is an angle to this exposition:A very strong subjective angle.

This book is not a sugary fantasy story by a devotee. Author Paul Mason takes us on a factual fascination journey from nothing to everything, a journey that became almost too much of everything. He explains how an impoverished monk from a lower caste, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, lived the irony of becoming a wealthy international celebrity, loved by the rich and famous, and sometimes viewed with suspicion by some of those same converts. We find out the reasons behind Maharishi’s emergence from obscurity, and learn step by step how he converted millions of people from all over the world to his system of meditation, known as TM (Transcendental Meditation). Find out about his relationship with The Beatles and other famous people, and who said what, and was it true? This book gives anyone who remembers the TM era an insight into Maharishi, and those who helped him create a global business empire. I am giving this book a 5 star rating, because as someone who learnt TM, many of the things I wanted to know are revealed in this book.