He began teaching transcendental meditation in 1955 and brought the technique to the United States in 1959. But the movement really took off after the Beatles visited his ashram in India in 1968.
Once there, the rock stars had a falling out with the Maharishi after rumors emerged that he was making inappropriate advances on attendee Mia Farrow. John Lennon was so angry he wrote a bitter satire, "Sexy Sadie," in which he vowed that the Maharishi would "get yours yet."
The Maharishi insisted he had done nothing wrong and years later Paul McCartney agreed with him. Deepak Chopra, a disciple of the Maharishi's and a friend of George Harrison's, has disputed the Farrow story, saying that the Maharishi had become unhappy with the Beatles because they were using drugs.
With the help of celebrity endorsements, the Maharishi - a Hindi-language title for Great Seer - parlayed his interpretations of ancient scripture into a multimillion-dollar global empire.
After 50 years of teaching, the Maharishi turned to larger themes, with grand designs to harness the power of group meditation to create world peace and to mobilize his devotees to banish poverty from the earth.
The Maharishi's roster of famous meditators ran from The Rolling Stones to Clint Eastwood and Chopra, a New Age preacher.
Director David Lynch, creator of dark and violent films, lectured at college campuses about the "ocean of tranquility" he found in more than 30 years of practicing transcendental meditation. Lynch said he experienced a mixture of feelings about the Maharishi's death: "It's a big, big sorrow, and yet you know, he's in a very good place. He always was. Peace is coming."
Some 5 million people devoted 20 minutes every morning and evening to reciting a simple sound, or mantra, and delving into their consciousness.
"Don't fight darkness. Bring the light, and darkness will disappear," he would say.
Donations and the $2,500 fee to learn transcendental meditation financed the construction of Peace Palaces, or meditation centers, in dozens of cities around the world. It paid for hundreds of new schools in India.
