My Maharishi – Before He Met His Master

My Maharishi – Before He Met His Master

[00:45] Once Upon a Time

People often would meet my master, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who had become, during his heyday from the early 60s through to his final moments in the body in 2008, a man who attained to about a hundred years of age.

They think of him during that epoch of him being very well known, as an already created figure. Somebody who just appeared and was already this person, this product, this icon of knowledge, and so on. And it’s so often overlooked that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was, once upon a time, a child, once upon a time, a student at school, once upon a time, the member of a family who had a sister whom I knew, and at least one brother whom I knew, an identical twin in fact, brother, J.P. Srivastava, and who came from a family that had a particular set of values and who had expectations on him all before the time of his having met his master, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, whom we also refer to as, for short, “Guru Deva.”

Guru Deva is the short name given to one’s master’s master.

So Maharishi always referred to his master in the short form Guru Deva. On occasion, when he wanted a little bit more specific naming of him, he would refer to him as Swami Brahmananda Saraswati. That’s because in India, there are thousands upon thousands of “Guru Devas.” It’s a title, not really a name. The name was Swami Brahmananda Saraswati.

[03:11] Maha Khumba Mela

Maharishi met Swami Brahmananda Saraswati in about 1939 at the great gathering of the gurus. A phenomenon that occurs in India once every 12 years, known as the Maha, which means great, Kumbha, which means a container, and Mela, which means celebration. The container being a valley in and around the city of Prayagraj.

Prayag in Sanskrit means a confluence of rivers. Raj means king or regal. And Prayagraj, the king of the confluences, because there are three rivers, in fact, sacred rivers of India, that meet and conflow in the one spot: the Ganges River, known in India as Ganga; the Yamuna River, known in India as Yamuna; the Saraswati River, which is subterranean up to that point, which emerges through an aperture.

Right at the confluence of the Yamuna and the Ganga is the Saraswati coming out. One can see it appearing on the surface where these two rivers conflow as a kind of a boil, a bulge of water. It’s a vertical bulge.

And so, right there at that spot, the triveni—tri in Sanskrit means three (it’s where we get our English word three from, from the Sanskrit tri); Veni, V-E-N-I, veni is where we get our English word vein, like blood vein, something which is a transporter of something, a vein. Triveni, the three veins, the three rivers, all meeting in the one spot.

Kumbha Mela: Kumbha is the big valley where this confluence of the three meets. Mela, the celebration. Kumbha, Maha, great. Once every twelve years all those who have knowledge of self-realization, techniques, methods, or lifestyles that could lead to realization of the true nature of one’s inner Beingness.

As a result of experiencing that, one could then understand one’s dharma, one’s personal role in the evolution of everything. A highly desirable spiritual goal held by Indians as part of their culture.

[06:15] Family Life

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, at this point of his life, had come from the beginnings as the child of a government employee in the forestry department. His father, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s father, was a civil servant, as we say in America. In other Commonwealth countries, we say public servant. A public servant working in the forestry department at quite a high level of it.

Maharishi had at least one sister whom he referred to as Didi. I met her because Maharishi was not expert at singing and to train to be a teacher of Vedic Meditation, one has to learn how to sing a particular hymn which all Vedic meditators listen to and hear when they’re being initiated into the practice of Vedic Meditation.

Maharishi’s voice was lacking in some singing virtues, but his sister Didi—the word Didi in Hindi means sister—was an excellent singer and she sang the melody for us. And then from time to time, one would see his identical twin brother.

The fact of them being his sister, the fact of them being his brother, was not considered polite to raise. It wasn’t kept secret per se, but Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had become a renunciate. That means he was a monk, someone who is not identified by family ties, someone who’s not identified by the bondage to a family or the family’s name and fame.

[08:10] An Uncle Makes a Connection

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi came from this family and at quite a young age took up an interest in science, made his way progressively from one level of education to higher levels of education and ended up at the University of Allahabad. Allahabad was the old Mughal name for the city, which is now returned to its Sanskrit name, Prayagraj.

At the university, Maharishi first of all took a course in science and then moved on to a master’s program in physics. While he was a young physicist in training, his uncle, who is known as Dr. Varma, Dr. Raj P. Varma, was a homeopathic doctor in the 1920s and 30s, and also a photographer at a time when photography was a very unusual occupation. Cameras were still in the process of being perfected, and color photography was just about at the very beginnings, in its nascent period.

And so, Dr. Varma had attended the Kumbha Mela, the great gathering of the gurus at Prayagraj, and there he had met Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, who had lived in a forest as a reclusive forest-dwelling yogi for 50 years, living only by the grace of nature, eating whatever was provided by the ground, by the trees and leaves, by the few items that are available to someone who lives in a forest. He lived that life for five decades.

And having met him, he came to Maharishi, who was at that time known simply as Mahesh. Mahesh was the family name, the given first name of the man who we later on knew as Maharishi, Mahesh. And he said to him, there’s this great guru who’s about to be made into the Shankaracharya, the undisputed king of the yogis, the preeminent one, the master of all the Masters of India, Shankaracharya.

There had not been a Shankaracharya in India for nearly two centuries. During the 247 years of British Rule of India, it was not allowed for there to be anyone who bore the epithet of king or any other kind of monarchical sounding name because it was considered to be sedition or treason. There was only one regal monarch and he or she lived in London. The Brits had taken over India well and truly.

[11:41] “This is my master”

And prior to his meeting Guru Deva, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, being a young physicist in training, took a friend and went to Kumbha Mela, and there he saw the great master, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, giving a speech, and he asked his uncle, “Where could we meet him,” and he and a friend were directed to a particular home sitting on the side of a hill.

