Transcendental meditation - some essential information

Transcendental meditation (TM) was popularized by Maharishi Mahesh yogi. It is a simple form of meditation, which involves chanting a mantra in your mind as you are doing the meditation. The time required to be spent is 15 to 20 minutes in the morning and evening. This makes this method best suited to the needs of man I the present day with many requirements on his time.

Practicing Transcendental meditation does not mean that you change your religion or your philosophy or your way of life. People from many religious faiths, worldwide practice TM and all have reported to have immensely benefited from this practice. The benefits that you can expect are stillness of mind, help in dealing with addictions, a cure for stress and hypertension and many more such benefits. The Lok Sabha of the Indian Parliament has commended TM as a practice leading to the well being of mankind. In Mozambique, in the early 1990s the president gave credit to the practice of TM for helping restore peace after many years of civil war. Many other governments besides have praised TM as a practice beneficial to its citizens and mankind.

There have been many scientific studies of the practice of TM and here to it has been praised as a very beneficial practice.

Transcendental meditation is the easiest and quickest way to higher states of consciousness. According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi the practice of TM benefits the very root of the intelligence within us. It does not deal with the outer problems faced by us but strengthens our intelligence so that we are better able to deal with those problems. It is similar, according to the Maharishi, to a tree drawing nourishment and water from the soil and through the sap of the tree distributing nourishment to its branches and leaves. The practice of TM leads to an improvement in our capacity to draw on this nourishment and so similar to the tree, our leaves (or manifestations of our intelligence) will be benefited.

Maharishi Mahesh yogi who founded the worldwide Transcendental meditation movement graduated from Allahabad University in India. Next he spent 13 years as a disciple of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, an exponent of the ancient Vedic science of consciousness. Then in 1955, after spending 2 years in silence in the Himalayas, Maharishi began teaching the Transcendental meditation technique. TM has more than 4 million practitioners worldwide of which more than a million are in the United States.

As I said earlier, Transcendental meditation offers many immediate benefits and because it requires only 15 to 30 minutes of time daily, it is best suited to people in our hurried age. I urge all beginners to meditation to learn this technique and experience the benefits for themselves. TM can only be learned through direct contact with a teacher, it cannot be learned through books or audios. Further information can be found at Maharishi Mahesh yogi's official website www.tm.org

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