Corporatising Vedanta 8212; The ultimate tactic

MUMBAI, SEPT 29: Carrying coal to Newcastle is an old theme. So is selling India to Indians. We exported Krishna; ISCKON re-exported the ...

MUMBAI, SEPT 29: Carrying coal to Newcastle is an old theme. So is selling India to Indians. We exported Krishna; ISCKON re-exported the Lord back to us. So too the many schools of yoga. It took the foreigners to tell us the value of our own ancient culture and wisdom; but when a group of international quot;scientistsquot; come to India to set up the Maharishi8217;s Institute of Post-graduate Studies to educate Indians in Vedic technology, it8217;s time to sit up and take notice.

The venue of what was slated as the inaugural ceremony of the institute was held at a starred hotel in Northwest Mumbai. That the inaugural was not held on the premises itself was easily explained. It transpired that acquiring the land, building and other infrastructure needed for establishing and running the institute was still in process. Slated for going onstream in January of the New Millennium, there was the possibility that building would have to be hired to house the post-graduate institute till the permanent assets were acquired. The Vedic professors were in a hurry perhaps. Or may be the fear that some other Vedic corporation pre-empting their project spurred the urgency with which the institute was being marketed.

The protagonists were a quot;distinguished facultyquot; drawn from such countries as US of A, Netherlands, Germany, Austria and the UK. Doctors of medicine and philosophy, defense strategists, educationists 8212; mostly derived from Maharishi Institutes of Management abroad sat in a row to introduce the concept. Lectures were appropriately punctuated by slides in colour. Everything was scientifically managed and presented and the marketing aggressive.

Lest the credentials of the protagonists be in any question to dispense the hallowed wisdom of the Vedas, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is himself invoked through a videotape address explaining the raison d8217;etre behind the Institute of Post-Graduate Studies. The present system of education explored diversity. It was inadequate to activate the full range of the capability of the brain. What was needed was the realisation of the Natural Law that governed Total Knowledge. The realisation had to be in terms of the Unified Field, since everything emerges from it and it was the common basis of all disciplines. Through Analysis and synthesis shades of Marxism?, the aim was to transcend the six stages of Consciousness to achieve the final Brahmi Chetna or the Cosmic Consciousness. The Maharishi then told his audience that the scientists would explain the concept in detail.

The scientists went about it in a meticulous manner. The strength of their presentations was logic and science. Basic to their theme was the assertion that all of Maharishi8217;s concepts were now scientifically proven. For example, we were told that the concept of quot;Unified fieldquot; was discovered by modern physics in 1984. Professor Tony Nader, MD, PhD, president, Maharishi Institute of Management, Vlodrop, Holland, explained the discovery made by his colleague Dr Robert Keith Wallace 8212; under the guidance of the Maharishi, of course 8212; that the quot;40 areas of Veda and the Vedic literature correspond precisely in structure and function to the 40 areas of human physiologyquot;. It was also discovered that the quot;fundamental impulses of Natural Law, the Veda devatas, are the governing intelligence of human physiology and that the sun, moon, planets and stars are the cosmic counterparts of human physiology.quot;

The scientific discovery of the Unified Field of Natural Law, explained Dr Volker Schanbacher, Professor of Physics, also from Holland, was the quot;holistic basis of creationquot; This Unified Field can be experienced by groups of individuals practising Transcendental Meditation and the TM-Sidhi programme by creating the quot;Maharishi Effectquot; 8212; described as the quot;field effect of consciousness at the level of the Unified field.

Slides of the brain purporting to belong to those addicted to alcohol, drugs and strain were shown. Pointing to the dark patches, Dr Wallace, credited to be the first scientist to conduct research in Transcendental Meditation, explained that these were quot;holesquot; 8212; areas of the brain which ceased functioning. Though genetically constrained, the thousands of billions of neurons in the brain were quot;unconnectedquot; with the result the full potential of the brain was not achieved. This could be done by undergoing the TM course meant for every individual, including quot;the mother at homequot; 8212; the primary objective of the Institute of Post-Graduate Studies towards the goal self-realised world.

Story continues below this ad

The aggressive corporatisation of the TM-Siddhi concept can be guaged from the fact that the team also included a quot;defence strategistquot;, a retired Lt Col. of the German Air Force. A post-World War-II product, Gunter Chasse, explained the degeneration of the German forces who had to, for the first time, take part in combat action in Kosovo. Speaking to The Indian Express, Chasse said that the defence forces were unable to prevent hostilities in the world. The real need was to quot;avert the danger that was yet to comequot;. This could be done through Vedic defence 8212; quot;to win the war before it is fought.quot;

quot;If India were to establish five groups of 7000 each of Vedic Flyers,quot; Gunter Chasse told this paper, quot;this will create a strong and an invincible nation. And if the Indian consciousness is integrated, it will start radiating its coherent influence to all other nations and establish as leader of the world. We want every nation to establisha preventive wing of yogic flyers to bring peace to this world.

The organisors of the quot;inauguralquot; missed no trick. As this writer was leaving after talking to Chasse, he was summoned and handed over two envelopes with the words, quot;You finish covering this, then you can cover this,quot; indicating the envelopes. One envelope contained a press release announcing housing loans by the Maharishi Housing Development finance corporation Limited at interest varying from 12.5 per cent to 15.5 per cent depending uon the amount of the loan. The other contained a gift voucher of Rs 500 to be redeemed at Akbarallys, a high profile department store in Mumbai.