Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to Transcendental Meditation and yogic flying and became a counterculture icon, has died at his Dutch retreat. He was thought to be 91.
Born in central India, the Maharishi began studying meditation after completing a degree in physics in 1942 and started to teach his techniques around the world in 1959, starting with the United States.
It was his relationship with the Beatles that propelled him to fame and, later, notoriety. George Harrison’s wife, Patti, heard about the Maharishi while her husband was studying the sitar with Ravi Shankar in Bombay in 1966.
The following year, when the guru arrived in Britain to teach, the Beatles, who had been overwhelmed by the scale of their success, were ready for his message. Dressed in the flowing Eastern robes of the flower power movement and sporting moustaches, they joined him in a first-class train carriage travelling from London to Bangor. Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull were also there.
The Maharishi was hosting a meditation course at the Normal College, now part of the University of North Wales. The Beatles intended to stay for a week but cut short their visit when news broke that Brian Epstein, their visionary manager, had died.
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The following year the group visited the Maharishi at his fortified ashram in Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas. They were filmed, sitting cross-legged and wearing garlands of flowers, learning his Transcendental Meditation techniques. They were followed by other celebrities including Mike Love, of the Beach Boys, Donovan and Mia Farrow.
Ringo Starr was the first to leave, complaining that he missed egg and chips. The Maharishi — “great sage” in Hindi — fell out with many of the rock stars after rumours emerged that he had made inappropriate advances towards Ms Farrow, inspiring John Lennon to write the song Sexy Sadie, about a charlatan who “made a fool of everyone”.
By the 1970s the Maharishi was said to have more than five million people practising Transcendental Meditation, or TM. Practitioners spend 20 minutes every morning and evening reciting a single sound, or mantra, to help them to reduce stress and improve concentration. The Maharishi also taught “yogic flying” — or bouncing in the air in the lotus position.
By the 1980s he had set up schools across the world, founded the Natural Law Party and built a multimillion-pound business empire including a property dealership and a company selling Ayurvedic medicine and cosmetics. Most were financed by donations and a $2,500 fee to learn TM.
In 1990 he moved his headquarters to a former Franciscan monastery in the southern Dutch village of Vlodrop, from where he controlled his Global Country of World Peace movement. There he lived as a recluse in a pavilion and communicated by video link.
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The Maharishi was widely ridiculed in 2002 when he announced that he could combat terrorism and war if he could raise $1 billion to train 40,000 expert meditators. Sceptics also scoffed at his plan to raise $10 trillion to end poverty by sponsoring organic farming in the poorest countries.
A spokesman said that a memorial service would be held in Vlodrop today before his body was flown back to India for a funeral by the Ganges.
“Maharishi’s work is complete,” his movement said in a statement. “He has done what he set out to do in 1957 — to lay the foundation for a peaceful world. Now Maharishi is being welcomed with open arms into heaven.”