150 Pandits Go Missing in the US

It seems Sangeeta Richards wasn’t the only one in a hurry to disappear in America.

It seems Sangeeta Richards wasn’t the only one in a hurry to disappear in America. According to IANS, over 150 Indian teenagers who were brought to the country from across villages in North India to be trained as vedic pandits have gone missing over the last one year. The pandits were to be trained at the two centres set up by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who is known for transcendental meditation. As many as 1,050 young Indians were brought to the centres. Most of them seem to have disappeared in search of their American Dream. Maharishi vedic pandits are recruited through the distribution of publicity literature across rural, Hindi-speaking North India to people living under the poverty line. Recruits are enrolled at Maharishi centres in the US with the promise of a high school education, after which they are to be trained as masters in the art of Hindu religious rites. After 10-15 years they have a choice to either remain with the organisation or leave the centre and work on their own. An investigation by Chicago-based weekly Hi India revealed that some members enrolled were as young as five years old, that recruits weren’t provided with an education past Class 5 and were made to live in makeshift trailer homes that were under surveillance 24×7. The Maharishi centres have refused to comment on the issue, but it seems to be just another case of exploitation in the name of religion.

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