Dear Friends,

As mentioned in the last newsletter, we recently had the joy of hosting Dr. Paul and Marion Gelderloos at the Brahmasthan of India. The Gelderloos family has been generously funding the completion of some of the partly finished Pandit residences here as well as some of the needed landscaping. They came to get a first-hand look at how the Brahmasthan is progressing, with an eye to reviewing what yet remains to be done to fulfill the enormous promise of Maharishi’s overflowing gift to us all: that from this one place on earth peace and prosperity can be created and maintained for the entire world and that from here perpetual soft tidal waves of harmony and coherence will radiate, supporting individual enlightenment. I hope you will enjoy Paul’s inspiring thoughts and impressions, just as I did spending time with Marion and him.

Jai Guru Dev

Raja Harris and Arlene Kaplan

Dr. Paul and Marion Gelderloos

As supporters, Marion and I, have of course very diligently followed all the information, presentations and slideshows about this enormous undertaking in the center of India. We also have learned a lot from our conversations with Girish Varma Ji and Raja Harris. Yet, our concept of the size and grandeur of the project was maybe 10% of what we saw there in reality.

Just arriving at the first campus, Karaundi, where Pandits are living and being trained and all the administrative buildings are, gave the impression of a small town in itself. Absolutely gorgeously nested within three small hill ranges, it had a heavenly feeling to it — so quiet and yet so lively. We actually thought this was it! Although Raja Harris kept on emphasizing there was much more, this campus itself already fulfilled our expectations.

Girish and Raja Harris had kindly organized for us to stay in the first of the finished Raja homes, the one of Raja Peter Warburton. We actually learned they had put a lot of effort to make sure my wife Marion and I would be very comfortable. We were surprised to be taken off campus on a 15-minute ride to the Raja homes; we thought it would all be on the same compound. And there within an idyllically located hilly area with some of the most magnificant trees, hundreds of years old, we found six palace-like white marble buildings, the Raja homes. Still quite some work needs to be done, but also this place had a fairytale-like atmosphere to it. And again we thought this was it, although Raja Harris explained that in the afternoon we would see some other area, and the next day again another place.

The two other campuses, Bijauri and Akona, which we saw later literally took our breath away. They were just absolutely huge. The first campus, Kauraundi, is built really right around the center point, the Brahmasthan of India, the officially designated spot Roger Audet calculated on basis of Maharishi Ji’s instructions and which is also just a few hundred meters from the spot marked by the government of India. The other campuses, Akona and Bijauri, flank this main campus and are about 10 - 16 kilometers further in different directions.

Walking around the Brahmasthan, Marion and I had two sentiments. The first was that one almost could see thousands of pandits walking around, and sitting in their mandaps doing their chanting, performing their Yagya’s. The whole set-up was so tangible and so overwhelming - one could see everything was there, designed by Maharishi to the smallest detail. The second sentiment was an inner smile with the observation that Maharishi had started building the whole complex in such a way, that there is no way back. Normally one would build such a complex one campus after the next, building for building. But Maharishi had instructed Girish to start constructing at all 200 buildings or so at the same time! With three shifts of several dozen building companies working day and night! All these buildings are finished up to 40% or even 95%. There is just no way back for us – we only can finish it.

I just felt a very warm and comfortable feeling at how Maharishi had planned this. He literally had the foundation built for the housing and training for 8,000 pandits. We just have to finish it. It will take some time and effort, and funding, but it is just irreversible. There is no choice to build for 2,000 or 3,000. We only can build there for 8,000. And actually quite easily for 16,000.

Finally, we were very much impressed by the quality of people there. Everybody, the Pandits, the management, the staff, are all very capable people. And we loved how Raja Harris interacted with all of them, inspiring them, comforting them, rewarding them. He even actively studies Hindi to be able to communicate with all of them in their native language. Raja Harris is very much appreciated and honored there, as is of course Girish Varma Ji, who so diligently is working on one project after the other (and all of them simultaneously), all the dozens of projects Maharishi has given him and the Indian movement.

Because, not only the Brahmastan needs to be finished to have 8,000 pandits there, Maharishi has designed a nationwide Pandit educational system, starting in the little villages, where very young Pandits are trained in the first steps of their profession. At this young age, they are still living at home with their parents. Once they are older, they go the regional Maharishi ashrams. And only when they graduate from there, and if they among the very best students, they can go to the Brahmastan to do Yagyas. In this undertaking we are not talking about 8,000 Pandits. This plan requires training hundreds of thousands of Maharishi Pandits throughout India.

Marion and I just completely, totally loved it. Like everything Maharishi has left us with, this is an absolutely masterly project, that by itself alone, could permanently change the destiny of the all mankind for all generations to come.

Jai Guru Dev

Paul Gelderloos

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