Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Biography 
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was a spiritual guru who developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and preached it worldwide. Popular spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is his disciple. He was born Mahesh Prasad Varma and obtained the honorific Maharishi and Yogi as an adult. He was a disciple and assistant of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath in the Indian Himalayas.
His birth date though is not known accurately (1911, 1917 or 1918), it’s regarded as 12 January 1918. There is no pretty evidence of his birth place and caste. As per popular beliefs, he was born in Central Provinces of British India as Mahesh Prasad Varma. But in alumni of Allahabad University, his name is listed as M. C. Srivastava. Mahesh studied physics at Allahabad University and earned a degree in 1942 and was honored with “Proud Past Alumni" in the list of 42 members. In 1941, he became an administrative secretary to the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati. Thus he took a new name, Bal Brahmachari Mahesh. At first he performed common chores but gained trust and became Guru Dev's personal secretary and favored pupil. Brahmachari Mahesh remained with Swami Brahmananda Saraswati until the latter died in 1953. As he didn’t belong to Brahmin caste, he could not become Shankaracharya's spiritual successor.
Same year he moved to Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand in the Himalayas and in 1955, he started preaching a technique that he learnt from his guru, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati. He called it Transcendental Deep Meditation and later renamed it as Transcendental Meditation. He was publically known by the title, Maharishi. He travelled around India for two years and called his movement the Spiritual Development Movement, which was later renamed as Spiritual Regeneration Movement in 1957. His book, Thirty Years Around the World (1986) is a detailed account of his world tours. Maharishi left a legacy that includes the revival of India’s ancient spiritual tradition of meditation and made it available to everyone. He died on 5 February 2008.
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Updated: January 21, 2014
