" ... This quiet Uttar Pradesh town at the confluence of the holy Ganga, the historic Yamuna and the mythological Saraswati is suddenly hot on the global map as thousands of devotees from across 100 countries have gathered here to see the place from where Maharishi Mahesh Yogi began his journey as a physics student to become a world famous spiritual leader.
The guru of transcendental meditation (TM) passed away at his retreat in the Netherlands on February 5, 2008. His body was brought to Allahabad and kept in an embalmed state at the Maharishi Vidyapeeth, a Vedic school that the seer founded at Arail, a quiet neighbourhood on the outer banks of the Ganga at Prayag, nearly 15 km from Allahabad.
It is perhaps one of the most unlikely funerals that a world leader can have. On Sunday evening, Guru Deva, as the seer was known to his devotees, sat in calm repose on a podium bedecked with heaps of roses, night queens and marigolds as nearly 20,000 devotees filed past him with folded hands.
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The seer had apparently drawn up a map for his foundation for the next 100 years almost a year before his death, when he announced his retirement. He had appointed a 48-member governing council and a five-member governing body led by the Maharajadhiraja (his royal highness, king of kings) Ram aka Tony Nader, a neuroscientist from Lebanon, to steer the TM movement globally and expand the ambit of the organisation's activity.
Nader or the Maharaja, as the Mahesh Yogi had crowned him a year ago, had retreated into silence two years ago.
"That was the way the Maharishi wanted him to oversee the matters of the organisation. He will conduct the affairs in silence, transmitting his thoughts in transcendence to the five-member governing council," said Yugantar Saxena, the publicity head of TM's India chapter and the operational head of the Maharishi Television channel in the country.
The Maharishi had also formed the Brahmanand Swaraswati Trust before his death to fund the movement of the organisation. The seer, who believed in Vedic monarchy of ancient India, had formed a hierarchy of maharaja (the chief kings), 35 country rajas (kings or the nation heads) and global ministers to lead the movement.
He named his transcendent kingdom the Global Country of World Peace. All the 35 kings, attired in their white silk ceremonial robes and golden crowns, assembled at Arail over the weekend and mingled freely with the devotees in a rather "democratic spirit".
India figured high in the Maharishi's scheme of things. Led by the king, Harris Kaplan, in-charge of India operations and the principal donor to the seer's peace and Vedic revival programmes across the country, the Maharishi planned to form a permanent group 7,000 to 8,000 Vedic priests who would be trained in advance meditation techniques.
This group would act as a buffer in times of crisis, mitigate tension and promote communal harmony and global peace through yagnas (ancient rituals) and group meditation sessions.
The project, said a senior member of the movement, was gaining momentum with Kaplan giving it a definite shape. ... "
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