CHAPTER 2 : SECTION 2

CHAPTER 2 CONT....


I suppose the first question to answer here is who exactly is The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi? Many fans of the music group, The Beatles, will remember photos of John, Paul, George and Ringo decked out in the finest late 1960’s classic hippie garb around a tiny man donning a long beard and white robe at some point between Revolver and Abbey Road. At least that was my knowledge of him.

Turns out he did more than listen to George learn the sitar. He is credited with bringing ancient Indian texts to a modern world, and who enveloped the modern scientific culture to encourage studies of the ancient wisdom of Vedic masters with our current knowledge of science and medicine.

I will attempt to introduce you to the little man in the white robe that ended up changing the world. The actual dates and specifics are hard to clarify seeing as when one enters into ascetics they tend to renounce family ties. I found different birth dates and even different names scattered through the mighty internet, so I decided to choose my now close comrade in writing this book, Wikipedia.com.

He was born Mahesh Prasad Varma on January 12, 1914 in Pounalulla, India into the Kayastha caste in British India. He was not called the honorary term Maharishi until 1960 after he was an assistant to Brahmananda Saraawati, the leader of Jyotir Math, a sacred city within the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Maharishi stayed with Saraawati until 1953 and in 1955 began to introduce the Transcendental Meditation technique, or TM, to the world amongst some controversy. Seems one teacher told him to share this with the world while another one forbade it. (NAMES?) Regardless, he began to tour the globe to reveal the wisdom of the Vedic texts to the world in 1958. The interest inTM was global and expansive becoming fully welcomed in a time of social and cultural upheaval. This man hands down, changed the modern world. In 1970 he started the TM-Sid hi program to promote education of Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying. In 1992 followers of the Marharishi even started their own political party, The Natural Law Party. In 2000, he started the Global Country of World Peace, his vision of a country with no borders and no leaders. To say the Vedic teachings really took off is a bit of an understatement. He passed away on February 5, 2008 at the age of 94 -- we think seeing as again, dates and ages are sketchy. Who knows he could be having a scone with Elvis somewhere in a tortilla as we speak. (Wikipedia 2010 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi)

The figure himself is rather controversial. As with any one in the media, he became blanketed by public accusations, judgements and stories that bounce off anything that celebrities touch. Regardless of what the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi did or did not do doesn’t matter in relation to the volume of ancient wisdom he brought to the world and will not be my purpose in this chapter. As my father once wisely told me, if I ever want to know about something I should go to the people that live it and ask them about it. He said there was no reason to go to the anti- literature which just seeks out negativity and doesn’t live the teachings anyway. Could it be that at 33 I have learned to listen to my father? He’ll love that.

After dropping off mom and babes to terrorize the pranayama of Rukmapura Hotel, I drove again through the streets of the Vedic City outside of Fairfield, Iowa to the grounds of the Maharishi School. I drove around to the furthest end of the campus of the Maharishi University of Management to the school and parked my minivan. In my heart of hearts I wished that I saw people exit The Hall of Bliss in flowing white see-through gowns, flowers in their hair, grape vines twined about their crowns, maybe some skipping would be nice. Yet what emerged were teachers in suits and business casual, students in uniforms, some with parents, some conversing with other students all heading up a small incline from this domed building towards the main school building surrounded by large mature trees. Oh, and later on I learned it was actually the Field house anyway. Whoops. I too trudged up the hill to the school noticing that each tree had a plaque revealing the tree species as well as a fun fact. I stopped to gander:

Pin Oak
Easy ID: The bristle-tipped lobes are deeply cut reaching almost to leaf mid vein. The small round acorn is often striped and has a shallow cup.
Fun Fact: The tough short branchlets of this tree were once used as pins to fasten timbers together.

Aha! Who knew? Now I can go build that small rustic house I’ve always wanted to. Thank you Maharishi!

As I neared the entrance I was greeted with the sign “Maharishi School” with an impressive list of achievements underneath: “State Champions: Drama, Golf, History, Science and Engineering, Tennis, Math, Track, Odyssey of the Mind, Poetry and Writing, Photography and Art, National Merit Scholars, Destination Imagination.” Imagine trying to fit all of that on a bumper sticker.

I was equally impressed as I rounded the sidewalk to the entrance and saw a group of young boys setting out flags, not just the American flag, or the Iowa state flag but flags from around the world. I would later learn that the flags represented all of the countries that children were from at this school. This attention to the globe was echoed as I entered through the doors and saw a row of clocks hanging from the large horizontal beam showing times from various countries from around the world.

“You’re not lost, right?”

“Actually, I am.” I had not heard from the head of the school, Richard Beall, confirming my visit and was nervous that I would be turned away after 8 hrs of driving and 2 days of overly fatigued children wreaking havoc on the Rukmapura Park Hotel in the Maharishi Vedic City. He had stated visitors were welcomed and to set up a time, but then went on vacation. So, here I was hoping I wouldn’t get a ruler on the hand for not following protocol.

