PUJA: THE HINDU PRAYERS OF TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION
Transcendental Meditation is presented as a secular practice that has no religious affiliation. As a former teacher of TM, I can attest that the truth is the complete opposite, writes Aryeh Siegel.
THE PUJA — AN ANCIENT HINDU RITUAL
A puja is an ancient Hindu ritual or ceremonial worship service, one purpose of which is to create a channel of transmission from a Hindu god to the one performing or participating in the puja ceremony. Objects of worship can be various Hindu deities or gurus who are believed to embody the divine. While Maharishi seems to have made his up, there are many variations of pujas, but they all essentially have the same function.
In the puja, offerings are made to the object of devotion, often represented by a painting or an idol, to earn his love and blessings. The offerings — usually fruit, candles, incense, flowers — symbolize surrendering one’s mind, body, thoughts, desires, actions, and possessions to divine beings or gurus and enjoying whatever may come back as a gift from them. The deity or guru whose image is worshipped in the puja is considered a living incarnation of the deity. They are treated as if the deity has descended from above and actually inhabits the image.
This is the setup for a Transcendental Meditation puja ceremony which is obligatory for everyone as they begin meditating with TM. The organization says that TM is secular, but this is a straight-up Hindu ceremony. TM Deception…
PUJA IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
At this point, a fair question might be, “What can this possibly have to do with Transcendental Meditation which is a scientific, completely secular relaxation technique?”
Surely, no public school would allow its students to participate in a Hindu religious practice, just as they wouldn’t allow them to participate in a Christian, Jewish, or Muslim religious practice. Certainly, those responsible would not encourage students to participate in a religious practice that likely conflicts with the students’ own religion, especially when doing so in a public school violates the United States Constitution.
Certainly, they would have thoroughly vetted TM before using public funds to pay for TM instruction or even accepting donations from outside organizations such as the David Lynch Foundation that raises money to pay for TM instruction in various settings, including public schools.
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
One would expect school administrators who allowed TM in their schools to have thoroughly vetted TM, but apparently, they didn’t. Full-time TM instructors oversee the TM program in schools. Many classroom teachers along with the school principal and other school staff may practice TM because they are offered free instruction
TM teachers tell them that TM is not a religion because you don’t have to believe in anything to do TM. It is a testament to TM’s marketing ability that so many people go along with TM’s “not a religion” hype after experiencing the puja, which looks and feels religious, because it is. Those entrusted with the care of our children must be held to a higher standard. When they experienced the puja, they should have immediately known that TM didn’t belong in public schools.
MAHARISHI AND THE PESKY PUJA
Maharishi was, without doubt, one of the wealthiest gurus in history. His estate was reportedly in the billions when he died. As fixated on money as he was, I have no doubt that he would have dumped the puja if he could have, because more people would have learned TM and, more importantly, the door to large-scale government funding would have been more open. But Maharishi couldn’t get rid of the puja because it is the very heart of TM. In fact, nothing about the puja can be changed because it is all considered holy and sacred. This includes the name “puja,” all aspects of the ritual offerings, and the precision of their performance along with the Sanskrit chanting — all are absolute.
CHANNELING HINDU DEITIES INTO US SCHOOLS?
Maharishi believed the puja, along with his mantras, invited the influence of Hindu deities into the lives of those doing TM. Maharishi also believed that his mantras were powered by a mystical connection to the guru and deities created during the puja. This highly guarded secret is evidenced by minutes of a meeting dated February 6, 2007, conducted by TM’s “Raja of Atlanta,” or head administrator at the time, Rogers Badgett. Speaking to the local directors, Badgett begins with a story about Arjuna, a central figure in The Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, and considered the greatest archer and warrior of his time:
The great general was teaching Arjuna about all the celestial weapons and how to use them. After the training, Arjuna tried to use them. They wouldn’t work. The great general told him, “There has to be dakshina for them to work.” Dakshina is a gift, like the fruit, flowers and course fee to learn TM. For our own understanding, the technique isn’t going to work until there is dakshina. We don’t tell the general public this. [Transcendental Meditation Domain of Atlanta Directors Meeting Notes, 2005–2007 https://wikileaks.org/wiki/ Transcendental_Meditation_Domain_of_Atlanta_ Directors_ Meeting_Notes,_2005–2007]
THE PUJA — EVERYONE HAS TO DO IT
So, no matter if you are a private person, a ten-year-old public-school student, a captain of industry, or a celebrity, when you learn TM, the puja is non-negotiable.
There is a booklet known in TM as “The Holy Tradition” that pays homage to the gods and gurus who Maharishi claimed preserved the teaching of TM over the millennia. When TM became “scientific,” “The Holy Tradition” was problematic for TM’s new scientific image, and hard copies are difficult to come by. However, “The Holy Tradition” is available online, and following are some direct quotes describing the desired mental state of the TM teacher during the puja taken from “The Holy Tradition.” http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/ puja/tradt.shtml
“Having recited this and having filled our minds and hearts with the meaning of what we say, we complete the invocation to the long tradition of the great masters and feel the inspiration of their glory. With heart thus secure in deep devotion, and mind upheld in the meaning of the recitation, our hands and eyes engage in the act of offering.”
“The invocation through the offering is symbolic of our universal behavior towards invited and honored guests. Naturally we offer them the best we have in the house flowers, fruit, light, bath, shower, towels, good food. We greet them with loving reverence and sweet words. The ceremony of offerings has similar significance in that it expresses gratitude on a physical level, and everything is done in a very natural, innocent and spontaneous manner.”
“It may be that someone, seeing us making offerings before a picture, might argue that we are a sect and label us as such, and thereby try to depreciate the universality of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement [The first TM corporation in the US]. Nevertheless, these formalities, this style of offering, are ways of bowing to GURU DEV or expressing our reverence to the Holy Tradition.”
TEACHING THE TEACHERS TO DECEIVE
When Maharishi understood early on that the puja would turn many Westerners off, he trained his TM teachers to use deceptive language in order to hide the puja’s centrality to TM. He also coached them to downplay the fact that those learning TM play an active role in the puja by bringing several items that are offered on the altar and being invited to join with the TM instructor in bowing down to the picture of Maharishi’s teacher at the conclusion of the ritual. And this deception continues in full force today.
[Excerpt from ‘Transcendental Meditation’, available on amazon.com]
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Aryeh Siegel is the author of TRANSCENDENTAL DECEPTION: Behind the TM curtain — bogus science, hidden agendas, and David Lynch’s campaign to push a million public school kids into Transcendental Meditation while falsely claiming it is not a religion. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and family. Discover more at www.tmdeception.com
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