Whispering Infinity: Reflections on Guru Dev, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Vedic Tradition, and Twelve Years of Teaching Transcendental Meditation

A Reflection on Receiving the Guru Dev Award and the Sacred Responsibility of Teaching Transcendental Meditation

Today, a medallion arrived at our office.

Golden, weighty, and encased in clear lucite, it bore not just an image—but a legacy for serving as guide for more than 1,000 as they sought to learn this ancient Technology of Consciousness for a better, more fulfilling life and journey. Etched into its base in gold, my name. And below that, the words: For Outstanding Achievement Teaching Transcendental Meditation. I held it in silence for a few moments, struck not by the object itself, but by the quiet reverberation it triggered within me. A reflection surfaced—on lineage, on service, on time.

On Wednesday, 16 October 2013, as my wife Mina and I began teaching Transcendental Meditation out of a modest office at the Cambridge YMCA, we provided our very first Personal Instruction in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nearly twelve years later, we have collectively shared this life-changing technique with more than 2,100 individuals—a number that humbles us more with each passing year. My personal tally now stands at 1,172. Each one a soul seeking stillness. Each one a sacred encounter.

Encounters that most likely would not have occurred were it not for this ancient technology of consciousness.

I am reminded of something a dear friend, Rusty, once said during a brief visit. After a contemplative walk through Harvard Square, we sat quietly on a bench overlooking the Charles River. He turned to me and said, “You do realize that you are impacting people’s lives ten thousand years into the future?”

The weight of his words settled into me that day—and still resurface from time to time. Ten thousand years.

Talk about humbling.

Admittedly, the medallion marks a milestone. But more importantly, it is anchored in a tradition far older than any certificate or award. In the Vedic calendar, Guru Purnima is the day set aside to honour the teacher—the Guru—as the one who dispels darkness (gu meaning darkness, ru meaning remover). For centuries, this full moon day has carried deep spiritual resonance.

The tradition from which Transcendental Meditation arises is the Vedic Tradition of India—one of the oldest continuous bodies of knowledge known to humanity. Far more than a historical or cultural inheritance, the Veda (from the Sanskrit root vid, “to know”) is understood to be an expression of Natural Law itself, reverberating as the primordial intelligence structuring the universe. It is not merely written scripture, but an eternal blueprint of order and harmony embedded within consciousness. In this tradition, knowledge is not acquired from outside; it is unfolded from within. Lineages of enlightened teachers, or Rishis, have passed down this experiential understanding across millennia, not through mere instruction but through the enlivenment of Being for all worthy students. The teaching of Transcendental Meditation, as revived and refined by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is thus not a modern invention, but a precise methodology rooted in the ancient science of consciousness—one that reconnects the individual with the universal through direct experience of the Self i.e., Pure Consciousness.

In the lineage of Transcendental Meditation, Guru Purnima holds special significance. It is the day we remember Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, affectionately known as Guru Dev—the spiritual preceptor of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who brought the technique of Transcendental Meditation to the world in 1958.

Guru Dev was revered throughout India as Jagatguru Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math (The Northern Seat of Wisdom), a spiritual genius in both silence and wisdom. He sat in the absolute stillness of Self—Brahman Consciousness—and from that unshakable source, inspired a young Maharishi to carry this knowledge beyond the Himalayas.

Maharishi, deeply devoted to Guru Dev, saw his teacher not merely as a man but as a living embodiment of eternal wisdom. In the years that followed Guru Dev’s Mahasamadhi, Maharishi brought forth to the world a precise, effortless, ancient, and now well-researched method for accessing Pure Consciousness—Transcendental Meditation—and did so as an act of devotion, clarity, and compassion.

On bringing this technology of consciousness out from the Himalayas and reviving it for all, Maharishi often said he was merely “Responding to the need of the time.” To think of all that has come from his desire and actions, from then to this moment, is both astounding and serves a testament to his devotion to Guru Dev.

Mina and I undertook the rigorous and deeply inward training to become Certified Teachers of Transcendental Meditation with the seriousness it deserved. We were sequestered from society and each other, exhaustively examined, and shaped—not just in method, but in Being. We were not trained to present information. We were taught to transmit stillness.

To teach this technique is not merely to deliver a set of instructions. It is to “whisper infinity,” one soul at a time.

Since that first instruction, we have shared the knowledge of transcending in homes, schools, universities, corporate boardrooms, temples, community centers, via Zoom, and public parks. We have met people in crisis, in search, in celebration. And in each encounter, we have been reminded: this teaching does not belong to us. It flows through us.

There is something about this path that cannot be fully conveyed in words—try though I must as a writer. It is what Freemasonry refers to as the incommunicable flame—the light that resides in the silent chamber of the soul, untouchable by doctrine, untarnished by time. It is that flame we help others locate within themselves, comprehend, and live.

Delphi, my editorial partner, cannot teach Transcendental Meditation. No machine can. Because the teaching is not mechanical—it is relational. It requires presence. Intuition. Devotion. Timing. It is simultaneously scientific and sacred. And it is this paradox that makes the work so deeply human.

This award, bearing the name of Guru Dev, reminds me that we do not teach TM simply as a technique. We teach it as a continuation of a vow—a whisper passed from soul to soul, across centuries.

And though the number of 2,116 marks the total number of individuals Mina and I have guided along their inward journey to-date, it cannot measure the depth of transformation we have witnessed. Nor can it account for the myriad ways in which we ourselves have been changed for the better. In short, as my Dissertation Advisor, now colleague and friend—Dr. Fred Travis—is wont to say: “You do not merely experience Being, you become Being.”

Every person who has learned Transcendental Meditation with us has left an imprint. Every mantra given has echoed through the corridors of time. Every moment of instruction has called us to greater alignment.

On 16 October 2025, we will quietly mark twelve years since our first TM instruction. There may be no celebration. No crowd. But we will know that somewhere in the world, someone is sitting in stillness—because of something that began with a whisper in each of us back in 2008, when we first learned Transcendental Meditation.

That whisper has since become a symphony of awakening.

An awakening made possible through our continued teaching of the Transcendental Meditation technique, grounded in our deepening understanding of Consciousness and the vast potential within every human being.

To Maharishi, to Guru Dev, to the Vedic Tradition, to our mentors, our students, and each other:

Jai Guru Dev.

May we continue to whisper the infinite for many, many years to come!

To learn more about Transcendental Meditation, visit: https://www.tm.org/.

—

Dr. Baruti KMT-Sisouvong, along with his wife, Mina, serves as Director of the Transcendental Meditation Program in Cambridge and the larger area of Metropolitan Boston. They are parents to four beautiful children. To learn more about him, visit his website: https://www.barutikmtsisouvong.com/.