Controversies
Sexual misconduct
While the Beatles were in Rishikesh, allegations of sexual improprieties by the Maharishi in his ashram were circulated.
[1] John Lennon later cited a rumor that the Maharishi made sexual advances on Mia Farrow and "a few other women" during their time at the ashram,
[278] later writing the
Beatles' song "
Sexy Sadie", in which John Lennon characterized the Maharishi as a fraud.
[279] George Harrison and
Cynthia Lennon later denied that the Farrow event took place and stayed within the TM movement,
[280] while Farrow maintains that the Maharishi made sexual advances towards her during a private meditation session.
[281]In the 2010 documentary
David Wants to Fly, a former personal assistant and "skinboy" of the Maharishi recounts bringing women to the Maharishi's room, claiming he has "no question in my mind that he had sex with the women." In the same film, another assistant, Judith Bourque, details how the Maharishi had sex with her multiple times over the course of two years before moving on to other women, with instructions including "don't tell anyone" and, in the case of her becoming pregnant, to "get married quick".
[282] Bourque later elaborated and substantiated her claims with evidence (including photos, notes, and dated letters from the Maharishi) in the autobiographical book
Robes of Silk, Feet of Clay, including additional allegations that the Maharishi had at least sixteen other mistresses during her two years of traveling with him.
[283][284]Pseudoscience
Since early in the TM movement, the Maharishi made claims of pseudoscientific supernatural abilities (called "sidhis" or the TM-Sidhi program) that can be obtained through TM meditation, including levitation (
yogic flying), invisibility, and invulnerability.
[285] The "magical claims" of the TM-Sidhis program and the Maharishi Effect created a crisis for the movement’s image and began a period of media controversy.
[286] In 2014, a meta-analysis of meditation research found "insufficient evidence that mantra meditation programs [such as TM] had an effect on any of the psychological stress and well-being outcomes".
[287]Despite the Maharishi's claims that his movement was not a religion but "scientific", TM initiation since his time has begun with a Hindu
puja worship ritual performed by the teacher
[288][289] and his movement has received criticism from Hindus for selling "commercial mantras" of the Sanskrit names of
Hindu-Vedic gods.
[290] Sociologist
William Sims Bainbridge writes that the Maharishi taught a "highly simplified form of Hinduism, adapted for Westerners who did not possess the cultural background to accept the full panoply of Hindu beliefs, symbols, and practices."
[288]On top of criticism that TM is a "form of Hinduism that doesn't acknowledge its roots", a 1978 federal court ruling in New Jersey declared TM to be a religion.
[291] Further allegations state that the Maharishi presented TM as areligious so that it could be taught in US public schools and other tax-funded institutions.
[292]World government
Since the 1970s, the Maharishi began planning a
new world government based on his TM teachings,
[286] including meetings with world leaders such as Canadian prime minister
Pierre Trudeau to discuss his plans.
[293][294][295] On
Larry King Live, the Maharishi made
anti-democratic statements and announced plans for a
monarchic world government, including, "I believe in God. And I believe in the
custody of God vested in kings" and "I want to establish a government in every country [...] I used to say 'damn the democracy' because it's not a stable government."
[296]The Maharishi crowned key members of his movements as the "
rajas" (kings) of his Global Country of World Peace, including Tony Nader as the "
maharaja" (great king) and "First Sovereign Ruler of the Global Country of World Peace."
[297] It has been reported that the "rajas" of the TM movement must pay $1 million to receive "spiritual dominion" over a country in accordance with "natural law".
[298] In 1992, the Maharishi's
Natural Law Party was listed on the presidential ballot in several states in the USA, with physicist and "raja"
John Hagelin as the presidential nominee.
[286]