The hill was elevated, and as is frequent in India, when they arrived, a blackout had occurred. Even today, this happens a lot in India, with decreasing frequency compared with the older days. India’s getting much better at maintaining the electrical supply.

In this blackout, they went and knocked on the door of the bungalow, a weatherboard house with a large veranda going all around it. A wooden-floored porch, as we would say in America. And they were directed in the darkness by the chief monk who was one of the followers of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, “Just sit here and you’ll see him soon.” And they sat and the monk said, “It’s better to be in silence.”

Maharishi and his friend whispered amongst each other. “What do you think he’s like?” “I’ve heard so many stories.” “Someone told me that he only ever speaks positive words. He only speaks positivity. He never entertains negativity.” “What do you think he looks like? I only got a glimpse from 200 yards away, long distance.” And so on and so forth.

At some point in the whisperings between them, a car on an opposite hill was rounding a corner, and its headlights scanned across the countryside, illuminating the bungalow for a moment on which Maharishi and his friend were sitting, waiting to be ushered in to see the great guru, Guru Deva. And the headlights revealed something as they swept across the porch.

Sitting right next to them the entire time had been Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, sitting in full lotus position on a mat on the floor, and the lights illuminated his face from those headlights of the car from the opposite hill, giving Maharishi a flash of the face of Guru Deva, and from that moment he thought, “This is my master.”

[14:32] “I don’t want a wife.”

But he wasn’t yet able to become a disciple. In that moment of thrill and realization that the master had been sitting amongst him in silence all that time, and the prediction of the primary minder of Guru Deva, who had said to them, “Sit here quietly, you’ll see him soon,” all the realization that that was the truth being spoken. They didn’t have to go anywhere to see him. They just had to wait for some light to appear.

Maharishi went to his parents and he said, “I want to give up my university degree. I want to immediately go and swear a vow of celibacy, be a monk and live at the service of Guru Deva.”

And his parents said, “Well, that’s a very interesting thing and we’re so happy that you’re asking for our permission, which by the way, we don’t give.”

In those times in India, as is frequently the case even today, marriages between families were arranged, based on the astrological assessment of compatibility, based upon the ages and the resonance between the two families, based upon any number of things, one would be introduced.

A series of men would be introduced for afternoon tea with a young lady, and the young lady, at the end of quite a number of introductions, would ask her parents for a svayamvara. Svayamvara was the great ceremony where all of the suitors of the young woman, all the men who had hoped to be selected by her, would show up for an afternoon tea. And they would greet each other very gentlemanly-like, and shake hands and learn each other’s names.

Then came the moment that all would be asked to take their seats and in would come the young lady with a garland in her hands. Beautifully dressed, she would look around the room and then she would walk up to the young man whom she had chosen and put the garland around his neck in silence and then leave the room. And then everybody would stand and applaud the one who won the young woman’s favor.

They said to Maharishi, his parents, “You’re going to be invited to court and be a suitor of not just one girl, but several girls who we have in mind for you to be your wife.”

And Maharishi thought, “Wife? I don’t want a wife. I want a celibate life. I want to be the servant of my spiritual master and live a life of solitude with my master.”

And so, in those times in India, it was not considered that you could argue with or disagree with your parents on these matters.

Without their permission, he was left to resign himself to his fate of becoming a married man and hopefully, as far as his family hoped, to become the father of children and to further the family in that regard.

[18:16] Unfinished Business

And into all of this came Uncle Varma, Dr. Raj P. Varma, who is the one who, in fact, had introduced Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to Guru Deva in the first place, made it possible for him to get in, go up to the house where Guru Deva was staying, where the flashy light illuminated the face of Guru Deva.

And he, Dr. Varma, approached the two parents of Maharishi, the young Mahesh, and said, “I think you better let him go. He’s favored by the master, and his dharma is not the dharma of becoming married. And besides which, you have other children who can provide you with grandchildren.”

And through some very persuasive talk like that, finally the parents capitulated, and informed the young Mahesh that he was free to pursue his desire to become a Brahmachari, to become a student of a great master.

But his trials were not yet over. He went to Guru Deva, and with all humility, having waited for many hours to have a private audience with him, bowed to his feet and said, “Will you please accept me as a student?”

And Guru Deva said, “Yes, provisionally, provided that you finish your physics degree. So go back to the university, finish your degree, continue living with your parents, and then when you’ve graduated, then you can come and I’ll be in the city of Kashi.”

Kashi is the old Sanskrit name for a city known as Varanasi today. Varanasi was also called by the British, who couldn’t pronounce Varanasi; they referred to it as Benares. Benares, a beautiful large city on the banks of the Ganga, on the banks of the Ganges River, is where Guru Deva had his primary ashram.

[20:34] From Physic Student to a Life of Service and Devotion

Guru Deva the very next year was promoted to the rank of Shankaracharya. The king of the yogis, the indisputable master of all the masters, the preeminent one, Shankaracharya. A teacher of the teachings of the great Shankara, who lived by this year, 2,578 years ago, and whose name, Shankara, was given to our entire tradition, even those who came before him.

Guru Deva now was Shankaracharya. He hadn’t been Shankaracharya when Maharishi first met him, but he was promoted to that position and as voted for by all of the senior swamis. The holy people of India unanimously considered him to be the preeminent one and he took that position.

And so then finally Maharishi graduated with a master’s degree in physics and presented himself to the ashram in Varanasi and was given his first tasks.

We’ll go into that story sometime. Jai Guru Deva.