“Well, Richard has not been around for a few days, but come with me, let’s see what we can do.” I liked her already. She was warm, she was laid back, she was Fran Clark.

Everyone that greeted me was full of genuine smiles and warm hand shakes. At that moment that I realized that I had not felt quite so comfortable with strangers in a long time. These days it seems when I meet someone new, smiles tend to be put on, the voice is raised 2 decibels too high to show how terribly friendly we really are, conversation feels dreadfully forced with clear relief when one says, “Well, I better move along!” This was not the case here. Familiarity was present that was calming to me instantly.

I spieled out my monologue as to why I was there visiting. How I was a mother of two looking for an education alternative for my kids and how I was hoping to compile my journey into a book for other parents who were also interested, how the public school system was not doing anything for the youth today.

Fran smiled, “Well, they churn out a lot of product!”

On the way to the administrator, Tere Cutler’s, office we bumped into Tere who told me that she would have time to see me in the afternoon and to feel free to bring my kids back with me. I informed her they were three and one. “Yes, bring them back! They can play in our Nature Explore playground we just installed!”

“Would you like to see the Nature Explore playground?” Fran asked.

“Absolutely.”

So Fran and I headed outside.

“This Nature Explore Playground is new to our school. It is a really amazing hands on way for our preschoolers and kindergarteners to play in the outside world.”

Check out the specs on this playground. The Nature Explore Playground was established in conjunction with the Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation. This playground is complete with a Treasure Cove, where the children can use shells, acorns, pine cones and other objects of nature to build and design with. Sparkling Springs is the messy area where digging and sloshing with sand and water is encouraged. Included in this area is a rain barrel to teach the children about the recycling possibilities of water. They have a Tree House Theatre surrounded by butterfly gardens. The Playful Prairie is part earth slide, part swings and part wood chips for playing. Star Quest is an area of log steps and tree stumps and wooden balance beams. If this isn’t impressive enough they have also included a Hummingbird Cottage, an eco-playhouse that is surrounded with edible plants and flowers that attract, yes, hummingbirds. While I was visiting the strawberries had been picked and munched to the end and the pumpkins were just coming into their flourishing. In a shaded area of the playground was what they called The Woodlands where a shade garden grows. My kids were going to be in wee heaven when they return with me.

“This is incredible!” I exclaimed. I would have loved to see this concept be incorporated into some of the giant playgrounds I have seen.

“Oh, the kids love it here. It really is a blessing for us to have this. You’ll see when you come back with your kids. You won’t get them to leave!” Fran laughed.

We walked together pass the sounds of laughter and gleeful squealing to the and into the preschool and kindergarten classrooms. Briefly Fran showed me all the different corners the children have within their classrooms - the nap area, the library area, the global area with pictures of people from all over the world.

I looked up as we were leaving and saw the sign: “The Nature of Life is To Grow and Order is Present Everywhere.” Fran followed my gaze.

“We believe that children need order and guidance to make sense of the world. Montessori for example as I understand it, lets the children just go. We don’t do that here. Children need our supervision.” I would soon learn that Montessori has a lot more thought behind it than just letting them go, but I understood the point she was trying to make.

I needed to return to gather my children for our afternoon visit and Fran also needed to attend to her own duties. We cut our brief tour short and said our goodbyes.

“So, you’ll come back and bring your kids?” Fran asked.

“Oh, yes, we’ll be back. I’m so excited to see the rest of the school.”

“Oh, it’s amazing here. I’ve lived here now for 30 years and I would never leave. It’s is such a great community! Are you
staying for the ArtWalk this weekend? It is the end all and be all of the town every first Friday of the month! Affairs are made and broken!” She laughed heartedly.

“No, we have to get back tomorrow, but I will bring my husband back with me for that! So far, I have really enjoyed the town, really felt quite comfortable here.”

“Well, people get a little iffy when they know they are coming to the Transcendental Meditation Town, but we’re normal people. We don’t walk around with our eyes half closed or anything.” That wonderful laugh again.

“Oh, I wasn’t nervous about a meditation town. My husband and I have taken yoga together for 8 years and he meditates every morning to get prepared for the corporate world. I don’t meditate though, I make breakfast.” My turn for an attempt at being funny.

“Oh!” She chuckled, “Well, that’s your dharma! You know, dharma? Your important duty in this world? There is nothing more important than a mother’s dharma, don’t ever forget that! Those babies are your meditation. We all do what we can in whatever phase of life we are in.”

If I could have cried, I may have, but I was still smiling at Fran, my new favorite Fairfieldian. The stay at home mom tends to be a fairly unrecognized profession, especially in the case of those mothers that do it so well. Your clothes magically appear each week, the food somehow remains in the fridge although you are sure you are eating each day, the dishes somehow get back in the cupboard while the lights stay on and the house stays warm and the children go from 8lbs to 30lbs. I’m always up for a praising of the mother, or father now-a-days, that makes the world go round. Literally.

I waved my good byes, my jitters now turned to jubilation.