Maharishi Mahesh the world famous Transcendental Meditation guru died last week but the world has not seen world peace achieved or poverty ended. These were his stated objectives of the use of group meditation.

He personally saw the end of poverty as his Transcendental Meditation movement brought him fame and fortune, in multi-million dollar terms.

A man given to the simple and pure life, whose goal was to achieve "pure consciousness", he lived in a 200-room mansion in the Netherlands, having amassed a great fortune from donations and course fees, with which he built and financed "Peace Palaces" and "universities" around the world.

One thing that the world is indebted to him for, is his influence on the music of the Beatles, who at one time were ardent followers of his.

Among his profound words of wisdom is the saying, or mantra as it is technically called, "Don't fight the darkness. Bring the light, and darkness will disappear." It will easily be observed that this has a deep universal application. For example, we can say similarly: "Don't fight wars. Bring the peace, and wars will disappear", or "Don't fight poverty. Bring the wealth and poverty will disappear."

Such depths of wisdom are rare, but such things are more easily said than done. (That last is just a cliche, not a mantra.)