Maharshi Mahesh Yogi, a man who achieved an immeasurable amount for the spread of Hindu knowledge around the world in the last century, passed away peacefully at his Dutch retreat on the eve of 5th February. He was 91 years of age.

Born in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the Maharshi steeped himself in spiritual learning after completing a degree in Physics in 1940. He set out to spread his knowledge in 1959. Combining scientific and spiritual insights with ease, he was able to appeal to people from a wide variety of different backgrounds.

He became well known to the West when the Beatles became disciples in the 1960s, and were filmed on the foothills of the Himalayas practicing meditation with Maharshi. They were later joined by a host of other celebrities such as Mike Love of the Beach Boys, Donovan, the British singer, and Mia Farrow, the American actress. An early protégé of Maharshi Mahesh Yogi was Sri Sri Ravishankar, founder of the Art of Living Foundation, a growing and high profile international movement.

The Beatles (and other celebrities) later fell out with Maharashi after a rumour that he had made a sexual advance towards Ms Farrow, although years later they stated that the rumour was unlikely to be true.

By the 1980s, Maharshi had set up many schools across the world, established a political party in the USA (the ‘Natural Law Party’), owned large amounts of property throughout the world, and had established a thriving Ayurvedic medicines and cosmetics distribution.

He spent most of his life promoting a specific set of meditation techniques, trademarked by himself as ‘Transcendental Meditation’, which is estimated to be practiced by 6 million people around the world. The techniques are said to aid relaxation, eliminate stress, promote good health, increase creativity, and attain inner happiness. Significant independent medical research was subsequently performed on effects of meditation on different aspects of health, and published in a variety of journals, with positive results being demonstrated on cardiac health and mental stress levels.

However, all this came at significant cost, with $2,500 being charged to would-be practitioners to do a course, thus raising accusations of putting it out of the reach of those without significant money to spare.

Despite this, and any other controversies he was involved in, Maharshi Mahesh Yogi achieved a huge amount in the service of Hinduism, by popularizing some of the ancient Vedic wisdom around the world, the West in particular. If one reads the many obituaries to the Maharshi that have been published in newspapers around the world, it can be seen how much of an influence he exerted, and also that the Hindu origin of his teachings are both acknowledged and respected.