Truth is a Rare Commodity

“The Day that Maharishi Finally Told the Truth”

“Instead of asking him to preach, you preach. He has already enunciated a type of formula, and it is very difficult for him to change it.”

“(The Maharishi’s) method was simple—only fifteen to twenty minutes of ‘effortless’ meditation in the morning and evening, and no need for lifestyle changes or religious or philosophical adjustments.” – Radhanatha Swami, The Journey Home, page 118

Satsvarūpa: This boy is Bhakta Doug, and he was a personal secretary of Maharishi for two years.

Prabhupāda: Oh?

Satsvarūpa: He traveled all over with him. And one day... He was a very good student, and one day Maharishi said, “If you really want to know the highest truth, it’s Krishna consciousness. And then he left and he came and joined our temple ... (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Maharishi said like that?

Doug: Yes, he did say that. It took me awhile to make the transition, but with Krishna’s mercy, I saw the way through to become Krishna ...

Prabhupāda: When you were with Maharishi? Come here ...

Doug: I joined the Maharishi in 1969, and at that time I was living in Washington, D.C. And his national director came, gave a lecture, and they said that they needed some help because they didn’t have a center there. So I organized the movement out of my parents’ house. I had the center, and I established lectures at all the colleges and started the movement there. And later on, they finally sent some full-time teachers, and they established a center there. And then I started to be with Maharishi and his different courses and doing extensive meditations for long periods of time. And then eventually he formed a committee. This was in 1971-72. He started to form a college called M.I.U., Maharishi International University. And he started to invite educators, and he wanted to... And he also had this...

Prabhupāda: “M.I.U.” means Maharishi ...?

Doug: Maharishi International University. And so he started to formulate a curriculum. He was trying to present Vedic studies in Western terms. And so he formed this council of the executive called his executive council. It was called The 108. It didn’t have 108 people, but this was what he called us.

Prabhupāda: One hundred...?

Doug: The 108. He called it The 108, but the official term was the executive council. And that’s what I was with ...

Prabhupāda: How many students are there?

Doug: How many students do his meditation?

Prabhupāda: No, the university?

Doug: In the university? I haven’t been with them in a year and a half, but they recently bought a college, and they have part of a college in Santa Barbara, the University of California there. So they’re pretty well established educationally. But it’s losing its potency actually. I think it’s actually reached its peak and left, because when I was with Maharishi also I noticed that it seemed that a lot of his potency seemed to diminish, his charisma, over the years. Seemed to me he’d get more and more depressed if people weren’t actually reaching the states that he was talking of. It didn’t seem like he was satisfied with the advancement people were making. And certainly he wasn’t answering the questions, because all that time I was asking him “What is the highest truth.”And when he talked to God I would say, “Who is God?" And we’d ask him, “Who is Krishna?” and “What about this Krishna conscious movement?” And it was word jugglery. He’d kind of evade our questions and satisfy our elan, but ... those questions kept coming up. Somehow he kept us from going into too much detail about it. But eventually ... I didn’t see him for a few days. This was when I was in the mountains with him, some other people. And we were making up these curriculums for this college program. And he was doing some transcriptions on the Brahma-sūtras, and he came out, and he was in a very solemn mood, and he said ... We asked him what he had realized, what truths he had realized from the Brahma-sutras. And he said, “Krishna consciousness is the highest state of consciousness.” So I left shortly after that. I feel that I could have been chanting all those years, making some progress.

Prabhupāda: What is his age? …

Doug: His age? He’s sixty-eight.

Prabhupāda: Old man.

Tripurāri: He translated Bhagavad-gītā, but only six chapters.

Doug: Actually, it’s interesting about that, because he finished the whole Bhagavad-gītā, and he put out these first six chapters in a really a boggling word way—the first six chapters. He was writing in a way that people could still enjoy material sense enjoyment and still do his technique of meditation. But I had a chance to hear the rest of the Bhagavad-gītā that he had translated. And we asked him ... We heard that he had it. We asked him why he didn’t put it out, and he said that the people of the Western world weren’t ready to hear what he had to present. But actually what he had to say was ... It’s very authentic. What I read was very close with what you have to say, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that Krishna says surrender all your senses unto Him.

And I have hopes that maybe someday ... Balavanta suggested the idea that I should write him a letter and ask him to have a meeting with you. And maybe some conciliation could be made, and maybe he could come to his senses or something that he could propagate this Krishna consciousness also, because he has so many followers. And I think that there must be some sincerity in him, else I wouldn’t have spent so long with him. He must have some sincerity. And I think that he obviously feels that Krishna is the Supreme Lord, and I noticed that on his pūjā table he always had a picture of Krishna protecting the cows.

Prabhupāda: Instead of asking him to preach, you preach. He has already enunciated a type of formula, and it is very difficult for him to change it. He does not say that he is Bhagavān?

Doug: No, he does not say he is God.

Prabhupāda: That is good.

Doug: He always talked in terms of higher states of consciousness, in terms of cosmic consciousness, which I understand to be Brahman realization. Then he talked in terms of, after about the sixth state of consciousness was then God consciousness. And then Paramātmā. Then he talked of the highest state of consciousness, and he said it’s Bhagavān realization. But he completely steers away from putting any type of limitation on people’s sense control at all, and this is what I have a hard time understanding. Even though the more I was with him he suggested to his close associates to follow the principles of brahmacārī, and he made me one of his brahmacārīs, and he told us to read the scriptures every day, and we had a lot of association...

Prabhupāda: What is his personal character? He is observing celibacy or...

Doug: As far as I’m concerned he’s been celibate for an awful long time. And he had, his master ... He comes from the Śaṅkarācārya tradition. His master was the last Śaṅkarācārya. And supposedly his master is a life-long celibate. So as far as I know, he always practiced that. Some other rumors have come up somewhere. I heard that the rumors originally originated with the Beatles when they were in India, that there was something going on like that. But as far as I know and anybody else who had been involved with him knew that he was very strict about that. And he encouraged the, me to meet ...

Prabhupāda: Celibacy. Does he observe?

Doug: Yes, as far as I know.

Read the full discussion here: https://prabhupadabooks.com/conversations/1975/mar/with_tripurari/atlanta/march/02/1975

When Maharishi can (even once) speak the truth about Krishna consciousness—then why can’t ISKCON’s leading voices speak the truth about the Mayavadic poison in the The Journey Home?