Let’s talk about a recent addition to the Raja Kingdom’s course offerings, a course taught by the Maha Raja himself! The website states “Become a Certified Consciousness Advisor!”. Wow, that sounds fantastic!
According to the website, this course gives information about:
- Maharishi’s Science and Technologies
- Transcendental Meditation and Advanced Techniques
- Maharishi Ayurveda
- Consciousness-based Education
- Pulse Reading
- Panchakarma (Ayurvedic health massage)
- Diet and Digestion
- Aroma Therapy
- Maharishi Light Therapy
- Marma Therapy
- Maharishi Vastu Architecture (notice it is not called Sthapatya-Veda anymore)
- Maharishi Jyotish (Vedic astrology)
- and many more…
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The participants in this course would not learn actual Ayurveda like pulse reading, Ayurvedic diet, and Vastu architecture.
Reviewing the website, it seems this course was designed to create SALES PERSONS for the complete palette of Maharishi XYZ products and services. It’s sales training for the Raja Kingdom given by the Raam Raj himself. The course includes videos about presentation skills and building relationships with customers, which is very important for any sales training program.
The participants cannot give diet advice, take the pulses, or design a building. Yet this brings up legal questions. For example, how does the salesperson advise a customer about health issues? Does the salesperson point to a Maharishi Ayurvedic brochure and tell them to contact an Ayurvedic medical doctor or does the salesperson point to actual Ayurvedic herbal food supplements and tell them this could help with their health? The same goes for diet recommendations, where giving diet advice can be risky. In many countries diet advice and health advice are regulated by law and require a college education. Of course, many advisors of such things can slip through the cracks, but for the Global Country of World Peace to promote this course on such a large scale, is sure to create legal issues, when it is being organized on a global level. Has the TM Raja Kingdom researched this legal aspect, and only accepts students from certain countries, where the legal system allows such advisors to operate? Or perhaps their course is so vague on the specifics that it is only good as an introduction to product and service offerings by the kingdom? How is it that an accredited university is offering this course?
The course is offered through Maharishi International University which is a nonprofit university that in a way is supporting the FOR PROFIT activities of the various onshore and offshore companies of the Vedic Kingdom of Rajas, which they claim is a country. Strange.
It is expected that the students first read Maha Raja’s book “One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness”, which is the sourcebook on which the course is based.
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Now let’s return to the cover picture of this article. This picture was taken from the TM_Next_Gen Facebook group, where it was posted a few months ago. It was determined by someone knowledgeable in the matter that 91% of the students did not finish the course. Out of 2,200 online participants, only 189 graduated from the course, which is a 91% dropout rate. Yeah, that sounds just about right, since it’s a salesperson course, and similar statistics can be found for the various Multi-Level Marketing sales organizations. I am not claiming this course is MLM-themed, but it certainly has that “come pay for our sales course, and see if you can make it” feeling to it.
I wonder out of the 189 graduates of the course how many could successfully operate their Consciousness Advisory franchise. There is no information on that yet. I wonder if those operating outside the United States have considered the legal aspect. I wish them well. The Maharishi Ayurvedic products are good quality, even better than similar offerings on the market. TM is good. Marma therapy is good. It seems there is some effort to create a worldwide sales force. This is commendable. However, I question this course offering through a non-profit university and the legal research they may have done, specifically about recommending Ayurvedic treatments and products. The basic idea seems sound, but perhaps it should be more open about what it is, and what global quasi-political, quasi-religious organization is really behind it.
Here is their website, in case anyone is interested in any upcoming courses.