See my earlier post on a segment from this film: Maharishi describes the nature of inner life: bondage and liberation, and gaining bliss consciousness through Transcendental Meditation. Maharishi is seen walking and talking about the nature of life, with the beautiful scene of Lake Louise and the Rocky Mountains behind him. He describes the lake, its surface and depth, and the reflections on it, as a metaphor to explain the spiritual content of life and how it gets lost and overshadowed when we identify with only the surface material objects of life, a state of bondage, at the expense of our own inner unbounded nature, bliss consciousness, which gets unfolded and integrated through the practice of his Transcendental Meditation technique, into a state of liberation. I transcribe Maharishi’s words there, the film’s essential spiritual message.
In the opening scenes of this complete video of the CBC documentary, we were all walking up to Maharishi to give him a flower. At 2:07-2:10, I’m seen coming up to Maharishi asking him to sign a copy of his translation and commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, Chapters 1-6. The film closes with more of the same footage, which was all actually shot towards the end of the course. That wonderful week was the first time a lot of us got to meet Maharishi. It was an unforgettable divine experience in a most sublime natural setting!
Four years later, my mother, two sisters and I would meet privately with Maharishi at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, where a Symposium on the Science of Creative Intelligence with many of Canada’s intellectual luminaries was taking place. But that’s another amazing story!
Forty years after I started TM, and thirty-nine years after having met Maharishi, I was able to assist an ITN Factual commissioned producer in making the A&E biographical film, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, for the History International Channel (November 2007). Luckily I was able to procure vintage footage taken by Eileen Learoyd, a Victoria, BC journalist, and the first national leader of the Canadian TM Movement. Grania Litwin, her daughter and also a Victoria journalist, was kind enough to send us those home movies transferred to videos taken by her mother. We found one of Maharishi at Catalina Island from 1962 that was still in the original film canister! We had them all digitized and sent selections to the producer for use in the film. She was delighted to have received such historical footage. We also returned the videos with new DVDs to Grania.
I also put the producer in touch with Alan Waite, who had made the award-winning 1968 documentary, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – Sage for a New Generation, and she ended up using many segments from that film as well. Also lined up interviews for her when she came to MUM in Fairfield, Iowa, as well as Mike Love in LA and Donovan in London.
Eileen and Hubert with Maharishi at Emerald Lake, British Columbia
Eileen Learoyd and her brother Hubert Gray organized a seminar for meditators with Maharishi at Emerald Lake, British Columbia in 1964. Elieen would later organize the 1972 SCI Symposium. In June 1968 they arranged for the CBC to film Maharishi at the Lake Louise, Alberta course. Interestingly, after Maharishi signed my copy of the Gita, we both turned it toward the camera. That footage was edited out, but it seemed to be a symbolic gesture for what I would end up doing with a large part of my life in my own small way — helping to teach, promote and publicize Maharishi and his world-transforming Vedic knowledge and TM technique. And for that I am most thankful and fulfilled. Jai Guru Dev, Maharishi. Na Guror Adhikam.
And last year, (2012) a small crew from DLF.TV and I were fortunate to have assisted Oprah’s producers by providing them with more b-roll footage for the OWN program on the meditators of Fairfield, Iowa, referred to as “TM Town” by Oprah. They even gave us a credit! Here’s a post with Video segments of Oprah’s Next Chapter on OWN: Oprah Visits Fairfield, Iowa—”TM Town”—America’s Most Unusual Town.
I later found a photo of Hubert and Eileen on either side of Maharishi arriving in the lobby of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise Five-Star Hotel. That’s when I saw him for the first time, from the other side of the lobby, and felt the thought, ‘Prince of Peace’. At the end of the course, we took a group photo with Maharishi outside in front of the lake to complete that sublime one-week residence course, June 9-14, 1968.
Enlightenment, the Transcendental Meditation Magazine, also published an article on Maharishi at Lake Louise discussing the blissful nature of the practice of the Transcendental Meditation® technique.
