Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Sexy Sadie, 1917-2008


The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, dead at the age of 91. Admit it, you thought he was already dead, didn't you? Well, now you're right.

When the Beatles went to visit the Maharishi in India in early 1968, it was the first vacation they had taken since they became stars - which means it was probably the first real vacation any of them had ever taken. It was also probably the beginning of the end for them as a band. John Lennon left London still married to Cynthia, but by the time all the Beatles got back, he and Yoko were inseparable. But the Fabs no longer were.

That was hardly the end of the Maharishi's notoriety. Transcendental meditation, Mahesh's main bag, really took off in the 1970s, and the Maharishi established Maharishi International University in 1974 in, of all places, Fairfield, Iowa. The late Canadian Doug Henning, a TM and yoga freak, actually got married at MIU in 1981.

The Maharishi's dying words were: "The Maharishi Mahesh Boo Boo lives on."

3 comments:

Pike said...

"Paulette Bildner ... still survives."

Tom Nawrocki said...

Had I known that Paulette Bildner survives, I might have made that joke. Or not.

Welcome back, Pike!

Pike said...

She was like a little kitten. I mean, for the love of God, she couldn't even sit in a chair properly. She'd curl up. (Mary Phelan, not so much.)

Pretty impressive that I figured out my Google problem, eh?