No 11

(Transcendental Meditiation)

Although Transendental Meditation is not in itself a religion, it is based on pagan religious influence out of Hinduism. The leader is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and initiatory rites in Sanskrit address the lord Narayana, Brahma the creator. Daily meditation focuses on the source of creative intelligence within the individual person. In the seventies, TM was very popular with the hippie culture and filled the void of some hapless people searching for truth. Even government education boards approved the practice of Creative Intelligence Science (CIS) in classrooms in the USA. Here is a recent quotation from one of TM’s websites: “Transcendental Meditation opens the awareness to the infinite reservoir of energy, creativity, and intelligence that lies deep within everyone” (MMY). The website goes on to say that “Practice of TM is simplicity itself. Anyone can easily learn from an instructor trained to teach the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation program. It cannot be learned by reading a book or surfing a website”. It is nothing less than humanism and, as born-again Christians, we should all be quite aware of this non-Biblical practice that is, by the way, still very strong today. Maybe we know someone who is into this or we may meet a stranger who practices TM. Many verses in the Bible can refute its pagan origin and one verse that is quite direct is found in Colossians 2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of man, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”. Paul’s words to the Colossians echo many warnings that God gave to Israel in the Old Testament and that Jesus gave to us in the New Testament. Do not be afraid to tell someone who practices TM that they are on the wrong track because “greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” ( 1 John 4:4)