Eden's Hour Hiatus

Last week was a long week of me trying to figure out if I could go to India for the cremation ceremony for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation Program. He entered Mahasamadhi, or eternal silence on February 5th in his Vlodrop, Netherlands home and his body was flown to Allahabad, India for the cremation and final rites. In the end I decided to stay in Seattle and organize for a beautiful memorial service here so I did not have time to do a radio show.

The cremation ceremony was broadcast on national television in India and it was incredibly moving to see how much reverence and appreciation for Maharishi there is. The news broadcaster kept saying how remarkable his achievements were and how never before has there been a state honored funeral for a spiritual leader. The timing was extraordinary as the ceremony took place during the Kumbha Mehla spiritual festival in India and the four Shankaracharyas, or spiritual leaders, were there to prepare Maharishi's casket for the final rites and his ashes were spread into the holy sangam in the Ganges river. During the 1989 Kumbha Mehla the eldest living saint at that time was incredibly inspired by Maharishi's contributions to reviving the tradition of Vedic Pandits and said that "Maharishi has returned the Vedic Tradition to India, Maharishi single handedly has revived the Vedic Culture".

My parents met on a meditation course in the 60's so I was meditating in the womb and I learned Transcendental Meditation (aka TM) when I was four years old. TM has been a life saver for me. It's not a religious thing or a matter of faith or superstition. Transcending is a very real experience that cannot be put into words ...except I will say that it is absolutely wonderful! It means the world to me and I am forever grateful for all of the love, light, intuition, creativity and profoundly positive influence TM has brought to my life. I am so glad that I was born at a time when Maharishi was alive and even more glad that I have had the opportunity to dive deep into the field of Maharishi's consciousness based approach to education and health care.

It's been great to hear other people's experience this past week as they have shared their thoughts about Maharishi and what he and his programs mean to them. So, even though I did not do a radio show, Howard Stern shared some spectacular stories on his show that can be heard here

Jai Guru Dev