Prudence Farrow Bruns was among the first in the West to become initiated into Transcendental Meditation, starting to practice in 1966 at the age of 17.
Two years later, she went to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh.
The retreat was made world-famous by the participation of The Beatles, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, Donovan, and the acclaimed actress Mia Farrow, Prudence’s sister.
WATCH VIDEO: Prudence talks about her life and TM practice:
Meeting the teacher
“After learning Transcendental Meditation in 1966 in a UCLA classroom, I just became obsessed with it – ’I have to study with this person, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who knows about this,'” Prudence recalls.
Because you go so deep inside and there is so much to explore and know that I felt that the only one who knew about it was him.
At that time he had courses in India, he brought people there and they studied 3-4 months with him. You meditated for long, long periods under his guidance.
When I first met Maharishi, it was like… it is hard even to describe. It was like meeting a category 5 hurricane. I’m not kidding you. The amount of bliss that he lived and exuded was just devastating to me. It was so much.”
The infinite rewards of the spiritual journey
Prudence Farrow taking the Transcendental Meditation Teacher Course in Rishikesh, 1968“I do think that Transcendental Meditation is – of the meditations that are available to us – the most direct. And the simplest.
It gives you a spiritual experience and opens it up in you immediately. That’s not a small thing. … And it keeps growing and growing, you can go deeper and deeper. The rewards are infinite.
When you transcend, when you meditate, it allows the heart and the mind to balance. When they’re balanced is when you are really healthy. You are happy – you’re happy mentally, and happy emotionally, and happy spiritually.
All those three are components of what make a human being, so that connection is absolutely necessary for health.
Life comes from within you. The essence is in you. As you begin to experience it, you realize the purity of this essence,” confirms Prudence Farrow Bruns who presently lives and teaches Transcendental Meditation in Northwest Florida, US.
Video credits:
Souljourns by Ted Henry and Jody Cleary