In the summer of 2014 I retired from my position at MUM. A year later I was featured on the TMhome website: PR to poetry – how things sometimes happen to Ken Chawkin. They followed up with The story behind the making of the International History documentary on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (International History Channel documentary on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi). A nice way to go out. I continue to write, blog, and freelance as a publicist for the movement as needed.
On September 30, 2014 I had posted how I learned #TMmeditation 47 years ago today. In there I share more information about the making of the CBC Telescope film, The Guru, of Maharishi at Lake Louise. Richard Day shared a story he had heard many years later about the director of the film, Colin Smith, who told Maharishi that he wanted to film him saying something that would encapsulate all his teachings. Maharishi said, “I’ll walk by the lake, you walk with me, and I’ll tell you everything about spiritual development.” He did it in one take! That’s the part I had transcribed and posted in the first link above.
On August 2, 2020, Bob Roth, CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, and Mario Orsatti, Executive Director of the Center for Health and Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation, discuss this historic documentary on TM Talks.
Tags: A&E, America's Most Unusual Town, arts and entertainment, Canada, CBC, documentary, history channel, history international, lake louise, maharishi at lake louise, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Oprah, OWN, the guru, Transcendental Meditation, video
The Uncarved Blog 
September 24, 2013 at 11:55 pm |
[…] Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise […]
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September 25, 2013 at 10:29 am |
Ken, I love this! So great to see you in this classic video. At one time, I played this at my tenth day of checking for my new meditators. I recently tried to order this DVD from MUM Press and they said it wasn’t available. So all the better that you posted it!
JGD
Steve
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September 25, 2013 at 12:15 pm |
Thanks, Steve. Maharishi at Lake Louise is still available at MUM Press: http://is1.mum.edu/mumpress/p_n01.html. Definitely order the DVD. That Canadian public television documentary was the best one ever made on Maharishi, respectfully showing him as a great spiritual teacher offering something profound yet practical to the people of the world to ease their suffering and bring more joy and wisdom into their lives.
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September 27, 2013 at 1:22 pm |
[…] Also Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise. […]
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September 28, 2013 at 5:03 pm |
Selected for Best of Yoga Philosophy.
Bob W. Editor
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October 6, 2013 at 10:08 pm |
[…] The Beatles’ Guru in an odd but fascinating 1968 film, in which we see the Maharishi strolling the shore of the spectacular Lake Louise, holding a rose in his hand, and invoking the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. […]
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May 30, 2014 at 12:52 am |
[…] See other films on Maharishi: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on History International Channel (November 2007) and Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise. […]
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May 30, 2014 at 12:55 am |
[…] Also see New film shows David Lynch retracing Maharishi’s footsteps from North to South India and the start of the TM movement. And Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise. […]
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September 30, 2014 at 4:58 pm |
[…] On September 30, 1967, I started Transcendental Meditation, 47 years ago today in Montreal, Canada. I would meet TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi nine months later on a course at Chateau Lake Louise. The CBC were there making a documentary film, The Guru, for their TV series, Telescope, the first show to broadcast in color the year before. Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise […]
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December 21, 2014 at 1:35 am |
[…] Wallace, a friend of her brother. Peter had spent six months traveling through India, where he met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and began the Transcendental Meditation technique. He told her how simple and effortless the […]
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February 3, 2015 at 12:51 am |
[…] Related: Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on History International Channel (November 2007) | Cheryl Fusco Johnson interviews Philip Goldberg, author of American Veda: How Indian Spirituality Changed the West | George Harrison: The not-so-quiet Beatle, article by Philip Goldberg in LA YOGA Magazine | Huffington Post: Transcendental Meditation: Topping The Bestseller List Since 1975 | ‘Vedanta and yoga perfect match for certain American values’ […]
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February 14, 2015 at 6:52 am |
[…] And then it happened, but not all at once. We had met briefly 10 years earlier, then forgot. After we unknowingly reconnected, a story in itself, love took some time to blossom, to be earned. She was UNDECIDED about being COMMITTED. Through each stage, poems would flow forth; she became my muse. All poems listed in the sub-category Sally Peden are about Sali, except the first 3, which were written by her about a visit To Jyotir Math with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. […]
