The body of internationally renowned spiritual 'guru'
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who earned global popularity on account of his transcendental meditation, reached his hometown Allahabad (about 200 km from Lucknow), on Saturday. He will be cremated on Monday.
A chartered flight carrying the body of the Maharishi from his spiritual base in Netherlands landed on Saturday morning at the Babatpur airport in Varanasi, from where the body was carried in a flower bedecked truck to Allahabad. The body was then taken in a procession down the city streets to the ashram of well known Hindu cleric Swami Vasudevanand.
Thousands of people turned up at the ashram to pay their last respects to the Maharishi.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal, Swami Vasudevanand and several other prominent priests received the body at the border of Allahabad from where they accompanied the procession.
The body was kept at
the ashram for nearly three hours before reaching its final destination at the Maharishi Ved Vidyapeeth in Arail area on the outer banks of river Ganga later in the afternoon.
The Vidyapeeth was created by Maharishi as a part of his mission to promote Vedic teachings as also a gift to his native town, where he did his schooling and also obtained his masters degree in Physics from the Allahabad University.
Spread across a sprawling campus, the Vidyapeeth has as many as about 2500 students pursuing a 'gurukul' type of education. The entire boarding and lodging on the campus is absolutely free.
Earlier, the otherwise wide streets of Allahabad remained clogged on account of the long motorcade procession that drew huge crowds along the sides to have a glimpse of the departed spiritual icon who had one been a 'guru' to the famous Beatles.
Mahesh Yogi's body has been kept in a specially-erected enclosure at the Vidyapeeth, where it will remain open to public till Monday.
