Who is Maharishi Yogi?

Deepak Chopra is in wide demand as a best-selling author and spiritual guru.  In 1985, Chopra visited the headquarters of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  He quickly accepted the Maharishi as his spiritual guru.  Later Chopra became chairman of Maharishi’s Ayurvedic clinic in Lancaster, Massachusetts.  He became a millionaire as a spokesman for Maharishi’s movement, but when given the choice to leave or stay with Maharishi, he quickly left.  Chopra is now president of the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine.

Even though Chopra broke contact with Maharishi, he still derives much of his view of holistic health from Transcendental Meditation, originated by Maharishi.   Maharishi was the disciple of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of a Hindu monastery.  At the monastery, he developed his monistic views of reality.1

One of the most foolish teachings that Chopra kept with him even after breaking with Maharishi is the belief that he can control the molecules of his own body.  Chopra believes that his body is composed of sub-atomic elements—molecules that he has never seen—and since matter and energy is interchangeable then he can control his molecular composition.  This is the Hindu doctrine of maya; the apparent existence of the mind and the body as man experiences it.

Maharishi was sent to the West as a missionary for Hinduism.  He brought his Science of Creative Intelligence to the United States, and recommended TM to the citizenry.  This guru’s aspiration was to have one TM instructor for every 1,000 Americans.  Maharishi was an antichrist that believed his World Plan would save humanity.  His “Age of enlightenment” would bring about favorable conditions for everyone and the spiritual goals of mankind would be reached through him.

He was a consistent monist that identified God as part of the creation and by doing so was an idolater (Rom. 1:25).  This idea is summed up in his claim that “each individual is, in his true nature, the impersonal God.”2  Maharishi’s teaching is the denial of Christ as a person and Savior.  In the truest sense, Maharishi was an orthodox Hindu, and held the doctrines in high honor.  Maharishi’s plan for the world was nothing more than a substitute for the true gospel.  His practices were a counterfeit form of spirituality and all who buy into the lies he promoted will suffer the punishment of eternal separation from the Lord (2 Thess. 1:8, 9).

1 Ronald Enroth & Others, A Guide to Cults & New Religions (Downers Grove, ILL:  InterVarsity), p. 135.

2 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Science of Being, p. 276.