Stories about Maharishi

On another occasion Maharishi was doing Puja with Sri Ananda Mayee Ma at her place in Haridwar, but finally Maharishi had to go. He told Sri Ananda Mayee Ma, Ma you stay here and continue, and I will go. She seemed to agree and let him go, but after a few moments got up and followed Maharishi out to the car, walking a little behind him with the sweetness of a small child. There was a mala wala — a garland salesman — with a basket full to the brim with marigold garlands on the street there, and Sri Ananda Mayee Ma pointed to him so that her assistant purchased the whole basket. Then Sri Ananda Mayee Ma took the whole basket to where Maharishi was now sitting in the car, and she tipped the whole basket of garlands through the window into his lap.

Ananda Mayee Ma is considered the greatest lady saint of modern India, enlightened from a young girl, an expression of Mother Divine. She left the world in 1982. It was her custom to send westerners who visited to Maharishi to learn Transcendental Meditation — for example, Peter Wallace, the brother of Keith. Her devotion to Maharishi shows again that we have grasped very little of the grandeur of Maharishi's personality and status, and his role in the universe.

Tat Wala Baba

During the Teacher Training Course with Maharishi in the Academy of Meditation Shankaracharya Nagar in Rishikesh at the end of 1969, a course that included many of the greatest luminaries of the Movement, the course participants asked Maharishi if the famous recluse saint Tat Wala Baba could come to visit the course, as had happened in previous courses. Tat Wala Baba was living in a cave about three miles up in the hills behind our Academy. It was his custom to only come out once a day for one hour to let visitors enjoy his darshan. There was a lean-to just below his cave for this purpose.

He was a very powerful man, very muscular like a wrestler, with matted hair that fell all the way to the ground. Maharishi said of him that he seemed to be in a good state of Unity Consciousness.

Maharishi agreed to invite Tat Wala Baba to come to speak to the course, and sent Brahmachari Shankerlalji, a very elderly and blissful Brahmachari, who had been Maharishi's Guru Bhai when Maharishi was Guru Dev's Brahmachari, and who lived out all his final years in Maharishi's Academy of Meditation in Rishikesh (except for one time in 1970 when Maharishi sent him to Japan for a trip to see the Movement there). Maharishi also sent Bevan to accompany Shankerlalji to go to the cave and invite Tat Wala Babaji.

They drove as far as the could into the forest down a narrow track, and then climbed the final section up the hill. They found Tat Wala Baba had just come out for his daily Darshan and was sitting listening to a Pandit who was chanting slokas from a big book that was open in front of him.

Shankerlalji and Bevan respectfully greeted Tat Wala Babaji, and then Shankerlalji conveyed Maharishi's invitation to come to speak to the course. Tat Wala Babaji immediately stood up, saying to the Pandit and the others who had come to see him: "Maharishiji is calling I have to go," and put on his sandals and started walking down the hill.

He came in the car through the forest to the Academy, pulling up outside the lecture hall where the course was meeting with Maharishi. The lecture hall was approached from the back down a ramp, and as Tat Wala Babaji entered the ramp the course participants could see him coming, and indicated to Maharishi that he had arrived. Maharishi came immediately from his seat, and as he turned the corner up the ramp, at the moment he first saw Tat Wala Babaji, Maharishi's face lit up like the sun from the joy.

There followed a beautiful session of questions and answers with the course with Maharishi and Tat Wala Babaji sitting hand in hand — an experience that no one there will ever forget.

On another occasion a visitor to the Academy went up to see Tat Wala Babaji. When he arrived, he found another visitor there, a businessman from Delhi, who asked where our meditator was coming from. He said he came from Maharishi. The businessman scoffed, saying he should study some Indian philosopher from Oxford instead. So our meditator said, "Why not ask Tat Wala Babaji his opinion of Maharishi," to which the businessman agreed.

Tat Wala Babaji responded to the question, speaking very rapidly in Hindi, going on for about 15-20 minutes. As he continued, the businessman looked increasingly crestfallen. At the end our meditator asked, "What did Tat Wala Babaji say?" The businessman replied, "He said, 'Maharishi knows everything.'"

Devraha Baba

Devraha Baba was a great saint of India who passed away in 1991. So elderly was he that the President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, more than fifty years ago said that his father had sat at the feet of Devraha Baba as a child — that is, in the middle of the nineteenth century — and Devraha Baba was already elderly at that time. An Allahabad High Court Barrister told Purusha visiting there that seven generations of his family had sat at the feet of Devraha Baba.

In 1982, a group of Purusha visited Devraha Baba at the Aardh Kumbha Mela, in Hardwar. In front of all the people attending his talk, the Purusha introduced themselves as being from Maharishi. Devraha Baba replied, "Maharishi is very dear to me." After saying some other very nice things about Maharishi, he started throwing fruit to the Purusha. That was his way of giving blessings. He did three rounds of fruit-throws to them, which they were told was very special.

Sadguru Sant Keshava Das

Sadguru Sant Keshava Das was a saint from south India who was considered a great exponent of Bakti Yoga. He primarily composed and sang Bhajans and expounded on the Bhagavad Gita and Lord Krishna's teachings.

In 1996, a group of Purusha, local representatives of Maharishi's Indian organizations, and a local real estate agent were out looking for land for building Vedic Pandit schools. The realtor was a devotee of Keshava Das and took the group to his main ashram, close to the land they were looking at, for his Darshan.

Keshava Das was very gracious to the group. And when they introduced themselves as being from Maharishi, Keshava Das said,

"Maharishi is single-handedly reviving the Vedic tradition."

This was a great compliment to Maharishi from a revered saint, as he himself was also trying to revive the Vedic knowledge.

Swami Lakshmanju

Swami Lakshmanju (1907–1991) was the last Acharya of the Kashmir Shaiva Siddhanta tradition. Written accounts of conversations with Swami Lakshmanju include the following comments about Maharishi:

"If you ask me, Maharishi's teaching starts where mine ends and it goes from there to Infinity." Then he added, "Maharishi is the greatest saint to walk the Earth in ten thousand years!"

Raj Mata of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
(as told by Dr. Neil Patterson)

"In 1976, the Raj Mata of Lucknow, U. P., came to visit Maharishi in Switzerland. She had been a great devotee of Guru Dev when he was Shankaracharya and Guru Dev used to stay at the Royal Palace whenever he would visit Lucknow. Raj Mata told me that she remembers Maharishi when he was a brahmachari serving Guru Dev, but she really didn't pay much attention to him at the time. However, she was very surprised years later, after Guru Dev had left this earth, when people would come to her…people who had known Guru Dev and who had recently seen Maharishi. They would tell Raj Mata that Maharishi is just like Guru Dev. At first, Raj Mata said she didn't believe this. But throughout the sixties and early seventies, people kept telling her that Maharishi was just like Guru Dev and that she should go and see him. So, finally, she decided that before the end of her life, she had to come and see for herself. She stayed with us for about three months. On the day she was leaving, I escorted her to Maharishi's meeting room where she was to see him for the last time and with my assistance she sat on the floor. I protested that Maharishi would not want her to sit on the floor but she said to me in a very heartful tone,

'Oh no, you do not understand. When all those people told me that Maharishi was just like Guru Dev, I came to see for myself. But having been with Maharishi these past few months, I can see that they were wrong. Maharishi is not like Guru Dev, He is Guru Dev. There is no difference between the two. Maharishi got completely absorbed in Guru Dev's Being and became That. Maharishi is not only the disciple who is just like the Master. He is the Master. He is Guru Dev and therefore I have to sit at his feet.'"