THE HAGUE (AFP) — The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, once a spiritual advisor to the Beatles, died Tuesday in his Dutch home, a spokesman for the Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation movement told the ANP news agency here early Wednesday.
The Maharishi was thought to have been 91 years old. He had been living in the tiny village of Vlodrop in the Netherlands since 1990. The worldwide headquarters of his Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement was also in Vlodrop.
Originally from India the Maharishi started his worldwide movement in 1958. In the 1960s he attracted many followers including the Beatles who went to meditate with him in India in 1968.
Last week a spokesman for the Maharishi had announced he was stepping down as the leader of the TM movement. Maharaja Nader Raam was appointed the new global leader for the movement which has some 5 million followers worldwide, according to their website.
The Maharishi was born in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh but said he did not remember when. He credited his achievements to his teacher Guru Dev who taught him in the Himalayas in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1958 he presented his worldwide movement and attracted a huge following. His 1964 book "Science of Being and Art of Living" was translated into 15 languages and sold over a million copies.
"Transcendental meditation is something that can be defined as a means to do what one wants to do in a better way, a right way, for maximum results," the Maharishi told CNN in a rare interview in 2002.
In the 1960s the Maharishi attracted a huge following and famous musicians like the Beatles and the Beach Boys practised TM.
The Maharishi's message promised happiness to all.
"Being happy is of the utmost importance. Success in anything is through happiness. Under all circumstances be happy ... Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the ocean of your bliss," he wrote in 1967.
According to TM followers mass meditation sessions can generate positive powers that can end negative processes like war and violence.
On the TM website the movement claims that a mass meditation session of 7,000 followers in 1988 coincided with the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War.
"But when the group cannot be maintained financially, new tensions arise in the world," it adds.
In 1990 the Maharishi moved to the Netherlands to take up residency in a former convent. He clashed with local authorities when they tried to tear down the convent which some people regarded as a monumental structure.
From his worldwide headquarters the guru and his followers provided 24-hour television broadcasts and weekly news conferences.
In the least few years of his life the Maharishi did not show himself in public and communicated via a television link-up.
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