This wonderful book written by Judith Bourque with the subtitle “The true story of a love affair with the Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi” broke a few boundaries in the TM movement just as Maharishi broke Judith’s heart. It tells of a love relationship between Maharishi and Judith in Rishikesh in the early 1970s.
The book begins with Judith’s childhood and upbringing in a Roman Catholic environment, and her desire for spiritual development. It was the late 1960s in America, and there were many options for her, and she chose Transcendental Meditation, and learned TM in 1968. This path is one we have heard many times. The desire for spiritual experiences and development, finding TM, joining the TM movement, and later wanting much more, perhaps even teaching Transcendental Meditation to help others grow in consciousness. This is a holy path followed by so many who built up the TM movement.
Judith decided to become a TM teacher and applied for the Teacher Training Course. She eagerly awaited her approval letter and shares the picture of the approval letter in her book. The book is full of beautiful pictures, even handwritten notes from those years. So in 1970 she flew to India and started her course to become a teacher.
Her romantic story with Maharishi began very early during the course when Maharishi set eyes on her and beckoned her to visit his house. She was 22 years old, and Maharishi was probably 52 years old. Maharishi and Judith met in his “cave” a cellar room where Maharishi lived. This was in a separate villa far from the course building where the course participants lived. She entered her spiritual master’s cave room and imagined that she was going to get a special advanced meditation technique from her enlightened master, however, that did not turn out to be the case, as Maharishi had other designs for her.
They sat on the floor and Maharishi asked her how everything was going, how her meditation was. She knew she was getting special attention, but didn’t realize until later that something else was happening. At some point, Maharishi raised his hand to stroke her beautiful long hair, and then she realized the special attention from Maharishi had something to do with him being a man, and her being a woman. Maharishi told her “Don’t tell anyone” and she agreed by replying “No, I won’t tell anyone”. Thus began her two-year secret romantic relationship with her spiritual master Maharishi.
Judith Bourque 22 years oldShe became Maharishi’s secretary and walked with him on many occasions. They were effectively “going steady”, and her secretary position provided the perfect cover for the secret relationship. She appears in many photographs from that time, sitting right in front of Maharishi facing the audience with other women, but she was Maharishi’s secret girlfriend.
What began as a desire to become a teacher of meditation, evolved into a more complex relationship where her teacher was her boyfriend also. Often she would leave her room at night and walk through the woods to Maharishi’s villa, and join Maharishi for the night. She even mentions moonlit nights on the roof of the villa where Maharishi had an outdoor bed placed. There they spent the night under the moon and stars. Judith paints a very romantic picture of their relationship.
In one of these private moments, Maharishi asked her “Do you think I should become the Prime Minister of India? Or do you think I should remain a spiritual leader?” She could not believe her master was asking her for advice, but in that spontaneous moment she replied “I think you should remain a spiritual leader because that is what you are good at”. Perhaps this is a key to understanding Maharishi’s inner conflicts, he knew about the two paths he could traverse in life.
Undoubtedly Maharishi knew his own jyotish chart and knew there were indications of two kinds of lives. This reminds me of how Suddhodana the king of the Sakhyas who was the father of Lord Buddha was told by his astrologer that his newborn son would either become a universal monarch, or abandoning house and home would become a perfectly enlightened soul.
It seems to me Maharishi wished to enjoy the company of women, and also be a great spiritual master, all the while he allowed by negligence (or perhaps by direct order) that his managers promote him as a celibate monk who came down from the Himalayas. The two destinies of Maharishi were intertwined and he lived the two lives at once, which we now understand.
Many followers of Maharishi chose the monk or nun lifestyle based on the understanding that Maharishi was a monk. How many people would have chosen a more fulfilling lifestyle had they known what was going on? How many would have accomplished great things in the world, and established a family had they known what was going on? There are moral and ethical issues involved, which must not be lost, and which must be discussed for the sake of future generations. The discussion of these matters does not diminish what Maharishi has accomplished, in other words, his teachings about an easy natural method of transcending. Yet the double life that Maharishi lived, and the many financial secrets surrounding Maharishi and his relatives leave many questions currently unanswered
Looking deeper at what Maharishi asked Judith, namely “Do you think I should become the Prime Minister of India?”, it seems that already in late 1960, or early 1970s Maharishi had political ambitions. Just to remind the readers we saw these organizations created or managed by Maharishi that were either political in name or in action:
1976 – World Government for the Age of Enlightenment – with ministers and plans for all areas of society. Meditators were called “citizens”, sidhas were called “citizen sidhas”, and TM teachers who were also sidhas were called “governors”. There was also a brief attempt at a TM movement-wide money called “MAHA”.
1992 – Natural Law Party – established in around 60 democratic countries, which specific plans for all areas of society. It was a political party with a near-uniform worldwide platform.
2001 – The Global Country of World Peace – a worldwide kingdom ruled by kings with golden crowns with plans to create actual sovereign nations around the world. There were also plans to issue citizenships and passports, and even money called “RAAM”.
There were other attempts by Maharishi to enter the political arena, for example, the support by the TM movement in 1986 of dictator Ferdinand Marcos the ruler of the Philippines, and the attempt to acquire a large part of Zaire from the dictator of that country for Vedic Agriculture. The area of land desired by Maharishi was larger than present-day Germany!!!. The subsequent debacle of that plan happened after the political opposition in Zaire leaked the plan to the press, which led to the downfall of the dictator.
Now with this book, we have a small glimpse into Maharishi’s thinking, and motivations. To say that Maharishi was a monk is not at all accurate. Maharishi had secret girlfriends and at the same time, he recommended the monk and nun lifestyle to some of his followers many of whom ended up in the Purusha or Mother Divine divisions of the worldwide TM movement. The people on Purusha or Mother Divine perhaps could have decided differently had Maharishi been more honest with them.
Judith’s book is a delight to read and clears up the question of whether Maharishi was a lifelong celibate or not. Her book is enjoyable to read, and her writing is very honest. The story is 100% believable, and she gives many details about her romantic relationship with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. She is not alone in her experience, as she mentions in the last chapter of her book, that after the first publishing she was approached by 14 other women or their relatives and friends with similar dalliance stories with Maharishi. She added a few sentences to this effect in the next printing.
She also mentions that Maharishi also fathered one (or two) children who had been placed with families for upbringing. When Maharishi asked Judith what path should she take, Judith gathered enough courage to ask Maharishi the following “What would you do if I become pregnant?”. Maharishi answered quickly, “Get married…quick”. “To whom?”, she asked. To which Maharishi replied, “Some good choice in the movement”.
This was a wake-up call for Judith. Sometime later it turned out Maharishi was putting his attention on another beautiful woman, and Judith was slowly put aside, sent on projects, etc. She was deeply troubled and hurt, and she eventually left the TM Movement, only to return many years later to tell her story.
We at RajaLeaks HIGHLY recommend this book. If we could rate books with 5 stars, then we would give this book 6 stars for the tremendous courage and honesty of Judith Bourque in sharing her story. She was one of the early TM initiators who knew Maharishi very well, and her thoughts about the time with Maharishi are valuable to us.
There is so much more in the book that needs mentioning, but we would like you to buy the book and read it through.
The book can be bought on amazon.com and other online bookstores, but we recommend you buy it directly from Judith at:
Her phone number and email address can be found on her website.