Transcendental Meditation

What is Transcendental Meditation?

Transcendental Meditation is a Hindu based sect that was developed and imported into the Western world by its founder in the late 1950's. Mahesh Prasad Warma, later known as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was the founder of Transcendental Meditation. It claims to be a non religious meditation technique. One thing that surprised me about it was that it claims to be a scientifically verifiable meditation technique. I found that to be very interesting. Transcendental Meditation can often be referred to as The Science of Creative Intelligence.

Founder of Transcendental Meditation - or TM

Mahesh Prasad Warma, later known as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was born in India around 1910 or so. He went to college and graduated from Allahabad University in 1942. His degree was in physics. Mahesh had become a disciple of an Indian religious leader Guru Dev. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi learned his meditation techniques from Guru Dev, whose techniques were from the Vedas or Hindu scripture.

I will refer to the leader as Mahrarishi in this article and that is what he is referred to usually. He was a very devoted person and set out to fulfill the plan of Guru Dev. The main idea behind the plan was to bring his teachings into the world.

It was in 1958 that Maharishi founded the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in India, and in the following year he came to America to set up his organization. He did this while spreading the gospel of Guru Dev.

It has been a successful attempt as several million people in the United States as well as around the world have been taught Maharishi's meditation techniques. As I said before, it is often stressed that it is non religious, but it is also held onto as thoroughly Hindu.

Claims of Transcendental Meditation

Is there anyone that wouldn't want their health to be improved, or your self image and productivity to be improved upon? Some say that one's creativity and even intelligence can be given a real boost with this form of meditation. How about the idea of relieving stress and tension? I can see how that can be a part, with what I know of meditation. Reducing one's stress and tension will automatically be a boost to one's health.

According to some of the things written or advertised, the above things are some of the benefits of transcendental meditation. One other thing I found to be very interesting about it is that since it supposedly has no religious base whatsoever, it can be used in conjunction with whatever anyone believes currently.

Transcendental Meditation's View of God

The Maharishi's personal view of a supreme god is one that rejects or denies an infinite and personal god as revealed in other scriptures. The Maharishi wrote once, "God is found in two phases of reality: as a supreme being of absolute, eternal nature and as a personal at the highest level of phenomenal creation..." (That is from the Science of Being and Art of Living, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Rev. Ed. 1967, p. 271).

This supreme being is identified with nature of course, and he said that everything in creation is a manifestation of an unmanifested absolute, but impersonal being. He calls him an omnipresent God, which makes sense when looking at it that way, as found in nature all around us. Maharishi also said that this impersonal God is a being that dwells in the heart of everyone.

Man is identified with God, to the point that Maharishi says, "Each individual is, in his true nature, the impersonal God." (Same reference as before page 276). He says this same God is controlling evolution. So one main difference is that he thinks man is part of that infinite God, rather than a finite being. He does think that God is on the top level of evolution. "God, the supreme almighty being, in whose person the process of evolution finds its fulfillment, is on the top level of creation." (From Page 270).

Conclusion

Transcendental Meditation, or the Science of Creative Intelligence claims to a method of relaxation and personal growth, without harmful side effects. Many have found success in relaxation by using the techniques taught in TM. Much more can be said on TM, but this is meant to be more of an introduction to Transcendental Meditation.