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March 8, 2015 at 1:15 pm |
[…] find out more, see this HuffPost article by Philip Goldberg on Maharishi. Also watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise and the 2007 A&E biopic on the History […]
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March 24, 2015 at 9:07 pm |
[…] a CBC film of Maharishi at Lake Louise, and a later A&E […]
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June 29, 2015 at 12:02 am |
[…] Another program worth watching from those early days is the 1968 CBC documentary of Maharishi at Lake Louise. […]
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November 12, 2015 at 2:34 am |
[…] Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in his translation and commentary on The Bhagavad-Gita (Chapters 1-6), said this was the essence of the Vedic wisdom of life, and his effortless, natural technique of Transcendental Meditation was the way to accomplish it. […]
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November 25, 2015 at 2:58 am |
[…] November 28, 2007, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation technique, was featured in a biographical documentary on […]
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June 7, 2016 at 10:48 am |
[…] A Tribute to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi | Les Crane interviews Maharishi Mahesh Yogi | Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise | The story behind the making of the International History documentary on Maharishi […]
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September 10, 2016 at 10:10 am |
[…] then asked me to share the story of what Maharishi had said about him. When I was with Maharishi at Lake Louise, one of my course mates had asked Maharishi about George Harrison and Donovan. About Donovan […]
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April 2, 2017 at 8:38 pm |
[…] Cummings, Dylan Thomas, a president of France, the gifted composer Francis Poulenc, and TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, to mention a few. Norman spent many months with Anthony Quinn helping him edit down his […]
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September 15, 2017 at 2:15 pm |
[…] | Who was Dear Prudence the Beatles sang to in India? What happened to her? Here is her story. | Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise | Watch the International History Channel documentary on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: How it was made: […]
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November 26, 2017 at 2:21 pm |
[…] Maharishi always talked about developing 200% of life—100% inner spiritual development and 100% outer material accomplishments. We both say, “Water the root to enjoy the fruit.” Nathanael quotes the SCI Principle, “Outer depends on Inner.” I remember an early analogy: To erect a tall building you have to first dig a deep foundation. It’s similar to: First pull the arrow back on the bow to hit the target. Meditate then act. Established in Being, perform action. […]
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January 13, 2018 at 1:14 am |
[…] of my favorites of or about Maharishi are: Les Crane interviews Maharishi Mahesh Yogi | Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise | The story behind the making of the International History documentary on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi| […]
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January 17, 2018 at 10:34 am |
[…] later at Lake Louise, a most memorable occasion captured beautifully in the CBC TV documentary, Maharishi at Lake Louise, posted on this blog. Several other interactions occurred between Maharishi and my family, all […]
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March 6, 2018 at 9:42 pm |
[…] Watch an excerpt from this CBC film where Maharishi describes the nature of inner life: bondage and liberation, and gaining bliss consciousness through Transcendental Meditation. If you’re interested to know more, watch the whole 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise. […]
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May 22, 2019 at 1:05 pm |
[…] I first met Maharishi on a course for Canadian meditators. It was held at Chateau Lake Louise located in Alberta’s Banff National Park. The setting was majestic! A CBC documentary film crew showed up to interview him for a show called The Guru (aka Maharishi at Lake Louise) on their popular program, Telescope. It turned out to be the best television documentary every made of Maharishi for that time. It still stands today. Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise. […]
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June 29, 2020 at 9:16 pm |
[…] the tall blond woman behind John Lennon and next to Paul McCartney. Others in this photo are: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, George Harrison, Mia Farrow, Prudence Farrow and Donovan Leitch. A larger photo shows Pattie Boyd […]
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December 30, 2021 at 8:42 am |
[…] A Remembrance of Maharishi by James Powell and Remembrances of Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi International University founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with links to more articles and videos, like Les Crane interviews Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise. […]
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