Who was Mahesh?
Mahesh Prasad Varma grew up in Jabalbur in Central India, the third of four siblings. His family belonged to the kshatria or protector caste, the second highest of the four main castes. This caste originally comprised warriors, land-owners, and those employed in administration and government. For instance, some members of Mahesh's family were involved in the production of cannon carriages.

When Mahesh grew up, a marriage was arranged in accordance with tradition, despite strenuous objections on his part. In despair, shortly before the wedding he went to see the father of the bride, arguing that the proposed marriage would only make both the daughter and himself unhappy. Eventually, the father relented and the marriage was cancelled - highly unusual in India at the time.

As a student, Mahesh is supposed to have read science at the university of Allahabad under the name of Mahesh Chandra Shrivastava. A student going by this name was registered there, but some have doubted that it was Mahesh. During the period in question, Mahesh met Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, and this meeting had a powerful impact on him. Soon after, Brahmananda Saraswati was pronounced shankaracharya (spiritual leader within Hinduism) in Northern India, based in Jyotir Math in the Himalayas.

After their first meeting, Mahesh exerted himself in the service of Brahmananda Saraswati and was eventually accepted as his disciple and secretary, managing trips, receptions, announcements and the flow of information. Most of the year, the shankaracharya travelled around in Northern India. In accordance with tradition, he never stayed long in one place.

Mahesh formed strong ties with him and was gradually also accepted as a novice taking the name Bala Brahmachari Mahesh and dressing in white. If he had finally been accepted as a monk (sanyasi), the dress code would have changed to saffron yellow, but he never achieved this. He acted as a secretary in a practical capacity until Brahmananda Saraswati's death 13 years later, in 1953.
After Brahmananda Saraswati's death, Mahesh apparently went through a lengthy period of dejection, reportedly remaining almost entirely in his room for 2-3 years before resuming normal social contacts. According to tradition, the successor automatically becomes the guru for all the previous shankaracharya's disciples. However, the new shankaracharya was less interested than his predecessor in Mahesh, who requested permission to travel, initially in Southern India and Kashmir, eventually branching out to other parts of Asia. An itinerant existence is common for those who have left society in pursuit of a spiritual life.

Breaking with tradition
After some time, Mahesh wanted to move to the West and teach meditation there. According to him, he was granted nine years in which to travel, on the understanding that afterwards he would return to India to live in seclusion. However, an anonymous existence in India held less appeal once Mahesh had attracted an international following. He broke his promise to the new shankaracharya, and the relationship between them was troubled for as long as the shankaracharya was still alive.

To the outside world, Mahesh kept up appearances of adhering to his original tradition. Indirectly, through lifestyle, dress and other symbols, he gave the impression of being Brahmananda Saraswati's loyal disciple and rightful successor. This invested him with authority, since he could claim to be speaking on behalf of a millennia-old tradition. However, his words and actions differed substantially. The shankaracharya tradition, which emphasises right lifestyle and seeks insight through meditation and philosophy, rejects magic (siddhi), materialism and a strong focus on the individual.

At the death of the new shankaracharya, conflicts erupted between three individuals claiming to be his rightful successor, and the leadership of Jyotir Math remains weak to this day. In this divided atmosphere it was not difficult for Mahesh to attain a degree of reconciliation with the shankaracharya institution, to which he is said to have donated a large sum of money. However, he never won approval for taking the title of Maharishi. In Jyotir Math there is a photograph of him with the name Mahesh Yogi. If anybody refers to him as Maharishi, people shake their heads and correct this to Mahesh Yogi.

Disengagement from reality
Unhindered by ties to his strict monastic order and its ideals, Mahesh Yogi's behaviour underwent a change. His teaching was no longer primarily presented as a form of Indian wisdom, but rather as his own vision. He called it the SCI, the Science of Creative Intelligence. Over time, the purported effects of his techniques were greatly exaggerated, and he claimed scientific confirmation far beyond what was proven. He demanded absolute obedience to his tenets and expected to be regarded as infallible by his leaders and adherents.

Acem members were quick to react against the first developments in this direction, long before they became more obvious. Acem did not want to promulgate the TM movement's most extreme claims, and refused to support everything that Mahesh Yogi said and did. In Acem, there was a desire to understand meditation's potential and limitations, as well as the mechanisms involved and the effect of the framework within which meditation is taught. Courses were designed to increase participants' benefits from meditation, and Mahesh Yogi's instructions (which, incidentally, changed several times) were not necessarily followed in every detail.

The break - 1972
After a long period of friction, collaboration between the TM movement and Acem ended in July 1972. Acem continued on its own course, working out a psychology of meditation that sought to reflect the actual experience of meditators. The goal was to bring about a type of meditative practice that stimulated human growth.

During the 1970s, further developments within the TM movement caused it to diverge even further from Acem. Three examples illustrate this: the World Plan, the World Government, and the TM-Sidhi programme.