(Reviewed by Pat Luboff)
“Merely by being in his presence, we disciples entered an utterly timeless place and rapturous feeling, and, at the same time, realized the utter futility and insanity of the mundane world.”
I don’t know why I kept on reading this book to the end. A good percentage of the time I had no idea what the author was talking about. A glossary for all the Indian words would have helped. Maybe I was just confused, but it felt like her stories jumped back and forth in time, as if she, like the aliens in the movie “Arrival,” experiences time as everything happening at once!
This is a book about Transcendental Meditation that refers to TM constantly but never says what it is. (I think you need to cough up $1,000 – or a million dollars as some have done – to get that secret.) Like the time, the location switches from one place in the world to another, always with the Maharishi in the center of a whirlwind of activity. A chaotic litany of constant construction, workshops, trainings, intrigues, world-saving schemes was accompanied by a kaleidoscope of program names, which are then shortened to letters, leading to even more confusion.
The author, who lived for 22 years in the Maharishi’s ashrams, paints herself as totally insecure and insatiable in her desire to be next to Maharishi. For her devotion, she alternately receives his divine loving glances that send her into paroxysms of bliss or total rejection to the point of cruelty. Or, he would just act like she didn’t exist while she begged for his attention. The guru is either a madman or a genius, a sinner or a saint, a con man or savior, a sex addict or a celibate. The author goes on about how the guru can do anything to the disciple and it’s all good, even if it looks like insanity.
Many thousands of people got involved with the Maharishi and TM. The Beatles, Donovan, the Beach Boys, Mia Farrow, Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, and Ellen DeGeneris are just a few of the names of luminaries in the 3+ double-column list of “Who’s Who in TM” in the book’s Appendix. There must be something to it. No?
My favorite part of the book was, of course, the chapters on the Beatles’ adventures in India with the Maharishi. I was especially fascinated by the stories about where the inspirations came from for many of the songs on the White Album (including the idea for the naming of the album). It was worth it to slog through all the confusion to get those tidbits.
In the end, the author found a better way to be in contact with God. A happy ending. And I’m glad I hung in there, because her new path sounds very interesting and I’m going to check it out.
