Vethathiri Maharishi

Vethathiri Maharishi (14 August 1911 – 28 March 2006) was an Indian yoga guru, philosopher and spiritual leader. He founded the World Community Service Centre (WCSC) in Chennai and established the Temple of Consciousness (Arivu Thirukkoil) at Aliyar near Coimbatore. He promoted the practice of yoga and meditation as a means of achieving spiritual awareness and thereby the development of mankind for the furtherance of human brotherhood and world peace. He evolved a simplified Kundalini Yoga combining yoga with meditation, simple exercises, and traditional medicinal practices which enabled him to teach it to the common people.

Early life and family Vethathiri was born into a Mudaliar Tamil family on August 14, 1911, in Guduvancheri near Madras in the Madras Presidency (now part of Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu). He was the eighth child of his parents Varadappan and Chinnammal, who were weavers. In 1916, he was enrolled for schooling at the age of five but had to drop out of school due to the poor economic situation of the family and extreme poverty.

At the age of 23, he married Logambal. He engaged in multiple businesses till his late 30s and worked as a clerk with the postal department before embarking on a spiritual life. The WCSC was established as a non-profit, non-religious and philanthropic organization and has an ECOSOC consultative status with the United Nations. The organization operates meditation centers internationally and teaches his practices.

In 1984, he established Arivu Thirukkoil (Temple of Consciousness) at Aliyar in Coimbatore district which became the center of his teaching and practices during the later part of his life.

Teachings

Vethathiri taught that "Individual Peace leads to World Peace" and emphasized that world peace is possible only when individuals live peacefully in co-existence. He believed that peace percolates to one's immediate family and society, and eventually to the whole world. He notes that Universe is made up of space which evolves consistently with various objects in it made up of smaller particles. According to Vethathiri, time, matter, and energy are manifestations of space and gravity itself is a manifestation of compression of particles within space.

Death Vethathri Maharishi died on 28 March 2006 after a brief illness followed by a heart attack.