Susan Shumsky is a successful author in the human potential field. But in the 1970s, in India, the Swiss Alps, and elsewhere, she served on the personal staff of the most famous guru of the 20th century–Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Maharishi died in 2008 at age ninety, but his influence endures through the spiritual movement he founded: TM (Transcendental Meditation). Other books have been written … written about him, but this spellbinding page-turner offers a rare insider’s view of life with the guru, including the time the Beatles studied at his feet in Rishikesh, India, and wrote dozens of songs under his influence.
Both inspirational and disturbing, Maharishi and Me illuminates Susan’s two decades living in Maharishi’s ashrams, where she grew from a painfully shy teenage seeker into a spiritually aware teacher and author. It features behind-the-scenes, myth-busting stories, and over 100 photos of Maharishi and his celebrity disciples (the Beatles, Deepak Chopra, Mia Farrow, Beach Boys, and many more).
Susan’s candid, honest portrayal draws back the curtain on her shattering, extreme emotional seesaws of heaven and hell at her guru’s hands. This compelling, haunting memoir will continue to challenge readers long after they turn its last page. It dismantles all previous beliefs about the spiritual path and how spiritual masters are supposed to behave.
Susan shares: “Merely by being in his presence, we disciples entered an utterly timeless place and rapturous feeling, and, at the same time, realized the utter futility and insanity of the mundane world.”
Susan’s heartfelt masterwork blends her experiences, exacting research, artistically descriptive and humorous writing, emotional intelligence, and intensely personal inner exploration into a feast for thought and contemplation. Neither starry-eyed nor antagonistic, it captures, from a balanced viewpoint, the essence of life in an ashram.
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5 Stars
Powerful and eye-opening
I wasn’t familiar with Maharishi except that he was a popular and iconic guru. The author shares her experiences and even her enlightenment by her time spent with him. It was a grand, heartfelt book that I enjoyed, finding it also inspirational. It was a fascinating story of her experiences and perspective. I knew very little about Transcendental Meditation (TM) before reading this, and I’ve learned a lot. I am very glad to have read this book.
Although this might not have been my first choice of reading material if I were browsing for something to read, I had just watched “Lennon Naked,” a British docu-drama about John Lennon that included The Beatles time with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I’ve never quite understood the whole concept of transcendental meditation, so I thought I would read this to gain some insights. Early on, the author drops the first shoe, the insanity of blind faith and unrequited need. She writes paragraph after paragraph, page after page of her need to be with the Maharishi (a title bestowed upon him that has no real meaning) and that only he matters. She is so drawn into the con that changes at his whim. I kept turning the pages waiting for the other shoe, the shoe of realization and sanity, to drop. That, and the minute crumbs that foretold such an occurrence, kept this book from ending up on the did-not-finish shelf. That’s a shelf with very few books.
To my way of thinking, Maharishi was a rude and deliberately manipulative individual with a definite sadistic streak. To think that anyone could buy into his self-centered (pun intended) way of life is beyond me. It would seem that Susan Shumsky went from a promiscuous flower child, in Haight Ashbury, to a celibate, controlled by a misogynist, wherever her guru wanted her to be. To her credit, there are sporadic outbursts of independence that I have to cheer.
Susan Shumsky is a good writer. She expresses herself well and presents a coherent history of a transformative, and turbulent time in history. Young people were making their voices heard. Music was changing. Freedom meant more than just being an American. However, for me, this was a hard book to read. I grew up in that same formative time and look back on it from a totally different perspective. I had a hard time deciding whether this book was worth my time or not. In some respects it was simply because it brought the 60s back into clear focus. If you are a child of that time, you will recognize more of the famous names than if you grew up a decade or two later. Some of the people named were a surprise, even to me. This is not “People Magazine” or “Us,” but there is enough celebrity gossip to keep some more than entertained. History aside, I hated what Susan Shumsky did to herself. I just can’t imaging shutting myself away from the world for a week, let alone two decades. So it’s up to you to decide what you want to get out of reading this biographical account. There is no doubt that it will make you think.