Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. - Maharishi & me: seeking enlightenment with the Beatles guru

Note for Readers: This book is based upon both the authors recollection of past events and historical research. Some characters, events, and quoted statements have been edited, composited, or fictionalized. Often cited quotations are shortened without using ellipses. Check original citations for full quotations. Nearly all names have been changed to protect peoples privacy, except for public figures, authors, and Transcendental Meditation organization leaders. Maharishi founded many organizations. The author mostly uses the term TM Movement or Movement. Maharishi referred to TM teachers by various titles. The author uses the term Initiators in most cases.

Copyright 2018 by Susan Shumsky

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Rain Saukas

Cover photo credit Getty Images/Rolls Press/Popperfoto (Maharishi) and By Parlophone Music Sweden [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons (Beatles)

ISBN: 978-1-5107-2268-2

Ebook ISBN 978-1-5107-2269-9

Printed in the United States of America

Photo courtesy of Fred den Ouden

Arise, awaken, seek an illumined teacher and realize the Self. Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path, difficult to traverse and hard to tread. Thus say the wise.

K ATHA U PANISHAD 1:3:14

Praise for Maharishi and Me

Susan Shumsky had a front-row seat at a spiritual revolution that profoundly affected all of us. She tells the tale with personal candor, a keen eye for pertinent detail, and a perspective seasoned by time and experience.

Philip Goldberg, author, American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West

Susan Shumskys book Maharishi & Me is a powerful exploration of guru and discipleship. Her humor, insight, and the intimate feeling you receive about their relationship is extraordinary. A great read for anyone interested in learning.

Lynn V. Andrews, bestselling author, Medicine Woman and Jaguar Woman

So many emotions churned within me as I read Maharishi & Me . In her incredibly heartfelt book, Susan Shumsky gives us a glimpse into a world that few people have ever experienced. Her graphic descriptions portray her awakening consciousness that occurred under Maharishis guidance and also evoke the tempest that swirled around this iconic guru. Fascinating reading from a great writer!

Denise Linn, bestselling author of Sacred Space

"I met Maharishi in Rishikesh, India, in 1968 where I took some iconic photos of the Beatles. There I learned TM, which healed my broken heart, and I found a sense of peace never experienced before. Susan Shumskys book Maharishi & Me captures that time in Rishikesh and tells her emotionally-charged, spellbinding story of 22 years of awakening and transformation under Maharishis tutelage and beyond. For anyone seeking spiritual understanding, I highly recommend this book."

Paul Saltzman, bestselling author and photographer of The Beatles in India

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

MY REAL BIRTH DAY

AUTUMN 1966

The search for total knowledge starts from the Self and finds fulfillment in coming back to the Self, finding that everything is the expression of the Self.

M AHARISHI M AHESH Y OGI

Not everyone remembers their own birth. But I do. Thats because my mothers womb was not my real birthplace. My true birth took place on a sunny, Indian summer day of 1966 in Oakland, Californialong after the date on my birth certificate.

Id already embraced the bohemian lifestyle propagated by Timothy Leary: turn on, tune in, drop out, and by the message of Bob Dylans song The Times They Are A-Changin. Id moved from Colorado to counterculture-centralthe San Francisco Bay area. Id enrolled in a school of hippie students and beatnik teachersCalifornia College of Arts and Crafts.

We flower children were desperately seeking altered states of consciousness (whatever that meantI was pretty hazy about it). But after a few trips down the rabbit hole with Owsleys sugar cubes, I suffered a case of astral possession so alarming, it even shocked head shrink Dr. Stein. He labeled my condition full-blown psychotic episode, complete with audible hallucinations, earthbound spirit attachments, terrifying LSD flashbacks, and, apparently, the requisite dose of Thorazine.

Once Id partially recovered my sanity, my pleasures included a daily stroll home from college. There I relished a lavishly multicolored potpourri of tropical flowers in riotous vibrant hues, eucalyptus, and grassy perfume, swelling with fragrant intensity. On this particular day in 1966, however, after wandering through the maze of multi-scented florae, I encountered a most unusual emanationon the sidewalk outside my apartment.

A kindly stranger approached. Though his commanding presence seemed ageless, he looked about age twenty. Standing 510, with an oval face, shiny black hair, and smooth, lustrous, unblemished skin, his body appeared soft and undefined, neither thin nor fat. Nothing about him was hard, athletic, or muscle-bound. He whispered through the air with fluid movement, without the faintest resistance. His posture and demeanor radiated a certain grace, even a glow.

Obviously out of his element, he seemed neither art student nor hippie. There were no paisley prints, beads, bell-bottoms, vests, buckles, hats, boots, sandals, mustache, beard, or long hair. His forgettable attire, consisting of a white cotton button-down shirt, brown khaki trousers, and loafers, made what came afterward all the more remarkable.

He regarded me with kind, twinkling brown eyes. They emitted a certain inscrutable feeling, hard to pin down. I sensed zero sexual energy around him, and, to my surprise, none toward me. His awareness drew inward rather than radiating outward. My impression was he was a monk, though Id never met one, so I had no frame of reference.

A mysterious force surrounded himloving, sweet, powerful, yet tranquil. He possessed a kind of magnetism and vibrated great peacenot a familiar feeling to me. He appeared happy, carefree, and serene, without hang-ups, agendas, or needsunlike anyone Id ever met.

He called himself Bob, and I asked if he wanted lunch. He said yes and we went upstairs. This wasnt unusual. I often invited strangers in. As a hippie, Id broken free from my conventional Jewish surgeons daughters background. My free-spirit attitude was let-live, live-free, and be-me.