A life-transforming week at the Brahmasthan of India

„I’ve had the desire to visit the Brahmasthan, or the geographical centre, of India for a long time. In Vedic culture, the centre of a country is regarded as playing a pivotal role: what happens there has a direct influence on the consciousness of the inhabitants of the country. Therefore, at the end of the nineties, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi started building a spiritual centre at this location.

Guest accommodation

Garden at the Raja Campus

Garden at the East Campus

Maharishi Vedic Pandits performing recitations

About two years ago I made plans to visit the Brahmastan. Everything was booked and organised, but then, on the day of travel and for some days after, the nearby Jabalpur airport was closed due to – it’s hard to believe – wild pigs on the runway. But this time, in November 2017, things finally worked out. I was picked up punctually at the small, rural airport by a Hindi-speaking driver of the TM Movement. The first impressions were rather familiar from my earlier visits to India: the usual garbage on and next to the streets, the constant honking of cars and tuk-tuks (the typical Indian motorcycle-rickshaw) depicting what was to us Germans a chaotic situation. I found that on the other hand, underneath this surface-level appearance, there was a deep sense of peace and spirituality.

On my arrival at the Brahmasthan, I was immediately impressed by the beauty of an intact nature, the well-kept gardens around the three guest buildings with good facilities, and the cleanliness of the rooms (equivalent to about 4 stars). And most importantly: the meditating course participants that had come from all over the world were strikingly warm-hearted and radiant. I clearly perceived the silence of this place as soon as I arrived. The TM and TM-Sidhi meditations were very deep blissful.

During the week I was able to be there, every day a different group of Vedic Pandits came to our building and recited from the various Vedas from one to four hours. The quality of the recitations was just heavenly, and I enjoyed their healing and nourishing effect.

On Saturday, my penultimate day, our group of about eighty course participants travelled by bus to another campus, where the Vedic Pandits at the Brahmasthan live, and attended the great Ati Rudrabhishek performed by 1331 Maharishi Vedic Pandits. This was indeed the special highlight of our course in terms of the experience of tremendous power and silence with waves of bliss. At the end of the Yagya, I noticed how happy and natural the Pandits were and how they enjoyed their recitations as well.

On my last day, we visited the third, smaller campus where the Rajas live, and where Maharishi Vedic University has several large buildings for students of Vedic science. Maharishi Vedic University includes a Department of Vedic Sciences, but also departments of management, economics, and education.

I would like to add that every detail had been very well organized by Raja Harris, his wife Arlene Kaplan, and their staff. The food was delicious, varied and wholesome. For breakfast, we enjoyed sweet, sun-ripened fruits from the region, such as pineapples, papayas, pomegranates, and bananas. I was particularly pleased to have met so many new, friendly, young people: members of the new generation of leaders of Maharishi’s worldwide Movement.

After a week I really felt a little sad to have to take leave of the group, and of the homely feeling of having bonded together as strongly as I have previously only experienced on long rounding courses.