On Feb. 11, 2008 Maharishi's physical body was cremated at the sangam (confluence) of the three holy rivers Ganges, Yamuna and unmanifest Saraswati R. at Allahabad (formerly Prayag) India. This holy site is also the location of the largest spiritual gathering on earth, the Kumbh Mela, every 12 years at which more than 20 million people gathered in 2007.

About 1,000 devotees from the US, Europe India, Australia, and the rest of the world witnessed the procession of his body being carried from the hall at Maharishi's large ashram there to the cremation platform atop the massive raised foundation (practically an acropolis) of his planned Rig Ved temple overlooking the sangam of the rivers and adjacent Mela grounds. The current Shankaracharya, leaders of our movement, Maharishi's family, an honor guard from the Indian Government, Vedic Pandits and hundreds and hundreds of followers held him in our hearts as we watched the day long cremation ceremony.

As the fire consumed him I felt his Presence go from his body into my heart with a striking physical sensation. I later learned that many others had a similar experience.

From that moment on I felt only joy and a oneness with everyone present that has been continuing, and which seems to be shared by most of the people there. It is a simple awareness of consciousness, an effortless willingness to Be the love that we are, in total acceptance of each other and whatever is happening.� This collective consciousness of love and acceptance is like a field of love that pervades, integrates and unites us automatically without any effort or thinking. I sense Maharishi's Presence in our unified collective consciousness now and I have been noticing that it seems as if the oneness between us all is seamless and uniform without a gap or boundary. That seamlessness feels impervious to disharmony or discord like the interlocking shields of a Roman legion. It feels completely integrated and coherent like the invincible light of a laser.

In the days that followed, we ceremonially spread Maharishi's ashes in the Ganges in Allahabad, and the following day at Varanasi where Guru Dev is buried beneath the Ganges. The joy and oneness of Maharishi's Grace continued in our collective consciousness. It felt like a celebration not of Maharishi's individual passing but of the upwelling of his Divine Unity consciousness in the collective consciousness of the group, our movement. It feels as if he has united with us all.

Two days later John Hagelin held a meeting for the Americans there at which he told the story of feeling the presence of Maharishi's physical darshan more powerfully since Maharishi's passing than when he was in Maharishi's physical presence. He said Maharishi told him that "I am always as close to you as you want me to be." Others recalled that in India Maharishi used to say that TM is a technique for experiencing the darshan of the Master at any time.

 

Maharishi said Guru Dev's life's work was to make him, Maharishi, and I had the thought that Maharishi's life's work has been to make our collective group consciousness in unity with the grace of Guru Dev.

 

Our collective consciousness united with God (pure consciousness), guided by spontaneous right action in love comes from the quiet ever present Grace of the Master who is Brahmananda Saraswati, Guru Dev in Maharishi and in unity with us. We cannot help but achieve all that we are meant to to bring about Heaven on Earth by virtue of God's will effortlessly acting through us. The action�is the play of Being expressing itself without resistance to the flow of creative intelligence in and through us. And this oneness feels invincible to discord or to anything that would slow its natural royal pace of evolution of the planet.